Real reform with real cojones...or is it politically savvy to take on some of those factional interests in your own party, the PRI, that don't align with your agenda and with that of your tecnico-friends/supporters? Will education reform be real?  Will it be effective or are they just trying to cut spending on education?  Or are they just trying to tame the Teacher's Union? Is this really about labor reform?  Is arresting Elba Esther Gordillo a sign of true cojones and not being afraid to stand up to vested interests and fighting corruption or is is just a way to get rid of a albatross around the PRI's neck and be seen to be fighting corruption in certain areas and talking about education (which is a real concern for voters)? Will PEMEX be privatized? Is he really taking on Carlos Slim and Televisa?  Is this about a free press or is Carlos Slim the equivalent of a Berezovsky or Khodorkovsky, an oligarch whose power must be tamed because there is a new sheriff in town?  Is this really about power?  Is this why Peña Nieto has come in guns ablazing?

WHAT DO YOU THINK?  Read these articles and write a 300 word response.   

Read the following articles on Peña Nieto so far and comment...
on the Drug War?
on Education reform?
Vigilante Justice? 
Tackling corruption?
Other reforms? 
Peña Nieto's first 100 Days:http://www.voxxi.com/enrique-pena-nietos-first-days-office/
 On Drug War:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/29/enrique-pena-nieto-drug-war-policies_n_2575511.html 
On Education Reform and arrest of Elba Esther Gordillo and showdown with Teacher's Union:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/27/elba-esther-gordillo-mexico-union-embezzlement

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/14/mexico-education-reform-president-enrique-pena-nieto-teachers-revolt_n_3081442.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-21582629 
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/02/27/3257950/mexicos-education-reform-may-prove.html (Historic education reform?)
http://latitude.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/11/mexico-education-reform-taming-teachers-union/ (Those who can't teach, strike)

Vigilante Justice in Mexico...when the state fails to serve and protect...
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexico-vigilantes-20130412,0,4249646.story 

Corruption, Free Press, Televisa, Telecom Regulation, and the richest man in the world--Carlos Slimhttp://www.forbes.com/sites/nowthisnews/2013/03/22/carlos-slim-richest-man-in-the-world-in-93-seconds/ 
http://www.forbes.com/sites/doliaestevez/2013/03/21/the-evolution-of-mexican-president-pena-nietos-soap-opera-politics/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/19/enrique-pena-nieto-reforms-mexico-president_n_2906967.html

Yo Soy 132, emerged as a student movement for a more authentic democracy, for a free press, etc. and against the PRI in the last elections.  What will its role be in Mexico after the elections?  Will it help democratize Mexico?  Will it be co-opted?  Is co-optation an option for interest groups and civil society in modern Mexico?  Read this LA Times article and the Yo Soy 132 website that displays their current campaigns.  Your thoughts?  Comments?  Does Brazil need a movement like this?

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/aug/13/world/la-fg-mexico-students-20120814



http://www.yosoy132media.org/ 

Watch their video with English subtitles here:
http://yosoy132.mx/

There are many articles out there like this one that talk  about the programs of Mexico's new president. They've all expressed reserved optimism and a "wait and see" attitude. They all also agree that things look different than they used to.  What has changed?  Your comments?  

 http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21575768-enrique-peña-nieto-has-set-furious-pace-he-will-be-judged-implementation-
See highlights below, but read the whole article at the link above.  

"Before last July’s presidential election the party (PRI)  did its best to block the proposals of Felipe Calderón (who in any case proved to be inept at constructing consensus). After Mr Peña’s victory this changed, with the passage of a labour reform that the PRI had previously blocked. An education law in February claws back control of teachers’ hiring and firing, previously the preserve of the teachers’ union. The new president sent a powerful signal to dissenters when the union’s leader, Elba Esther Gordillo, once a leader of the PRI, was arrested on charges of embezzling more than $150m of union funds (an allegation she denies).

Next came a shake-up of telecoms and television, passed by the lower house in March and expected to be passed by the Senate soon. Telecoms are dominated by Carlos Slim’s América Móvil, with 80% of landlines and 70% of mobile-phone and broadband connections. In television, Televisa has about 70% of free-to-air viewers and half of pay-TV subscribers."  (P.S.  Televisa has traditionally been in the hands of the PRI...)

"Behind these reforms lies a “Pact for Mexico” struck between the PRI and the two main opposition parties in December. The Pact unites Mexico’s political parties against the unelected interests that have long defied them. As he signed the Pact on behalf of the left-wing Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), Jesús Zambrano declared that politicians were “outraged that de facto powers of all kinds have time and again broken governments of one party or another.”


"A bigger test of the Pact will come after the elections, when Mr Peña is due to publish his next proposal, a combined fiscal and energy reform designed to realise the enormous potential of Mexico’s oil and gas reserves. The country does not make the most of these: half its oil is in deep waters, of which Pemex, the state-owned oil and gas monopoly, has little experience. The state’s milking of Pemex’s profits has left it unable to invest in the necessary technology. To wean itself off oil revenue the government will have to raise taxes, probably applying value-added tax to food and medicine. The PRI changed its party constitution last month to allow this. But polls show overwhelming opposition to taxing those essentials."