Mexico's new president is being sworn in Saturday, and Enrique Pena Nieto inherits a country with a mixed record.
Most of Mexico is embroiled in a deadly drug war that has claimed the lives of as many as 50,000 people, but Pena Nieto is also taking over an economy that is doing surprisingly well, many say thanks to the outgoing head of state.
In his final days in office, now former President Felipe Calderon kept a low profile. He did announce he's taking a job at Harvard, and posted a farewell video on the president's official website.
Sitting behind his desk, his hair a little thinner and waistline wider than when he took office 6 years ago, Calderon writes a letter of thanks to the Mexican people.
The somber mood of the video seems at times apologetic, but in the select few interviews Calderon has given he staunchly defends his decision to go after the narco-traffickers with the full might of the country's military.
Unfortunately, the brutal violence and high death toll of that strategy will be Calderon's legacy.
That's unfortunate, says George Grayson, an expert on Mexico at the College of William and Mary. He says expectations were so high when Calderon took office, but he failed to tackle the tough issues facing the country.
"It turned out that he was unimaginative [and] that he surrounded himself with sycophants," Grayson says. "He never really configured a consistent strategy to fight the cartels."
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