Last week I went to a training provided by my company about Project Management. One of the best parts about the training was the instructor. He told some very amusing anecdotes about projects he had worked on in the past and where they went right and went wrong.
One of the stories he told was about a project a major technology company (but not my employer) did for the Mexican federal government in the late '80s or early '90s. The major technology company was hired to provide a computer system to completely overhaul the federal voting records and make all the records digital. This involved a lot of data entry at the central offices in Mexico City and registration of voters in regional centers. This was an important contract for the major technology company because it represented one of the first developing countries to have digital voting records and a successful completion of the project could mean many future contracts with other governments.
The first problem encountered was with the computers used for data entry in Mexico City. The major technology company started getting reports of high failure rates and very slow progress in migrating the data. The problem was how the employees in this area were hired. The Government was responsible for hiring these employees and rather than hire a temp. agency to hire workers skilled in data entry, the government sent people to the busy subway stops and hired people as they were exiting the subway. This meant that most of the people hired had little or no computer skills and little or no knowledge on how to treat computers. When technicians for the major technology company showed up to perform service at the office they found computers with food (tortas de tamale mostly) and drink spilled all over the computers. Generally the computers were treated badly and the progress was slow because most of the data entry was done by employees who typed using the good ol' hunt 'n' peck method.
The second problem had to do with high failure rates for the servers at some of the regional centers. The government was responsible for leasing the buildings for these regional centers, but had failed to check the condition of the roofs at many of these centers. When the rainy season started many of the servers at these centers started to get dripped on by leaks in the roofs. Workers at theses centers either didn't understand or didn't care that this was bad for the computers.
By this point news of the problems with the elections system started making its way into the press. Most of the articles didn't talk about the cause of the problems, but simply blamed the major technology company for "delays" in the deployment of the system. Eventually news of the problems made its way to the executive management of the company. Finally, the CEO of the company made a decision. No matter what the cost, even if it meant a loss on this project, the major technology company would fix the problems and complete the project on schedule. This meant hiring a temp. agency to hire qualified replacement workers for the data entry. This meant repairing and sealing the roofs at the regional center. This meant a lot of many spent by the technology company on non-technology solutions. The project did get completed, but at a significant loss to the company.
What did this teach us about Project Management? Well, for one, make sure that the contract spells out the responsibility of both parties and make sure both parties understand these responsibilities.
I was planning on profiling the presidential candidates over the last few weeks, but a lack of daily internet and a lack of good information has been hampering my efforts. Today I'll instead focus on a trend I have noticed over the last week around the Mexican Presidential elections.
A couple of days ago I was talking with on of my friends who owns a Mac retailer in Mexico City and Guadalajara. He mentioned that sales to professionals and businesses had dropped off in the last few months because of a weakening Mexican economy. He put the blame for the economy square on the sholders of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) the candidate for the leftist Partido de la Revolución Democrática and either the leader or 2nd place candidate in most opinin polls. Businesses fear that a AMLO win in July will mean socialist government reforms and possible state ownership in key industries. Whether this perception is justified doesn't seem to matter, it is affecting business and my friend was worried. AMLO seems to have also lost some credibility with voters after skipping the first presidential debate on April 25th.
Today the Associated Press reported on a poll conducted accross Mexico which indicated that 50% of Mexicans fear that the government is loosing control. In April, the heads of two police officers were posted outside of a government office in what many believe was retaliation for the death of four narco-terrorists in January. This is only the most visible sign in a highly violent battle between the government and drug cartels.
The EZLN (or Zapatistas) have been increasingly vocal and angry over the death of a teenager in clashes with police officers in San Salvador Atenco on May 3. Violence also erupted in late April in a dispute between steelworkers and police when the government tried to stop a strike in Lazaro Cardenas.
Increasing tension is seen to help the traditional leadership party of the PRI and thier candidate Roberto Madrazo and hurt both front runners AMLO and Felipe Calderon of the ruling PAN party. President Fox's (also of the PAN) government has been taking a lot of blame as of late for the escalating violence with unions (a traditional PRI alley), leftist groups and narco-terrorists.
In my last entry on Mexican Politics I mentioned that I wouldn't be expressing my personal opinions about any of the candidates in the Mexican Presidential elections this year. The reason for this is that the Mexican Constitution of 1917 forbids it.
"Foreigners may not in any way participate in the political affairs of the country." - Chapter III, Article 33
Now, the chances that someone who could enforce this would actually read my blog are next to none, but I respect the idea of this part of the Mexican constitution, so I will be acting as a reporter and not trying to influence anybody about Mexican political affairs. I also ask that those commenting on this blog refrain from expressing their opinion about Mexican politics, unless they are Mexican citizens.
This small part of the Constitution has become a important political issues this year.
