Mexico's incoming president Enrique Pena Nieto named his cabinet Friday, picking close advisors for key posts managing the drug war and the economy on the eve of his inauguration.
Pena Nieto takes the oath of office on Saturday, marking the return of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) after a 12-year absence from the presidency. The PRI ruled Mexico for most of the 20th century.
His 20-member cabinet includes only three women, a few left-leaning independents and one holdover from the administration of outgoing President Felipe Calderon of the conservative National Action Party (PAN).
The cabinet was presented by Miguel Angel Osorio Chong, a 48-year-old former Hidalgo state governor and friend of Pena Nieto's who will become interior minister, one of the most high-profile jobs.
Pena Nieto wants to bestow more powers to the interior ministry, giving it the responsibility of coordinating a drug war that has left more than 60,000 people dead in the last six years.
The congress, however, must still approve changes that will transfer the responsibilities of the public security ministry, including the scandal-plagued federal police, to the interior ministry.
Until then, the security ministry will be overseen by a deputy minister, Manuel Mondragon, the left-leaning chief of Mexico City police.
The new finance minister will be Luis Videgaray, a 44-year-old economist who is considered the "brain" of the new president's circle. Videgaray managed Pena Nieto's campaign and headed the transition team.
His tasks will include steering structural reforms that the next president wants to implement in order to boost the economy.
Pena Nieto also brought on board Calderon's finance minister, 43-year-old Jose Antonio Meade, who will become foreign minister, handling ties with the world, notably the United States, Mexico's neighbor and drug war partner.
Another top member of the law and order team, the attorney general, will be Jesus Murillo Karam, a former state governor who will oversee prosecution in a country where only one percent of crimes end in conviction, according to the National Human Rights Commission.
PRI leader Pedro Joaquin Coldwell, a former tourism minister, will take the energy portfolio, a key job as Pena Nieto aims to open the country's oil monopoly, Pemex, to more foreign investment.
General Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda, a former military attache at Mexico's embassy in Tokyo, will head the defense ministry. (AFP)
