VZCZCXRO8007
RR RUEHCD RUEHGD RUEHHO RUEHMC RUEHNG RUEHNL RUEHRD RUEHRS RUEHTM
DE RUEHME #3342/01 3152321
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 102321Z NOV 08
FM AMEMBASSY MEXICO
TO RUEHXC/ALL US CONSULATES IN MEXICO COLLECTIVE
RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3936
INFO RHEHAAA/NSC WASHINGTON DC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHINGTON DC
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHINGTON DC
RHMFISS/CDR USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL
RHMFIUU/HQ USNORTHCOM
RUEAHLA/DEPT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 MEXICO 003342 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM SNAR KCRM MX
SUBJECT: CALDERON NAMES FERNANDO FRANCISCO GOMEZ MONT NEW 
SECRETARY OF GOVERNMENT. 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Summary:  In an early morning press conference 
November 10, President Calderon named Fernando Francisco 
Gomez Mont to replace Juan Camilo Mouri$o, who perished in 
last weekQ,s jet crash in Mexico City.   Gomez Mont is hailed 
by many in his party as a solid pick, who will help knit PAN 
together as a cohesive party while advancing president 
CalderonQ,s political and security agenda.  Some 
commentators, however, immediately questioned whether baggage 
he accumulated as a private lawyer might undermine his 
effectiveness.  End Summary. 
 
¶2.  (SBU)  Son of one of the partyQ,s founders, Gomez Mont is 
a longtime PAN activist who has managed to keep a low 
political profile while taking on high profile legal cases. 
He became an active PAN partisan as an adolescent shortly 
after his fatherQ,s death.  In the early 1990s, he was a 
Federal Deputy, a party representative in MexicoQ,s Federal 
Electoral Institute and a member of the PAN Central 
Committee.  He left that post in 1995 to found his own law 
firm.    His prior work in the party and government suggest a 
technocratic and reformist bent: while in congress in the 
early 1990s, he worked legal reform issues, authoring several 
criminal law and public security reform bills.   He was also 
instrumental in crafting a reform of how Mexican Supreme 
Court justices were selected in 1994, giving MexicoQ,s Senate 
responsibility for choosing among a slate of three candidates 
presented by the President. 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  Analysts contacted by poloffs on November 10 said 
they expected him to carve out a prominent role advancing 
CalderonQ,s reform package in Congress, drawing heavily on 
his own expertise and that of recently appointed presidential 
domestic security advisor, Jorge Tello. 
 
¶4.  (SBU)  Our contacts also agreed the pick was probably 
also designed to bring the party in the advent of legislative 
elections next year.   While it is not wracked by the kind of 
intense factionalism that has undermined the opposition PRD 
in recent months, PAN remains a party divided.  The 
replacement of former party president Manuel Espino by 
Calderon loyalist German Martinez has not galvanized the 
party faithful so far.  Recent electoral losses have 
accentuated party bickering to the extent that President 
Calderon used a party memorial to Mouri$o on November 9 as an 
occasion to chastise PAN members for their divisions. 
 
¶5.  (SBU)  Gomez Mont is in his mid-forties but close to a 
PAN generation that Fox had antagonized during his term and 
Calderon had ignored up until now.  It is comprised of 
old-guard PANistas who feel they've been disrespected by 
upstarts in recent years after building the party base in the 
 1980s and 1990s and positioning it for victory in 2000. 
They represent a fairly sizable block in the party and their 
support is needed if PAN is to pull together and minimize 
further electoral losses in the near term. 
 
¶6.  (SBU)  Some observers here noted the widespread business 
interests he has accumulated over his years in private 
practice, as well as his reputation for representing 
controversial clients may undermine his overall 
effectiveness.  The new SEGOB defended Carlos and Raul 
Salinas, as well as Rogelio Montemeyor, an ex-director of 
PEMEX who was implicated in the misuse of union funds in the 
late 1990s.   One analyst we spoke with said while his 
business ties and client list wonQ,t undermine his 
effectiveness among members of Mexico's political class he'll 
need to work with as SEGOB, they may subject him to a certain 
amount of second-guessing in the media. 
 
¶7.  (SBU)  Most say Gomez MontQ,s cross-party ties will serve 
him well.    He developed strong PRI contact base as a legal 
reform advisor to President Ernesto Zedillo in the late 
1990s, and he works well with mainstream PRD members, said 
one of our contacts.   Most important, he harbors no 
presidential ambitions (at least at this juncture) and won't 
likely draw the fire that Mouri$o did from elements in the 
political class seeking to weaken possible competitors well 
before 2012. 
 
¶8.  (SBU)  Comment:   Calderon obviously wants a smart, but 
detached party loyalist to sharpen the legal and law 
enforcement reform; Gomez Mont's ability to reach out across 
cross-party ties to get things done suggest he may also serve 
as an effective politico who can work congress and issues 
 
MEXICO 00003342  002 OF 002 
 
 
related to upcoming legislative elections. 
 
 
 
Visit Mexico City's Classified Web Site at 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/mexicocity and the North American 
Partnership Blog at http://www.intelink.gov/communities/state/nap / 
GARZA