Thursday, July 15, 2010

The Importance of Profile

José Francisco Blake said that his initial priority as interior secretary will be to negotiate a pact regarding security policy:
We have to construct a state policy on democratic security that has the endorsement of not just the political force, but of all three branches, all levels of government, and of the society as a whole.
This seems to further Leo Zuckermann's speculation that he will function as a security coordinator more than as an advocate for Calderón's agenda. That, in turn, seems like a wise decision, and Blake's comments also seem entirely sound. However, one wonders how someone of Blake's profile will be able to coerce, haggle, cajole, demand and in general exist as a peer of all the people he will need to get on the same page. He may well be an extraordinarily talented person, but, simply by virtue of his resume, he is in over his head. What if forging the pact requires him to change the mind of Genaro García Luna, who has been a major figure in the federal government for a decade? Or if he needs to twist the arm of Enrique Peña Nieto, who quite reasonably expects to be president in a little over two years? Are they going to listen to him? Bend to his will? It seems far more likely that they'll run roughshod over the upstart.

It's also quite possible, with two of the major cabinet posts dealing with security held by low-profile guys (Blake and Attorney General Arturo Chávez Chávez), that Calderón's conscious strategy is to make Genaro García Luna, who as secretary of public security holds a third, the be-all and end-all of his administration's security policy.

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