Three million more poor in three years

What a damning indictment of PAN and Calderón's social and economic policies: According to CONEVAL, there are now 3.2 million poor in Mexico when compared with 2008. Mexico's indigenous are particularly hard hit:

Of the indigenous population, 40.5% have nutritional deficiencies, exacerbated by their condition of marginality and exclusion.

See CONEVAL's full report here.

Josefina Vázquez Mota is running, much like Calderón in 2006, on a campaign of continuity with PAN's policies. For the poor of Mexico, that is a terrible choice.

Disturbing updated figures on rise of poverty in Mexico

Mexico's CONEVAL (Consejo Nacional de Evaluación de la Política de Desarrollo Social) is as official as it gets, and it is in its name: The National Council of the Evaluation of Social Development Policy. It's recent figures on the massive rise in poverty in Mexico are therefore all the more damning, and credible:

There are now at least 52 million poor in Mexico, out of which 11.7 live in extreme poverty.
In percent, poverty went up from 44.5 percent of the population to 46.2 percent in 2010 - more than three million more poor.

And this is real poverty: The number of people who can't even cover sufficiently their daily nutritional needs went from 23.8 to 28 million.

Peña Nieto's Mexico State came out worst, with biggest rise of those in extreme poverty - 200,000 more in these two years - with PRI-led Veracruz and PAN-led Guanajuato close behind.

Calderón's answer to the CONEVAL report was chiefly to blame the international crisis: "It was out of our hands."

The challenges of reforestation and the Pro Árbol tree-planting program

A nice graphic from Milenio on the extent of Mexico´s forests:

The newspaper reptorts, using data from CONEVAL (Consejo Nacional de Evaluación de la Política de Desarrollo Social), that the ambitious Pro Árbol tree-planting program of Felipe Calderón (expanded from that of Vicente Fox and of Ernesto Zedillo before him) have had a survival rate of only 55 percent, while in 12 states, the program has had no success at all. Notably, 50 percent of all deforestation is happening in only four states: Campeche, Quintana Roo, Yucatán and Chiapas.

While depressing figures, given its 5-billion pesos in spending, this is actually better than earlier reports from some NGOs that suggested even lower numbers. Moreover, the survival rate is increasing: It is up from 46 % in 2005, and only 28% in 2001.

Mexican reforestation has been touted internationally as a success story, yet clearly huge challenges remains.