- Title: MEXICO: New president Pena Nieto faces uphill battle on poverty
- Date: 26th July 2012
- Summary: OAXACA CITY, OAXACA (FILE) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF ELECTION WINNER ENRIQUE PENA NIETO DURING POLITICAL RALLY GENERAL VIEW OF RALLY (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) ELECTION WINNER ENRIQUE PENA NIETO, SAYING: "We cannot remain a poor country when we are already well into the 21st century. Oaxaca, Chiapas and Mexico's south-east can't be left behind in terms of the development Mexico
- Embargoed: 10th August 2012 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Mexico
- Country: Mexico
- Topics: Politics
- Reuters ID: LVACDBNROZRGYU9Y5VTPQ504U3DG
- Story Text: Enrique Pena Nieto, the 46-year-old president elect, has pledged to bring jobs, education and clean water to wide swaths of the country where poverty is a stubborn reminder of successive governments' failure to unlock Mexico's full economic potential.
More than 12 million Mexicans have joined the ranks of the poor during the presidency of outgoing president Felipe Calderon making poverty a top issue in the July 1 presidential vote.
Pena Nieto has pledged to lift 15 million people out of poverty specifically in states like Oaxaca where poverty has and continues to be the number one problem.
"We cannot remain a poor country when we are already well into the 21st century. Oaxaca, Chiapas and Mexico's south-east can't be left behind in terms of the development Mexico should have," he told a rally in Oaxaca City during the election campaign.
Nearly 90 percent of people in the ramshackle settlement of San Simon Zahuatlan live on less than the 684 pesos ($52) a month which CONEVAL, the government's social development agency, uses as its benchmark for extreme poverty.
Drinking water has to be trucked up the mountain and none had been delivered in over a month according to those who live in the remote rural village.
Residents in San Simon Zahuatlan, which is Mexico's second poorest municipality, are skeptical Pena Nieto will be able to make much of a difference in their lives.
"We don't believe in promises, it's just talk. They (politicians) should not deceive the people. We won't believe what they say with their so-called commitments in accordance with our needs," said San Simon Zahuatlan's mayor, Marciano Camarillo.
Sofia Irene Cruz, a 38-year-old ethnic Mixtec and town resident, had already forgotten about the election and who the winner was until her husband reminded her.
"I want more corn and a house but they (politicians) did not give us anything," she said in poor Spanish, indigenous Mixtec being her main language.
Most inhabitants are subsistence farmers growing corn and beans on tiny plots and spend the rest of the year working elsewhere in Mexico. Those who stay at home weave straw hats and sew soccer balls, earning as little as 15 pesos ($1.13) a day.
Nearly 40 percent of pregnant women are teenagers and 20 percent of babies are born malnourished.
Until the 1980s, Mexico had made big inroads against poverty.
Taking power in 1929, the PRI pursued left-leaning policies in its early days, redistributing land, creating a minimum wage and improving healthcare and access to education.
After a spike in the mid-1990s, when a major economic crisis hit Mexico, further advances were made under Fox, whose conservative National Action Party (PAN) ousted the PRI in 2000.
When Fox left office in 2006, poverty was at 43 percent, thanks to a welfare scheme that promoted education and gave women control over family spending. Seven million people had exited poverty during his presidency.
Outgoing President Felipe Calderon continued his predecessor's increase in welfare outlays, though they remain the lowest in the OECD.
A specialist in social politics, Julio Boltvinik, said Calderon's social programmes should be kept but improved.
"The best aspects of the "opportunities" programme should be taken but eliminating what's wrong with it which is its focus and turning it into universal support. By doing this, an important thing would be achieved which we dramatically saw during these elections. People, poor people would stop being customers of political parties and they would become citizens."
Though the economy has improved toward the end of his six-year term, Calderon has presided over a sharp rise in poverty.
Pena Nieto aims to ratchet up annual growth in Latin America's second biggest economy to around 6 percent - or triple the average rate of the past decade.
Calderon was unable to achieve this due to a global economic and food crisis which pushed some 12.2 million Mexicans into poverty.
Pena Nieto has identified sub-standard education and poor infrastructure as key impediments to progress. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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