MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Mexican president says some Latam countries are losing the democracy battle

Calderón in one of his last international acts

Democracy is in retreat in some Latinamerican countries warned the Mexican president Felipe Calderon in the Russian city of Vladivostok where he attended the APEC summit forum, (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation).

“We need to raise a strong voice against any authoritarian attitude no matter the government and independently whether it is left or right” said the Mexican president after admitting that in “some cases we are losing that battle”.

Calderón who steps down next December first will be handing the presidential sash to his successor Enrique Peña Nieto from the Institutional Revolutionary Party, PRI, which returns to office after twelve years of the conservative PAN.

The Mexican president added that in Latin America “we are battling exactly between the past and the future; we thought, 12 or 15 years ago that democracy had arrived, but we need to defend democracy and freedom every day, we must fight for them every single day of the year”.

Mexico that is a member of the Apec group with 21 economies and which includes Russia and China was one of the special guests at the business people summit, parallel to the leaders’ official two-day summit which took place in Vladivostok, Russia’s main Pacific port.

In related news president elect Peña Nieto will be making a six-country visit of Latinamerica from September 17 to 24 to meet his future peers and reinforce close brotherly links with those nations. The countries are neighbour Guatemala, Colombia, Brazil, Chile, Argentina and Peru.

Peña Nieto’s first overseas visit as president elect begins in Guatemala City on September 17, where he will also participate in a summit of Central American leaders. Tuesday 18, is Bogotá where he meets President Juan Manuel Santos. The following day, Brazil, first in Sao Paulo with business leaders and later on the 19th with President Dilma Rousseff. Brazil is Latam’s leading economy and Mexico follows, but as the US picks up Mexico is again beginning to grow while Brazil has slowed down notoriously.

From Brazil, Peña Nieto flies to Chile where he has scheduled meetings with business leaders and President Sebastian Piñera. On the evening of September 21, the Mexican leader arrives in Buenos Aires to meet with Cristina Fernandez. Finally on September 24, Peña Nieto closes the round of contacts in Peru with President Ollanta Humala.

Peña Nieto, who is a solicitor and former governor, is scheduled to take office as Mexican president December first, following the statement from the Superior Electoral Tribunal which declared the questioned election valid, rejecting an appeal presented by the match-all coalition of leftist groups.