Chaos in Mexico Today

In about an hour Felipe Calderon should be sworn in as the new President of Mexico in front of the Mexican Congress. However Congressmen from the PRD have taken over the podium where he is supposed to be sworn in. Punches have been literally flying between Congressmen.

I am once again amazed that this has gotten zero coverage in the news. No real coverage, but I did read a couple of interesting things. First this from the LA Times:

Campaign aides (Calderon's), for example, said in September that Calderon would choose Cabinet members based on their ability to deliver congressional votes. Failing in that, he ended up choosing friends and party allies, as well as U.S.-trained economic experts.

Then this from the Houston Chronicle about a new World Bank report which said:

MEXICO CITY - Mexico's rich and powerful got even more rich and powerful during the six-year term of outgoing President Vicente Fox.

That's the conclusion of a World Bank study released this week that said Mexico's business elite and powerful public-sector unions were a major drag on the nation's economy.

The net worth of Mexico's billionaires soared, from just over 4 percent of gross domestic product in 2000 to about 6 percent in 2006, according to the study. Strong earnings at big corporations have driven the stock market to repeated highs....
...Nearly half of Mexico's 106 million people live in poverty. Yet it has more billionaires than Switzerland — 10 last year — according to Forbes magazine's list of the world's richest people. Many inherited their wealth or built their fortunes in Mexican industries that have little or no competition and aren't likely to anytime soon.

So Calderon appoints his buddies to important jobs and Fox's legacy is making a bunch of rich people richer. Great.