One of the great disappointments of recent years was the failure of former Mexican President Vicente Fox to liberalize Mexico's sclerotic, statist economy. Coming to power as the first president who wasn't a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in 70 years, there was great hope that Fox would introduce liberal reforms into Mexican business and labor, reforms that would offer Mexicans a reason to have hope in their own country and not feel the need to illegally enter the US.
In that regard, Fox was a failure. Statism still rules the Mexican economy, and hundreds of thousand of Mexicans seek any means to enter the US each year.
Enter Sr. Fox's successor, Felipe Calderon. After winning a difficult election against a candidate who decided to be the Spanish-speaking version of Al Gore, Sr. Calderon took office promising to take "100 actions in his first 100 days in office," many directed at solving this emigration/immigration problem:
Mexican President Felipe Calderon won't be fighting for migration reform when he meets with President Bush next week. Instead, he will be be spelling out what he intends to do to keep Mexicans at home.
Calderon, who was inaugurated on Dec. 1, has pledged to take 100 actions in his first 100 days in office, many of which represent the first steps toward "curing" Mexico's long tradition of illegal migration to the U.S.
If implemented, his proposals could help transform Mexico from a labor-exporting country with relatively low growth, productivity and wages into an investment-rich, job-producing economy with better living standards for its 107 million people, nearly half of whom still live in poverty.
"We are laying the foundation for a more just, healthy society with better and more equal opportunities for all," he said.
President Calderon faces stiff opposition from several directions: oligarchical families that have long dominated Mexican politics, labor leaders more concerned with their own power than the best interests of their union members, and opposition-party members wedded to the old left-wing ideals of the Mexican Revolution. But, unlike Sr. Fox, he seems to have a concrete ideas and political skills:
Unlike Fox, Calderon has shown he can rally lawmakers and others behind his plans: Congress unanimously passed his 2007 federal budget and he has united state governments behind a nationwide crackdown on drug trafficking.
Among other things, he has proposed labor, energy and judicial reforms to encourage investment, promote competition and create jobs; improved tax collection to generate more revenue to fight poverty and improve education; universal health care and support for small and medium-size businesses.
"Curing" migration will take many more than his six years in office, Calderon says. With this in mind, he set the goal of boosting Mexico's per-capita income from the equivalent of about $8,000 today to around $30,000 by 2030.
I hope he succeeds. The current situation in Mexico, with the hardest working portion of the population fleeing north, isn't healthy for either country. If his plans work, we'll eventually have a solid trading partner and stable neighbor to the south, and we'll have more secure borders. Mexico will keep its best and brightest at home, developing their own country. Immigration will still continue, but it will be legal and at a pace the US can absorb.
And maybe one day we'll all be saying "Viva Calderón!"
LINKS: More at Michelle Malkin's site.
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