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BAY AREA
Mexico's politics come to U.S.
Audiences get taste of intense fight for country's presidency
- Tyche Hendricks, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 24, 2006



Mexico's hotly contested presidential race may boil down to competing economic policies, and Bay Area audiences got a close look at the three parties' platforms in two debates Monday.

The leading candidate for the July presidential election would backpedal from Mexico's recent free-market tactics and give the state a stronger hand in the country's economy, according to a representative for the left-leaning Democratic Revolutionary Party of candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador, speaking in a debate at Santa Clara University.

Campaigning outside Mexico is barred by Mexican law, so representatives of the three major parties are touring California this week instead of the candidates themselves.

After appearing in Santa Clara on Monday afternoon and before the World Affairs Council in San Francisco in the evening, they will participate in three more debates -- in Los Angeles, Santa Ana and San Diego -- today and Wednesday.

Though all three Mexican party representatives vowed to maintain good relations with the United States, none had a ready solution to the issue of illegal immigration, which has overshadowed the U.S.-Mexico relationship.

Mexican citizens living outside their country can vote in Mexican elections for the first time this year. An estimated 6 million Mexicans live in the United States illegally, accounting for more than half the undocumented immigrants here. Almost 5 million Mexican citizens live in the United States legally.

The election, which could transform U.S.-Mexico relations if López Obrador's party, known as the PRD, wins as expected, kicked into gear with the official start of campaigning last week.

If elected, López Obrador will join the growing ranks of democratically elected leftist leaders in Latin America: Venezuela's Hugo Chávez, Brazil's Luis "Lula" Ignacio da Silva, Argentina's Nestor Kirchner, newly elected Chilean president Michelle Bachelet and Bolivian president Evo Morales, who was sworn in Sunday. But the PRD's approach to immigration, as explained by the congressman speaking on the party's behalf, may be the most popular among American voters and politicians.

Several polls showed López Obrador maintaining a lead of 6 to 12 percentage points over his nearest rival, Felipe Calderón of outgoing President Vicente Fox's party, the center-right National Action Party, or PAN.

Roberto Madrazo, the candidate of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which governed Mexico for 70 years until its leader was defeated in 2000 by Fox, is in third place.

All three candidates want the United States to grant illegal immigrants legal status -- PAN representative Hector Osuna, a senator from Baja California, called it a human rights issue. And they said the United States should open more legal avenues for Mexicans to work here.

Despite an amiable meeting on immigration in early 2001 with President Bush, Fox did not succeed in reaching an accord with the United States, largely because U.S. security concerns raised by the 2001 terrorist attacks trumped efforts to open the flow of immigration.

But PAN's Osuna said the growing urgency of the situation would mean that PAN likely will have better success next term.

"Reality will catch up, no matter who is in power," he said. "Building walls will only isolate the United States; it's not the way to go."

In contrast, PRI representative Roberta Lajous, a former ambassador, said her party would take a more incremental approach than Fox has.

"This government said they wanted 'the whole enchilada,' and they got nothing," she said.

Her party's focus on economic growth and eliminating inequality in Mexico would reduce migration to the United States, she said.

Juan José GarcÃÂ*a Ochoa, a PRD congressman who is speaking for his party, said López Obrador would take a more pragmatic approach to immigration reform, working with the United States on improving border security and arguing that reducing illegal immigration through worker visas will save the U.S. money on border enforcement in the long run.

All three party representatives voiced a commitment to ending corruption in Mexico and strengthening an open and accountable government. And all agreed Mexico needs to reform its tax system, and improve public education and economic growth. But the three parted ways on how to achieve growth and how to manage it.

"Mexico started its democratic transition several years ago, but many people believe deeper change is needed in Mexico," GarcÃÂ*a Ochoa said. "Half of the population still lives in poverty."

GarcÃÂ*a Ochoa said López Obrador has experience building a social safety net for the residents of Mexico City, where he is mayor of 19 percent of the nation's people. He said López Obrador has called for a 10 percent increase in health, education and welfare spending and for greater public investment in energy, agriculture and building the nation's infrastructure.

By contrast, the PAN's Osuna said the state should get out of the way.

"The motor of the economy should be the people of Mexico, not the government," said Osuna, who said his candidate favors a flat tax, simplified regulations on business, and more private investment in the energy sector, which is currently owned by the state.

GarcÃÂ*a Ochoa said PRD would try to limit NAFTA. But the PRI's Lajous said her party represented a centrist path that would combine economic liberalization and a commitment to social justice.

"We negotiated NAFTA, and we are committed to NAFTA," she said, of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement. But she added, "We have to fight inequality. That is still the greatest burden on our shoulders."

E-mail Tyche Hendricks at thendricks@sfchronicle.com.