Felipe Calderon

Felipe Calderon takes office today as one of Mexico's weakest presidents, hemmed in by ruthless drug lords, industry monopolists, tax cheats and a bare-knuckle leftist movement that threatens to block his every move. Calderon's only hope of fixing the nation's social and economic ills lies with a cooperative, well-managed Congress. But lawmakers have taken over the lower house, sleeping overnight in chairs and aisles, pledging to disrupt his nationally televised inauguration.

WASHINGTON - President Obama hosted the leaders of Mexico and Canada on Monday in a White House summit aimed at boosting the region's growing economic ties, but the scourge of drug violence in Mexico muddled the message and highlighted friction between the neighbors. Obama met with Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and the three announced an initiative to cut regulations that constrict trade across the northern and southern borders. But Mexico's drug war, which has killed tens of thousands of people, dominated a Rose Garden news conference.

Presidential candidate Felipe Calderon learned politics at the family dinner table. Mostly it was about how to lose. His father had helped found the conservative National Action Party, and belonging to the PAN in those days meant losing elections, losing jobs and losing friends. A kid taunted Calderon at school once and said that even if by a miracle his father ever won, Mexico's ruling party would never let him take office. "I asked my dad, 'Is that true?' and he said it was," Calderon said.

The mayor of Monterrey is feeling the squeeze. His brother is in police custody. His own party wants him to step down. And the horrific fire that killed 52 people in a casino in his city last month has become fodder for some election-season mudslinging. The Aug. 25 arson attack has proved a debacle for Mayor Fernando Larrazabal and, by extension, for his National Action Party, or PAN, which also happens to be the party of Mexican President Felipe Calderon. Larrazabal has been on the defensive since days after the blaze, when videos turned up showing his brother, Jonas, accepting wads of cash at another gaming center.

President Felipe Calderon's approval rating rose to 65%, up 7 percentage points since March, a poll by the Reforma newspaper found. Also, the daily said, 83% of those surveyed said they supported his deployment of troops to crack down on drug cartels responsible for about 1,000 killings so far this year.

The leftist challenging Mexico's presidential election results called on the conservative who narrowly defeated him to endorse a vote-by-vote recount. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who says tallies were rigged in the July 2 election, wrote to rival Felipe Calderon to say that if he agreed to a new count the leftist would abide by the result. A recount can only be ordered by the electoral court.

Mexico is to have a final decision today on its disputed July 2 presidential race, with the nation's top electoral court expected to declare ruling party candidate Felipe Calderon president-elect. But the long-awaited ruling by the Federal Electoral Tribunal -- which comes two months, three days, and tens of thousands of pages of legal challenges after voters cast their ballots -- is unlikely to end potentially explosive uncertainty or close the growing political divide gripping the country.

Re "Mexico, up for grabs," Opinion, May 9 Jorge Castaneda reaches the indefensible conclusion that Mexican President Vicente Fox and candidate Felipe Calderon are "making Mexico's still-in-diapers democracy work." Although it may be correct to characterize the country's politics as infantile, to suggest that Fox and Calderon are democracy's nursemaids is a flimsy claim. Fox's petulant outbursts and arrant self-promotion have done nothing to raise the level of debate. Far from energizing the electorate, the men Castaneda lauds have helped foster a disputatious campaign tone that has alienated much of Mexican society.

The strange saga of Zhenli Ye Gon and the $207 million in cash discovered during a March raid of his mansion here shows no signs of ending soon. First, there is the matter of the money itself, which officials called the largest drug-cash seizure in history. The stacks of U.S. currency filled several steel cabinets and suitcases in Ye Gon's home in the fashionable Lomas de Chapultepec district. It has since been shipped by Mexican authorities to New York to be counted.

Mexican leftists will relax their protest in Mexico City against President-elect Felipe Calderon to allow a military parade to pass, their leader said Sunday. The move is seen as a bid to avert street violence during the annual Independence Day parade through the capital's central square, or Zocalo, on Saturday. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who says he was robbed of victory in the July 2 presidential election, told supporters to suspend an ongoing sit-in to make way for the event.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon announced a Cabinet shuffle Friday that allows two departing members to run for office as the 2012 campaign shifts into higher gear. Finance Minister Ernesto Cordero, a longtime Calderon ally, is leaving to pursue the presidential nomination of their conservative National Action Party, or PAN. Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova, who was the face of Mexico's government during the H1N1 flu crisis two years ago, plans to run for governor in the central state of Guanajuato.

