It was back to the future on Dec. 1 when Peña Nieto, 46, took office as Mexico’s new President. His inauguration restored his Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) to power after a 12-year hiatus—and it gives him and his new guard the chance to prove that the party, which ruled as a corrupt, one-party dictatorship from 1929 to 2000, has modernized itself enough to modernize Mexico. Peña Nieto’s countrymen are counting on him to do no less than rein in their awful narco-violence, revive the Mesoamerican giant’s anemic economy and regain its leadership role in Latin America.