Changes

Change is always interesting, no?  This is an election year for us, too, and there are changes afoot.  Our new mayor has been in place about a month or so.  Detractors were saying that since he owned restaurants and hotels in Centro, Centro would get all the funding, but he has proved them wrong.

The base of the statue in the center of our local roundabout (glorieta) is being reworked, involving a more substantial base, surround, and plantings.  The dividers in the streets leading up to the glorieta have been given a new landscape scheme that is much grander and lusher than the few trees and gravel of the previous administration.  They even resurrected the old statues for the glorieta on the east side of town and put them back in place, removing the (some would say) ugly replacements of the previous administration.

They're now working on the sidewalks between our glorieta and downtown.  The sidewalks had been in disrepair ever since we arrived in town.  Now old, broken sections are being removed and new, level and smooth sections poured. - a major improvement as far as we're concerned as we walk nearly everywhere.

It's nice to see good things happening again.  And I understand that they've found a way to tap UNESCO World Heritage site funding for at least part of this work - funding that went unused by the previous administration.

The change in president has gone less well.  The PRI party ruled Mexico for 70 years until they were turned out by a different party 12 years ago (our president sits for a single term of 6 years).  Well, PRI is back and some people are not happy about it.  There were demonstrations last night (the oath of office is given at midnight) from opposition parties.  Sr. Pietro Niento faced problems even getting into the Congress building to take the oath.  Banners were hung by the opposition on the building, taunting the new administration.  Political analysts said that there is no new PRI party; just new faces.  The old regime was known for ruling with handouts, underhanded deals, and rigged elections.  Although the new president is promising an open, transparent government, the new Secretary of the Interior (who is responsible for security in the country) is an old hand from the past regime known for wheeling and dealing.  Does nothing ever change?  We hope it does this time!

With the change in administration, the expats in town are awaiting possible changes to the new immigration laws.  The federal government just changed them last year and finally got the regulations for interpreting the new laws published a few weeks ago.  Now we have to see what the change in administration may bring.  We're just getting the new laws/regulations sorted out; hope any changes from above are minor - and in our favor.... 

[This is not a political post and the writer takes no position on the history or current occurrences in this, our fair, adopted country.]