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Hobnobbing at a Mexican presidential inauguration
Panama News Briefs

RP, US pols hobnob at Mexican presidential inauguration

Left to right, we have Panamanian Vice President Samuel Lewis Navarro, Housing Minister Balbina Herrera, California Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger, former US President George HW Bush and President Martín Torrijos. They met at a pre-inaugural dinner for incoming Mexican President Felipe Calderón.

The actual inauguration was a disaster that lasted but four minutes. With members of the Mexican Congress exchanging fisticuffs and throwing chairs at one another and leftist deputies shouting and blowing whistles to drown out Calderón, the new president came in through the back door, took the oath of office, stood for the national anthem and then fled the legislative palace without giving the traditional inaugural address. Although only a very partial recount of votes was allowed, that indicated massive and widespread fraud in last July's presidential election, which has led Mexican leftists to withhold their recognition of Calderón's legitimacy as president. As the new president's National Action Party (PAN) controls only about 40 percent of the seats in the Congress, there are many questions about whether he can effectively govern.

The meeting shown above contrasts sharply with a 1992 encounter between Herrera and Bush, when she led protests that forced him to flee a speaker's podium in Parque Porras. But times do change. Photo courtesy of the Presidencia