The Day President Filipe Calderon came to Mahahual
| Living in the US for all of my life before coming to Mexico, I was
surprised on Thursday when I was handed a personal invitation to meet
the President of Mexico at 8:00 AM Saturday. Never mind my last name
was spelled Vales instead of Bales - and my hotel was named Maya Beach
instead of Mayan Beach Garden - it was clear it was for me! I had
wondered why the place was getting so cleaned up - I'd never seen
Mahahual so clean! Even the metal sign debris left over from Hurricane Dean was finally removed. On Friday, dark blue federal helicopters flew so close you could see the faces of the people in them. This had all the markings of serious stuff. So I called up the RSVP number on the invitation and stumbled through my poor Spanish as I was passed from person to person until I finally got to the right one to confirm my reservation. They told me to wear white. WHITE!!! I don't own white - beige maybe and khaki beige at that. Still, this was the president and all, so I managed to come up with something suitable and drove to Mahahual. |  Mahahual cleaned up |
Arriving at 7:30, I expected to find the place
packed. Not so - I should have known better. In Mexico, if they want
you there at a certain time, they don't tell you the real time. I was
first in line and told to wait for a few minutes as they set up the
metal detectors. After showing my invitation, I had to wash my hands
with hand sanitizer. They had me lay my purse on a table as I walked
through the metal detector. They didn't even look at it! Now my purse
is big - big enough to put a gun in. The security, while good was
certainly not up to what one would see in the US. But that was also
part of the charm. Calderon is a man who daily does very brave things,
yet he also puts himself in front of people and in apparent harms way.
I was very impressed even though the visit was incredibly short - he showed up at 10:00 and was gone by 11:00. There were maybe 150 people there to listen to
the brief speech. Speakers were the Governor, the head of Fonatur, the head of Tourism and a couple of generals. No flowery talks, but straight to the point info: (The following has been corrected from a previous entry. There was NO mention of Phase two of the Malecon in the transcripts of the speeches as previously reported)
|   Calderon addressing the business owners - the bay of Mahahual is to his back |
Posted by Marcia Bales at 6/6/2009 7:37 PM 
Categories: Mahahual News, Quintana Roo News
Tags: Malecon Mahahual president Mangroves environment Calderon
Categories: Mahahual News, Quintana Roo News
Tags: Malecon Mahahual president Mangroves environment Calderon
Marcia,
You'd mentioned on Facebook how you could have easily packed a weapon when you went to see the Pres. of Mexico. It's a parallell to the Tijuania border crossing. Going from Mexico to the US it's like going through an international border crossing. Going from US to Mexico is like the gate you approach when leaving an amusement park...at least that was my first impression. We still want to see you again...in Mexico.
Best Regards, Bob Tegeder
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Nice analogy - the problem is inconsistency - sometimes they are so thorough you want to scream because of the waiting it takes. The only reason I even mention it is that I'm sure a lot of people would like his head because he's so anti-drug!
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From we hear in the US, Calderon is a man on a mission to fight the drug wars in his country. Because of that, he has lost people very close to him. Great read, Marcia...and nice photo!
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