In February former conservative prime minister of Spain, José María Aznar came to Mexico City to meet with PAN officials and publicly endorsed Felipe Calderón and warned the mexican electorate against AMLO. This was a pretty clear violation of Article 33, but so far, there has been no repercussion for either Aznar or the PAN. (Reference: Mexican Campaign Turns Dirty as López Obrador Stretches his Lead)
Recently the PAN has been running advertisements comparing AMLO to leftist president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez. Chávez had a diplomatic spat with President Fox and was quoted as saying to Fox "not to mess with me or you will come out pricked with thorns." The PAN has been showing this Chávez quote in TV advertisements and then immediately showing video of AMLO telling Fox "Shut up, Mr. President, shut up, chachalaca." Chachalaca is a somewhat rare bird in Mexico that is known for squawking a lot. The ads are designed to associate Chávez and AMLO in the minds upper and middle class voters in the hopes they will vote for the conservative PAN candidate Calderón. These ads have been condemned by Chávez who said, "the Mexican right is using television spots . . . to try and stop the rise of the Mexican left and of its presidential candidate." This prompted the PAN to call for an investigation as to whether Chávez's comments violated Article 33. Also, the PAN has called for an investigation as to whether the Venezualan's governments gift of free eye surgery to the Mexican poor violates Article 33. Finally, the PAN has alleged that Chávez's government has been directly providing financial assistance to AMLO. No proof of this last charge has ever been presented in public. (References: Venezuelan aid offer sparks controversy in Mexico; Calderón calls for probe; Mexican president race gets negative)
Next time: Andrés Manuel López Obrador; a profile.
I'm a born political nut, so the natural thing for me to do when I get someplace new is to learn as much as I can about the local political scene. Although I learned a bit about the Mexican political system in college, it has been a while and a lot has changed in Mexican politics. Also this year is a presidential election year in Mexico, and potentially one of the most important in recent history. So over the next few months leading up to the July 2nd general election I will be writing bi-weekly (or more often) about what is happening in Mexican presidential politics. Megan will chime in from time to time as well, I suspect. Although I am a pretty opinionated person, you won't see my personal feelings about any of the candidates or parties in this election (for reasons I will go into in my next entry).
Because I am aware that most Americans aren't very familiar with the Mexican political system, I am going to write today about the recent history of Mexican presidential politics, the three main parties and their candidates for president.
The last 80 years of Mexican politics has been dominated by one party, the Partido Revolucionario Institucional or Instutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). From 1929 till 2000 they held the presidency and even since 2000 they have had a majority of the representatives in the national assembly and the state governerships. This party was created after the turmoil of the revolution to act as a unifying political fource to stabilize a political system in upheval. It did so with such precision (and corruption) that it became in many respects the party of the state for the next 70 years. This parties reign was marked by very competent and popular presidents, but also marred by corrupt, wasteful and incompetent presidents. While they guaranteed their relection in nearly every office of importance accross the country, during the 60's & 70's the popularity of the party began to decrease in parts of the country and especially amongh the educated youth. One of the turning points in the support of the PRI was the horrible massacre of students at Tlatelco in Mexico City prior to the 1968 Mexico City Olympics.
In the years that followed the PRI leadership slowly started to open up the process to allow minimum participation from other parties. During the early 90's the PRI began creating a semi-independent electorial governance body to ensure more fair and free elections that were open to any party. The PRI candidate for the 2006 elections is Roberto Madrazo and in most polls he is currently running in last place.
In most recent presidential election the PRI were dealt a defeat by their long running opposistion party the Partido Acción Nacional or National Action Party (PAN). In this election, the PAN's Vincente Fox won the presidency with promises widespread change and an end to PRI dominance. The foundation of the PAN dates back to the end of the Christero War in which the Mexican government defeated catholic insurgents in the late 1920s. At the end of the war Catholic leaders wanted to pursue peaceful political means to oppose the revolutionary government and the conservative PAN was the answer. For many years the PAN held no elected offices, but portrayed itself as the moral opposistion to the PRI. As the political process opened up in the late 20th century, the PAN began to elect more representatives in the national assembly and to the governerships of more conservative states. Jalisco, the state in which Guadalajara is located, is currently under the leadership of a PAN governer and pro-PAN sentiment is strong here. In the last 10 years (or so) the PAN has also started to focus on representing big business interest in Mexico as well as the liberalization of trade laws (such as NAFTA and the WTO agreements). More and more the PAN is begining to look similiar to the Republican Party in the United States. During his term Vincente Fox created a completely independent electoral commision that should insure fair elections. Since the Mexican president is constitutionally limited to one 6 year term, Vincente Fox cannot run for reelection. The PAN has selected Felipe Calderón as its presidential candidate and he is currently running 2nd in most polls.
The newest of the major Mexican political parties is the Partido de la Revolución Democrática or the Party of the Democratic Revolution. This party was formed in 1989 in the wake of the loss of left wing presidential candidate Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas in the presidential 1988 election. Cárdenas' loss to PRI candidate Carlos Salinas was contraversial because of various suspected frauds on the part of the PRI. The largest of this was a suspicious outage of the election computer system in the late hours of election night. When the system was repaired the next day, Salinas had defied expectations and had won. Cárdenas and some other leaders of the left formed the PRD shortly after this loss, calling it the party of the 6 de Julio (the date of the 1988 election). Cárdenas again ran for president in 2000, but this time lost in the uncontested election of the PAN's Fox. This year the PRD has nominated former Mexico City mayor Andrés Manuel López Obrador or AMLO and he is currently leading most polls. AMLO is considered the political sucessor to Cárdenas, although recently Cárdenas has distanced himself from AMLO.
Next time: Prohibited foreign influence and the 2006 election