Supreme Court fully backs IETU tax law

The Supreme Court (SCJN) rejected all constitutional arguments against the Single Rate Corporate Tax, or IETU, which went into effect at the beginning of 2008 as part of the 2007 fiscal reform package. Some 40,000 lawsuits had been brought against the IETU, which operates as a kind of alternative minimum tax for corporations and professionals.  After six sessions devoted to the IETU, the Ministers said in a press release summarizing their decisions that the tax met the constitutional principles of “legality, equity, and proportionality.” Undersecretary of Finance for Revenue José Antonio Meade has said that a reversal of the tax would cost the government about Ps. 90 billion in revenues per year. (Universal 2/9, Reforma 2/9, SCJN 2/9)

Calderón interview: defining a ‘comprehensive’ strategy against drugs

In an extensive interview with Lally Weymouth, published this weekend in the Washington Post, President Felipe Calderón elaborated on what he meant by a comprehensive strategy to tackling the drug gangs in his country:

The problem is not only a criminal problem but also a social problem, in the sense that we have young people without opportunities who are [hired] by criminals as distributors of drugs. Finally, they die in the streets. I have serious concerns about that. The only way to defeat the crime is to combat it with a comprehensive strategy; one part is to use all the power of the state in order to fight the criminals, to preserve or in some cases to recover the authority of the state. . . . The second part [requires] renovating all the police corps in the country.

He also discussed U.S.-Mexico relations, arms trafficking, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, the oil sector reforms, and last year’s mid-term elections.

Poll: Government losing control of the war against narcos

A BGC-Beltran nationwide telephone poll showed that a majority (56%) believed that some of the murdered youths in Juárez were gang members, while 23% believed they were all innocent victims. By a margin of 41% to 30%, respondents said the narcos were winning the war against the government, little changed from last July. However, the share saying the country was out of control (60%) reached the highest levels of the Calderón government. Only 28% said the government had the reins of the country, a low for this administration. (Excelsior 2/8)

President changes tack on Juárez violence

After initially seeming to blame the victims in the massacre of 15 high school students at a birthday party in Ciudad Juárez (“they were probably killed by another group with which they had a certain rivalry”), President Calderón announced another change in strategy to address the violence in the border city. The President promised, without providing details, an “integrated” strategy including new social assistance programs, while also saying that the measures “will not be imposed from the center, but proposed and discussed with the people of Juárez, and implemented hand in hand with them.” Government Secretary Fernando Gómez Mont is travelling to Juárez today to discuss new actions with Governor José Reyes Baeza. Separately, the Army said they killed the presumed leader of the attack on the students, Adrián Ramírez, in a shootout. The motivation for the attack on the students remains unknown. (Reforma 2/3,  2/7)

Chihuahua to move seat of state government to war zone

Chihuahua Governor Reyes Baeza (PRI) said he was issuing a call to move the legal seat of the three branches of state government to Juárez from Chihuahua for as long as necessary until the city’s violence is brought under control.  He demanded that the federal government provide another Ps. 3 billion in assistance to the state and called on President Calderón to come to Juárez to visit first hand the families of the victims. PAN party president César Nava called Reyes Baeza’s action “pure progaganda” and “illegal.” According to Reforma’s tally, there were 2,082 gang killings in Chihuahua in 2009, mostly in Juárez, and another 228 in the first five weeks of 2009. (Universal 2/7, 2/8, Reforma 2/7)

Parties trade blame for flooding

Record downpours during what is normally the dry season caused flooding in the poorer districts of Mexico City and adjacent areas of Mexico State, as well as Michoacán and Guerrero. At least 22 persons died in Michoacán. In the capital region, two major drainage canals broke their banks, leaving neighborhoods 6 ft deep in raw sewage, and closing the main Mexico-Puebla highway. President Calderón, Mexico state governor Enrique Peña Nieto, and Mexico City mayor Marcelo Ebrard toured the affected areas. National Water Commission head José Luis Luege blamed the Mexico City government for closing the deep drainage system for repairs despite forecasts of bad weather, while Ebrard blamed the feds for underspending on water infrastructure. (Reforma 2/8, Excelsior 2/8)

‘Secular state’ amendment moves forward in Congress

In reaction to the PAN’s efforts to overturn Mexico City’s law permitting gay marriage, state-level bans on abortion, and other actions favored by the Catholic Church, the PRI and PRD opposition moved forward with a constitutional amendment that adds the word ‘secular’ to the definition of the state: “It is the will of the Mexican people to constitute themselves in a representative, democratic, secular, and federal Republic…” The measure passed the Commission on Constitutional Issues by a vote of 18-5, with all parties uniting against the PAN. The measure may go for a vote in the full Chamber this session. Since Mexico City passed a law decriminalizing early-stage abortion, 18 states have passed laws or constitutional amendments stating that life begins at conception. (Universal 2/4, 2/8)

New website for political reform

The Ministry of Government has launched a new website, www.reformapolitica.gob.mx, to lay out the government’s proposals for political reform. The site includes space for citizen comment, a library of various useful documents on political reform, information on public forums on the reform, and a variety of other materials.

Thought for the Day

From Reforma’s Templo Mayor:

There’s one piece of good news, and one bad for all Mexicans.
The good is that there is only one bad. The bad: today Congress begins its regular session.
And it’s bad because the deputies and senators are returning very much prepared to move forward with the important and transcendental reforms … that only matter to them.

Officials held in Michoacán anti-drug operation ordered freed

A federal judge ordered 12 of the 29 Michoacán state officials and mayors captured in last May’s dramatic sweep by federal police released for lack of evidence. The operation created huge tension between the government and PRD governor Leonel Godoy. Those released included Citlalli Fernández, Godoy’s former Secretary for Public Security. (Universal 1/31)