PAN back in power at Tijuana City Hall
Political transition is in the air—and not only at the White House. Tijuana City Hall is in the midst of its own changing-of-the-guard as Mexico’s National Action Party prepares its return after a six-year absence.
A veteran party member, Juan Manuel Gastelum launches his three-year mayoral term on Dec. 1, and on Friday expects to announce his new public safety secretary and other top municipal appointments.
With a population of about 1.8 million residents, Tijuana is far from the quiet town that Gastelum knew growing up in the 1950s and 1960s. A range of big-city challenges now await the 62-year-old attorney as he gets set to take office: reducing crime, building up infrastructure, addressing the needs of migrants and deportees, and the politically difficult task of following up on the bus rapid transit system launched this week by Jorge Astiazarán, the city’s outgoing mayor.
Gastelum is taking the helm after two consecutive mayoral administrations headed by Mexico’s ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, the PRI. He will be the first Tijuana mayor eligible to run for reelection under a Baja California constitutional reform that eliminated a longstanding rule that mayors cannot succeed themselves in office.
Gastelum is both politically and personally close to Baja California’s governor, Francisco Vega de Lamadrid, a friendship that dates to their high school days.
Gastelum is no neophyte to public office. He has served as state legislator, federal legislator and president of the PAN in Tijuana. From December 2000 to February 2001, he was acting mayor of the city.
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http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/border-baja-california/sd-me-pan-tijuana-20161121-story.html