New name in Mexican politics?
Could Marcelo Ebrard be a left-wing Boris Johnson?Mexico City mayor aims high
"Marcelo Ebrard [left] has turned this balmy city into an ice skaters' wonderland. He's conjured sandy beaches far from the sea. He's made hordes of annoying hawkers vanish from the historic main plaza."In nearly two years as mayor of Mexico's capital, Ebrard has shown a bent for splashy initiatives to ease the strains of daily life in a huge and unruly city. But the question is whether the leftist mayor can succeed against the city's deep problems: legendary traffic, kidnappings, poverty, eye-stinging smog, water shortages, an aging subway system and crooked police. It is a tall order.
"If he does, the 49-year-old Ebrard could be a contender for the country's top office. A wonkish technocrat with years of working the halls of Mexico City's government, he has signaled his presidential aspirations, though the election is four years away...
"In an interview, the lanky and bespectacled mayor laid out a lofty-sounding vision for Mexico City, with elements of the economic dynamism of London and New York and urban integration of Barcelona, Spain.
"For now, though, he is pursuing a pragmatic, pothole-filling approach, leavened with such populist touches as turning public pools into artificial beaches...
"Ebrard was well-versed in Mexico City government long before he won the mayor's race by a wide margin in 2006. He was a top city deputy during the early 1990s, when the country was run by the long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI...
"Ebrard bolted from the PRI and served as police chief and social development secretary under his predecessor and ally, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador...
"Ebrard lacks Lopez Obrador's charisma, but analysts say he is in a good position to inherit leadership of the Mexican left if Lopez Obrador clears the way..."
Labels: leadership, Mexico, politics
posted by Ken Wedding @ 6:57 AM
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