The dead were mainly mothers and grandmothers, middle-aged women who routinely stopped by the Casino Royale for an afternoon game of bingo or a shot at the slot machines. At least 52 people were killed Thursday when armed men set fire to the gaming hall in a busy commercial center of Mexico's wealthiest city. The attack, carried out in broad daylight, was the deadliest to target Mexican civilians in nearly five years of bloody drug warfare. "Mexico has witnessed one of the most terrible acts of barbarism in memory," President Felipe Calderon said Friday as he declared three days of national mourning.

Mexico received more bad economic news Friday with a report that shows poverty is steadily on the rise. The number of Mexicans living in poverty grew to 52 million in 2010, up by more than 3 million people from two years earlier, the report says. That means 46.2% of the population lives in poverty. Within that group, 11.7 million people live in extreme poverty, a figure that held steady over the same period. The report was produced by the National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy, an autonomous but federally financed agency, and represents the state's most comprehensive study of poverty to date.

Four men were convicted Thursday in last year's killing of 15 people at a teen party in the border city of Ciudad Juarez. A three-judge panel delivered guilty verdicts on several counts after a two-week trial in Juarez, which in recent years has been the deadliest zone in Mexico amid spiraling drug violence. President Felipe Calderon set off national outrage when he referred to the victims of the Jan. 30, 2010, massacre as gang members. He backpedaled after it turned out they were promising students and athletes.

"The Team" aired for three short weeks and never scored high ratings. It proved one thing, though. Amid sharpening divisions over Mexico's drug war, even a mediocre cop drama can be fuel on the fire. The TV series debuted on the private Televisa network in early May and ended Friday, capping 15 prime-time episodes. But the controversy around it may outlast the reruns. Was the series, featuring a coed team of elite (and muy attractive!) federal officers on the trail of drug traffickers, just an ordinary crime drama?

A day after tens of thousands of Mexicans joined in anti-violence protests, President Felipe Calderon offered Monday to meet with organizers to explain a government drug war that has produced growing worry as deaths climb. In televised comments, Calderon said talks could help bridge the gap between his administration and leaders of Sunday's March for Peace, which drew crowds of violence-weary people to the streets to appeal for a new crime strategy. Calderon offered no sign of backing away from his administration's military-led crackdown against drug cartels.

In his first visit to California as president of Mexico, Felipe Calderon told the Legislature on Wednesday that immigration "carries off the best among us," and he vowed to create the economic conditions that would allow Mexicans to find well-paid work in their own country. Calderon drew applause, particularly from Republican legislators, when he said, "While my government is committed to protecting the rights of all Mexicans, including those living beyond our borders, we are taking great efforts to ensure that in the future no Mexican needs to leave our country to find job opportunities elsewhere."

Re "Why hide Mexico's ballots?" Opinion, Sept. 22 The best way to respond to this article is by paraphrasing Benjamin Disraeli's famous phrase: "Lies, damn lies and blackmail." The lie is that Mexico today has two elected presidents. Felipe Calderon has been declared the winner by Mexico's independent and nonpartisan electoral institutions. The damned lies are that Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was proclaimed president by "millions of his followers." The "National Democratic Convention" was attended by no more than 100,000 people, and his decision to proclaim himself president has been denounced by his own party and by prominent Mexicans who supported him in his campaign.

Bearing white balloons and fake bloodstains, tens of thousands of demonstrators crowded Mexico City's historic downtown Sunday to call for an end to the country's unrelenting drug violence. The primary target of the protest was President Felipe Calderon, who has ruled during a period of extraordinary bloodshed. More than 34,000 people have been killed since Calderon declared an all-out assault on drug cartels after taking office four and a half years ago. Demonstrators, holding placards saying "No more blood!"

Locked in a grueling and bloody war with drug cartels, Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Thursday replaced the nation's top legal official, whose lackluster stint had failed to improve paltry narcotics conviction rates or stem human rights abuses. Atty. Gen. Arturo Chavez Chavez stepped down after 18 months on the job. Calderon nominated Marisela Morales, head of the high-profile organized crime unit of the prosecutor's office, to replace Chavez. The Mexican Senate must ratify the appointment.