Calderon's Big Agenda for Mexico

With Calderón in, a new war on Mexico's mighty drug cartels

Mexico's new president is tackling some of the country's toughest problems, but what will it take to succeed?
Part 1 of three.
By Sara Miller Llana | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
Photo by SARA MILLER LLANA

LAZARO CARDENAS, MEXICO

They leapt off the helicopters in seconds: 35 Mexican soldiers, touching down softly on the soil and fanning out across a marijuana field.

As the men yanked out tidy rows of plants perched on a mountainside in the western state of Michoacán, other military choppers circled like hawks, ready to battle hiding snipers. Two hours later, the only hint of a narcotrafficking base was a smoldering fire.

It's a scene familiar in Colombia, but new here in Mexico. This small victory is part of President Felipe Calderón's massive military effort to crack down on one of Mexico's most entrenched problems: drug trafficking and organized crime. But as most of the helicopters pulled away, the sight of soldiers pulling up remaining plants one by one in this tiny field – one of 38 in this isolated region alone – underscored the enormity of targeting Mexico's vast illicit drug trade, which includes poppy fields, meth labs, and cash-flush criminals who control entire communities.

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Calderón's challenge: Confronting monopolies

A steep rise in tortilla prices could force Mexico's new president totry to loosen big business's tight grip on the economy.

Part 2 of three.

By Sara Miller Llana | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
Photo by JOANNE CICCARELLO – STAFF

MEXICO CITY

Mexicans run into near-monopolies at every turn. When they pick up a phone (to be charged rates above the international average), it's almost certain that the service provider is Telmex, which owns 94 percent of landlines. When they turn on the TV at night, they're probably viewing a channel owned by one of two dominant broadcasters.

Usually, they just sigh.

But this month, the price of corn tortillas, dominated by a company owning 70 percent of the tortilla and cornmeal market, shot up by more than 50 percent in some parts of the country. That sent the war against price gouging, usually reserved to regulatory agency meetings, pouring into the streets – with housewives marching to demand an answer.

The unrest was enough to spur the nation's antitrust watchdog to launch an investigation, threatening fines of up to $6.4 million on any company engaged in monopolistic practices.

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Wealth gap tests Mexico's conservative new leader

President Calderón is adopting programs of his leftist opponents in a bid to bridge a persistent rich-poor gap.

Part 3 of three.

By Sara Miller Llana | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
Photo by JOANNE CICCARELLO – STAFF

SAN ISIDRO VISTA HERMOSA, MEXICO

This small community of 500 sits four miles up a mountain's steep back road, its dirt-floor homes sprawled across rocky fields in the northern highlands of Oaxaca state.

There is neither a health clinic nor high school here, and families are fragmented as nearly all the young men, and many women, head to the US to work as dishwashers or construction workers for years at a time. The only modern homes, simple cement blocks, are built with the money they send back.

To stem a growing restlessness among the nation's poor – almost half of the population – Mexico's new president Felipe Calderón faces the delicate balance of tackling poverty's roots while also addressing its symptoms. He has moved quickly to promise aid for some of the most fundamental problems facing the poor, targeting everything from drinkable water to health services and schools. But Mr. Calderón has made it equally clear that none of that will matter unless social order is maintained, showing a firm hand that some have interpreted to mean disruptive protests will no longer be tolerated.