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president felipe calderon
President Felipe Calderon has sent a bill to congress to change the official name of Mexico.
The current name, the United States of Mexico (Estados Unidos Mexicanos), was adopted in 1824 and was intended to emulate its northern neighbor.
President Felipe Calderon wants to change it to just Mexico, as the country is known the world over.
Felipe Calderon, who leaves office on 1 December, said Mexico no longer needed to copy any foreign power.
“The name of our country no longer needs to emulate that of other nations,” Felipe Calderon told a news conference.
“Forgive me for the expression, but Mexico’s name is Mexico.”
President Felipe Calderon has sent a bill to congress to change the official name of Mexico
The name United States of Mexico (Estados Unidos Mexicanos) was brought in after independence from Spain.
It is used mostly on official documents, money and other government material.
Felipe Calderon first suggested the name change as a congressman in 2003, but the bill did not make it to a vote.
If the reaction on Twitter is anything to go by few Mexicans see this as a serious issue.
Suggestions flooded in for a new name for Mexico, many of them mocking Felipe Calderon, such as “Fraud-land” in reference to widespread corruption.
The constitutional reform Felipe Calderon proposes needs to be approved by both houses of Congress and a majority of Mexico’s 31 state legislatures.
Coming with just a week to go before Felipe Calderon leaves office, the president’s critics see this as a symbolic gesture.
Felipe Calderon will hand over to president-elect Enrique Pena Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party.
Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), Mexico’s old ruling party, is set to return to power as early official results indicate its candidate Enrique Pena Nieto has won the presidential election.
Enrique Pena Nieto, 45, is on some 38%, several points ahead of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who has not conceded.
Thousands of police were on duty for the vote, amid fears of intimidation from drug gangs.
Mexicans were also electing a new congress and some state governors.
Celebrations at the headquarters of the PRI started after the polls closed.
Enrique Pena Nieto declared: “We all won in this election. Mexico won.”
“This is just the start of the work we have before us.”
He thanked Mexican voters for giving the PRI a second chance, saying his administration would have a “new way of governing”.
The election campaign was dominated by the economy and the war on drugs.
“There will be no pact nor truce with organized crime,” Enrique Pena Nieto said.
Enrique Pena Nieto is on some 38 percent, several points ahead of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador
He had been presented as the new face of the PRI, a break with the party’s long and at times murky past that included links with drug gangs.
The party held on to power for 71 years until it was defeated in 2000.
Enrique Pena Nieto built his reputation on the “pledges” he set out for his governorship in Mexico state, focusing on public works and improvement of infrastructure.
Outoing President Felipe Calderon has congratulated Enrique Pena Nieto and promised to work with him during the transition to his inauguration in December.
“I sincerely hope for the smooth running of the next government for the benefit of all Mexicans,” Felipe Calderon said, in a televised address.
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, running for the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) is in second place with about 31% of the vote.
The official quick count, published by the electoral authorities (IFE), is based on returns from a sample of around 7,500 polling stations across Mexico.
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who was the runner-up in the 2006 election, has not conceded victory.
“The last word hasn’t been spoken yet,” he said.
“We simply do not have all the facts. We are lacking the legality of the electoral process.”
In 2006, he refused to recognize Felipe Calderon’s victory and led street protests for months afterwards.
Josefina Vazquez Mota, the candidate of the governing National Action Party (PAN) had already accepted defeat.
The initial results from IFE put her on some 26%.
Almost 80 million people were eligible to cast their ballots on Sunday.
Police and army were deployed to protect voters from intimidation by drug cartels at polling booths.
Officials said the voting was largely peaceful, but reported some initial problems as a number of stations opened later than planned.
With nearly half the Mexican population living in poverty, the economy was one of the main issues in the campaign.
Unemployment remains low at roughly 4.5%, but a huge divide remains between the rich and the poor.
Another issue dominating the campaign was the war on drugs, launched nearly six years ago by President Felipe Calderon, who is constitutionally barred from seeking re-election.
The main opposition candidates have been critical of Felipe Calderon’s policies.
They point out that more than 55,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence since 2006.
Mexicans were also electing 500 deputies, 128 senators, six state governors, the head of government in the Federal District (which includes Mexico City) and local governments.
Mexican government has admitted that it mistakenly identified Felix Beltran Leon as the son of the country’s most-wanted drugs lord, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
On Thursday officials paraded before the media a man they said was Jesus Alfredo Guzman, whose father leads the powerful Sinaloa cartel.
But the arrested man was in fact Felix Beltran Leon, a car salesman, the attorney general’s office said.
The authorities had hailed the arrest as the most important in years.
Known as El Chapo” or “Shorty”, Joaquin Guzman has been in hiding ever since he escaped from prison in 2001.
The Sinaloa cartel controls much of the flow of cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamine to the United States.
Within hours of the high-profile arrest, doubts had started to be cast on the official version of events.
A lawyer proclaiming to speak for the Guzman family released a statement denying that the suspect in custody was the drug boss’s son.
Mexican government has admitted that it mistakenly identified Felix Beltran Leon as the son of the country's most-wanted drugs lord, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman
Felix Beltran Leon’s mother then spoke to journalists and denied any link to Joaquin Guzman or the Sinaloa cartel.
