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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | September 2007 
Leftist Lawmakers Spurn Mexico's Calderon
 Miguel Angel Gutierrez - Reuters
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| | Mexico's President Felipe Calderon, bottom center, greets legislators after turning in his first state-of-the-nation report to Congress in Mexico City, Saturday, Sept. 1, 2007, but failed to give his speech. The seats above are empty after the legislators from the Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD) walked out in protest against Calderon, who became the second president in a row who failed to give his annual speech in Congress. (AP/Eduardo Verdugo) |
Mexico City - More than 100 leftist lawmakers walked out of Mexico's Congress on Saturday ahead of a visit by President Felipe Calderon, snubbing him in protest at what they say was fraud in last year's presidential vote.
Moments before the conservative Calderon arrived to hand over his annual state of the union report, opposition senators and deputies who refuse to recognize his razor-thin election victory last year filed out of the legislature.
"I cannot accept a document that comes from an electoral process that has been legally concluded but whose legitimacy is doubted by millions of Mexicans," said Ruth Zavaleta, head of the lower house and a member of the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD.
Scores of seats were left empty as Calderon handed in a written version of his state of the union report. He made brief comments, calling for dialogue with the opposition.
Calderon had already canceled his state of the union address to Congress because leftist lawmakers threatened to stop him from entering the hall. Instead, he plans to give a speech on Sunday at another location.
Calderon won last year's election by less than 1 percentage point, with 36 percent of the vote. His leftist opponent, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, accused him of vote fraud. A court threw out those claims.
Calderon's popularity has jumped as he tries to reach compromises with opposition lawmakers on a tax reform while taking a hard line with violent drug cartels. His approval rating was 65 percent in a Reforma newspaper poll on Saturday, the same as in June.
Since last year's election, lawmakers from Lopez Obrador's PRD have refused to recognize Calderon as president, although they have been willing to negotiate with him on the federal budget and other bills.
QUESTIONS ON DRUG CRACKDOWN
In Saturday's poll, Mexicans gave Calderon high marks for health and education, but he scored lower for his crackdown on drug gangs, whose war over valuable cocaine-smuggling routes has killed about 1,600 people this year.
Since taking office in December, Calderon has deployed thousands of soldiers to attack the drug cartels, winning the approval of many Mexicans. But opposition legislators have increasingly criticized him for using the military to fight crime, citing reports of rights abuses.
Calderon, whose National Action Party lacks a majority in Congress, negotiated a law with opposition lawmakers in March to stem growing obligations in the public pension system.
Legislators say they are also near a compromise on a tax overhaul proposal by Calderon to boost government income and ease the country's dependence on oil revenues. |
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