Is Mexico ready for a female President?

The country has long been associated with macho men leaders:

MEXICO CITY: Josefina Vazquez Mota's quest to become the first female president of Mexico a country long associated with macho men is burdened by her association with the unpopular current president. Both Vazquez Mota, 51, and President Felipe Calderon are members of the conservative National Action Party (PAN), and many voters see the July 1 presidential election as a referendum on 12 years of PAN leadership.

Vazquez Mota claims that Mexico is ready to follow other Latin American nations like Chile and Brazil in electing a woman to the presidency. However voters, perhaps unfairly, see her as a continuation of Calderon's presidency.

In 2000 the PAN's Vicente Fox broke the stranglehold the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) had held on the Mexican presidency for 71 years. At the end of his six-year term he was followed by Calderon, a long-time PAN activist and former cabinet secretary.

Vazquez Mota, an economist and former secretary of education, is tasked with extending that legacy. However few voters see much difference between her proposals and those of Calderon, especially regarding his blood-soaked crackdown on drug gangs. Ironically, Vazquez Mota won the party nomination by defeating Calderon's chosen successor. The intra-party wounds over the fight are still raw.

Soon after taking office Calderon deployed the Mexican army and marines in a bid to crush the country's crime gangs. The crackdown has had some high-profile successes, but also resulted in a rise in violence blamed for more than 50,000 deaths, mostly in battles between rival cartels.

Vazquez Mota has promised to be tough on crime but to change the approach by improving the police a strategy that Calderon has already started.

“The armed forces won't return to their barracks until we're sure we have trustworthy police,” Vazquez Mota has said. She has also promised a gentler approach, focusing on victims of violence.

In her defense, the candidate's two main rivals have had few fresh proposals on how to tackle the country's crime problem, even though the issue is of pressing importance to most Mexicans.

Vazquez Mota has sought to distance herself from Calderon by using the campaign slogan: “Josefina: Different.” Party infighting marred the early stages of her campaign, and Vazquez Mota was forced to add Calderon allies to her team after a string of mishaps, including a highly publicized dizzy spell.

The candidate a petite married mother of three children and a conservative Catholic opposed to abortion and gay marriage has appealed directly to female voters, and has emphasized her role as a mother on the campaign trail.

In mid-June, Vazquez Mota even urged female supporters at a rally to get their partners to vote for her or deny them “hanky-panky for one month.” If elected, Vazquez Mota said she plans to improve Mexico's widely-criticized education system and strengthen the country's economy.

AFP