It took another few hours, while identity tests were carried out, before the government admitted it had made a huge mistake.
In less than a day, the episode has transformed from an apparent coup against one of Mexico’s biggest drug cartels to a major embarrassment for President Felipe Calderon’s administration, our reporter says.
US agencies, such as the Drug Enforcement Administration, were among those that had applauded the arrest.
On Thursday, the Mexican Navy had said that Jesus Guzman – known as “El Gordo”, or “The Fat One” – was a growing force within his father’s cartel and controlled most of its trade between Mexico and the US, where he was indicted in 2009.
El Chapo was jailed in 1993, but escaped from his maximum-security prison in a laundry basket eight years later.
The US state department has offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to his arrest.
If nothing else, the debacle goes to underscore how murky and confused the world of drug cartel arrests and government intelligence has become in Mexico.
With few recent photos of the main players in the drug world available, there may be more such cases of mistaken identity to come for the Mexican armed forces.
More than 55,000 people have died in Mexico in drug-related violence since President Felipe Calderon declared war on the cartels nearly six years ago.
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Pope Benedict XVI has arrived in Mexico, being greeted by thousands in central city of Guanajuato, and welcomed by President Felipe Calderon.
The Pope is at the start of his first visit to Spanish-speaking Latin-America.
President Felipe Calderon said the visit had enormous importance as Mexico was suffering greatly from drug-related violence.
Before his arrival, the Pope said it was vital “to fight this evil” and urged the young to renounce drugs. After Mexico, he will travel to Cuba.
Pope Benedict XVI said Marxism there was no longer working.
He said the ideology no longer corresponded to reality and called for “new models” to be found.
The Pope made it clear that “the Church is always on the side of freedom of thought and of religion”.
Pope Benedict was welcomed by cheering crowds at Guanajuato on Friday. Supporters at the airport chanted: “Benedict, brother, you are now Mexican!”
The pontiff then led a short blessing on a specially erected platform within the airport.
Pope Benedict XVI was welcomed by the Mexican President Felipe Calderon
All day under a hot sun, thousands of cheering followers – dressed in white and yellow T-shirts and waving flags – lined the route to the city of Leon to catch a glimpse of Benedict as he passed in the armour-plated Popemobile.
Security is tight – with the federal police and military deployed in large numbers.
Pope Benedict XVI is due to hold talks with President Calderon later on Saturday.
He will also spend time in the city of Silao, near Leon.
On Sunday some 300,000 people are expected to attend Mass, and huge camp sites have been set up to give pilgrims somewhere to stay.
Earlier, while on route to Mexico, Pope Benedict told journalists: “I share Mexicans’ joy and hope but also their anguish and grief,” referring to the country’s drug related violence, which has taken 50,000 lives in the past five years.
One Mexican supporter said: “With this wave of violence that we’re living, not just in individual states but across the country, the Pope’s visit could be a great source of comfort.”
Some 88% of Mexicans – almost 100 million people – are Roman Catholic, and the Pope’s predecessor, John Paul II, was a regular visitor to the country.
Pope Benedict XVI is not regarded with the same affection yet, but there is undoubtedly excitement about the visit among the faithful.
The Pope faces sensitive issues in Cuba.
This week the campaign group Amnesty International reported that life was getting harder for dissidents there.
Earlier this month, activists were evicted from a church they had occupied in the capital, Havana, demanding an audience with the Pope.
In Havana, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said the government was open to opinions that differed from its own, in a reference to the Pope’s comments that Marxism there was no longer working.
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Baluarte Bicentennial Bridge, the world’s tallest suspension bridge, was opened in Mexico Thursday, spanning a ravine higher than New York’s Empire State building and Paris’ Eiffel Tower.
Baluarte Bicentennial Bridge is 403 meters or 1,322 feet tall and connects between the northwestern states of Sinaloa and Durango in the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains.
Officials with the Guinness Book of World Records were present as was President Felipe Calderon for the opening ceremony.
The world’s tallest bridge features four highway lanes celebrated for cutting transportation time between the two regions by an estimated six hours.
Without including the Empire State Building’s lightning rod, the bridge can easily fit its towering height from head to toe or the height of Paris’ Eiffel Tower which stands at 324 meters or 1063 feet.
Baluarte Bicentennial Bridge is 403 meters or 1,322 feet tall and connects between the northwestern states of Sinaloa and Durango in the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains
After four years of construction, the Baluarte Bicentennial Bridge is priced at 2.18 billion pesos or 158.98522 million U.S. dollars.
The bridge is so named as the country celebrates it’s bicentennial independence from Spain which was in 1810.
The Durango-Mazatlan highway newly constructed to reach the bridge cost its own amount of over 20 billion pesos or 1.45858 billion U.S. dollars.
It had been deemed President Felipe Calderon’s most significant transportation project during his six-year term according to the country’s transportation ministry.
“With developments in infrastructure, we’ll continue to achieve the targets established during my term,” President Felipe Calderon said Thursday according to TheAge.com.
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