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PRESIDENT FELIPE CALDERON OVERHAULS CABINET.

Article Excerpt
In the most significant Cabinet overhaul of his administration, President Felipe Calderon accepted the resignations of two important secretaries and the director of the state-run oil company PEMEX and also announced a plan to eliminate three Cabinet ministries. The changes set the tone for the second half of Calderon's administration, in which the president will have to continue his campaign against drug traffickers, address the country's lingering economic crisis, and contend with a Congress now dominated by the opposition.

Attorney general, agriculture secretary, PEMEX director resign

After winning the July 5 midterm elections by a landslide (see SourceMex, 2009-07-08), the opposition Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) demanded that Calderon make some important changes, including to his Cabinet. Therefore, it was not a matter of if, but when, the changes would occur. They came on Sept. 7, when President Calderon announced that he had accepted the resignations of Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora, Agriculture Secretary Alberto Cardenas, and PEMEX director Jesus Reyes Heroles.

Cabinet changes in the middle of a six-year presidential term are not uncommon. One of the most prominent departures during President Vicente Fox's tenure was Calderon, who left the post of energy secretary (see SourceMex, 2004-06-02. Fox also lost Santiago Creel as interior secretary (see SourceMex, 2005-10-05). One of the most significant changes for ex-President Ernesto Zedillo was Esteban Moctezuma's decision to step down as interior secretary (see SourceMex, 1996-01-03).

The PRI, the...

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