Poor Word Choice

Yesterday, Economy Secretary Gerardo Ruiz commented that had Felipe Calderón not been elected in 2006 and proceeded to attack the drug gangs, the next president would be a narcopresidente. Even beyond the impossibility of proving this hypothesis and the lack of semantic precision in the loaded term "narco-president," what a truly silly comment this is. With Mexico battling to maintain its image as a functioning state, how could a high-ranking cabinet official not realize that this is fodder for those who argue that Mexico is failing? And if the presence of the cartels in Los Pinos comes down to the election of just one man (who very nearly lost), what does that say about the Mexican state?