Mexican leader mired in protests, house scandal

MEXICO CITY, Mexico – President Enrique Peña Nieto has a slogan, “Moving Mexico,” but his government is stuck in a wave of protests over a presumed student massacre and an uproar over his wife’s mansion.

For almost two years, things appeared to be smooth sailing, with the passage of historic economic reforms that won Peña Nieto international praise as he sought to move the narrative away from the drug war.

But he is now scrambling to put out burning scandals that have mired him in the biggest crisis of his presidency, and analysts say a way out is for him to confront the corruption plaguing Mexico.

The suspected murder of 43 college students by a drug gang allied with crooked police in the southern state of Guerrero has shown that Mexico has yet to awaken from its nightmare of unrelenting violence.

Protesters have burned government buildings in a series of demonstrations over authorities’ handling of the case. A new march will take place in Mexico City on Thursday, November 20.

“It’s the deepest and most delicate crisis that Mexico has seen in recent decades, without a clear exit,” Nicolas Lazo, political analyst at the Latin American Social Sciences Faculty, told Agence France-Presse.

To top it all, the president is now dealing with allegations of conflict of interest following reports that his wife bought a multimillion-dollar house in a posh Mexico City neighborhood from a government contractor.

Peña Nieto fumes

Peña Nieto broke from his usual cool demeanor on Tuesday, November 18, appearing visibly angry as he railed against “falsehoods” about the mansion bought by his wife, former soap opera star Angelica Rivera.

He also lashed out at the violent protests, saying they appeared to be an attempt to destabilize the country and derail his “national project.”

Seeking to quell the scandal, Rivera said she will sell the $4 million property and Peña Nieto decided to make all of his assets public.

“The issue of the house worsens this loss of trust. It hurts the president,” said Erubiel Tirado, a political analyst at the Iberoamerican University.

The house was built and owned by a subsidiary of Grupo Higa, a government contractor that was part of a Chinese-led consortium that won a $3.7 billion deal to build Mexico’s first bullet train.

But days before the report about the mansion came out, Peña Nieto abruptly revoked the train contract. The government denies the cancelation was linked to the upcoming report.

While the media have jumped on the story, the opposition has been surprisingly quiet about the mansion, likely because it is not immune to corruption.

“The silence has been thunderous,” wrote Milenio newspaper columnist Carlos Puig. “The Mexican tragedy is partly rooted in what unites our parties, the ease with which they have been corrupted when they get positions of power.”

The leftist Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) has been wounded by allegations that its mayor in the southern city of Iguala ordered the police force to confront a group of trainee teachers on September 26.

Prosecutors say the officers whisked away 43 students and delivered the young men to the Guerreros Unidos drug gang, whose members confessed to murdering them and incinerating their bodies.

The conservative National Action Party, which held the presidency between 2000 and 2012, has faced its own scandals and criticism over then president Felipe Calderon’s decision to deploy troops against drug cartels in 2006.

Protests ‘not enough’

Activists say the crisis offers an opportunity to finally confront the corruption and impunity at the root of the country’s ills.

Juan Francisco Torres, secretary general of the non-governmental organization Mexico United Against Crime, said protests are not the only key to securing changes, which Peña Nieto has yet to offer.

“It’s not enough to show that you’re fed up. You also have to show the authorities the road they need to take,” Torres said.

In 2004, hundreds of thousands of people flooded the streets of Mexico City against a wave of kidnappings and violence, he said.

“It was an emblematic event but it was short-lived,” he said. “Ten years later, we see that it was not enough.” – Rappler.com