Thread: Fox expresses concern over Rice's remarks on Mexican politic

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexi ... -rice.html

Fox expresses concern over Rice's remarks on Mexican political system


By Will Weissert
ASSOCIATED PRESS

9:00 a.m. September 27, 2006

MEXICO CITY – The office of President Vicente Fox on Wednesday took offense at U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's suggestion that Mexico looks ready to embrace bipartisan politics, saying it wasn't up to her to voice such opinions publicly.

In a Monday interview with The Wall Street Journal's editorial board, Rice said “It appears Mexicans wish to get back to reality” after a disputed July 2 presidential election that deeply divided the country along class lines.

“Mexico has come through this crisis and I think it's been a real vote of confidence in the Mexican democratic system, which after all, is relatively – it's just now maturing in a kind of two-party system,” Rice said.

Fox spokesman Ruben Aguilar said Wednesday that “we shouldn't be surprised that other countries salute Mexican institutions” after an election international observers largely described as clean and fair.

But he added that Rice's comments about a two-party system were difficult for Mexico to swallow.

“This country's plurality of parties reflects our democratic maturation,” he said during his daily briefing with reporters at Los Pinos, the Mexican equivalent of the White House. “We don't agree with the declaration of the secretary of state because, in accordance with the constitution of Mexico's political system, it's only up to Mexicans themselves to voice those opinions.”

The Institutional Revolutionary Party controlled Mexico's presidency from 1929 until a stunning loss to Fox in 2000. But the country has three major political parties – and a string of smaller parties – that hold seats in its two houses of Congress.

Former Energy Secretary Felipe Calderon, of Fox's conservative, pro-business National Action Party, was declared the winner of the July 2 election by about 0.6 percent of the more than 41 million ballots cast. But that decision came only after the nation's highest court weighed thousands of challenges to voting filed by Calderon and the candidate who came in second, leftist, former Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, widely seen as the voice of the poor.

Aguilar wouldn't say if Mexico planned to lodge an official complaint with Washington. When pressed, he said “there are a lot of ways to communicate with the State Department every day. A lot of ways to express the different things that happen between Mexico and the United States.”

Mexican presidents are limited by the constitution to a single, six-year term and Fox leaves office Dec. 1.

Lopez Obrador's supporters say electoral fraud and improper funding from the Fox administration and business interests swayed the presidential election in favor of Calderon. They set up a massive protest camp in the heart of Mexico City for weeks, blocking streets and hurting businesses and tourism.

After the Federal Electoral Tribunal officially declared Calderon president-elect on Sept. 5, Lopez Obrador supporters thronged Mexico City's central plaza by the hundreds of thousands to declare their candidate president of a parallel government.

During the Wall Street Journal interview, Rice indirectly endorsed Calderon, saying Mexico “had a very close election where the loser – you know, admittedly, the good guy won in a sense, but the loser wanted to take it to the streets.”

“And he got,” she said, “it looks like he's gotten encircled and contained.”

Aren't we being a little hypocritical president Fox? You are continually meddling, prodding and lobbying in US politics, calling Americans racists for wanting our immigration laws enforeced, and now you take offense to something that one of our politicians said? How typical of the arrogance you and your people show.

Not only that, but from what I can tell from the article, Rice's statements hardly rose to the level of needing to lodge some kind of "formal complaint." Geez, these guys are really thin-skinned.

During the Wall Street Journal interview, Rice indirectly endorsed Calderon, saying Mexico “had a very close election where the loser – you know, admittedly, the good guy won in a sense, but the loser wanted to take it to the streets.”

"the good guy won" is a matter of opinion. Yes, Calderon is the good guy if you think illegal aliens should be given amnesty, if you support NAFTA, CAFTA, open borders, and a big Mexican nose in U.S. business and politics.

“We don't agree with the declaration of the secretary of state because, in accordance with the constitution of Mexico's political system, it's only up to Mexicans themselves to voice those opinions.”

SO WHAT? Your Constitution is not binding here, Jackass. There needs to be some drug testing in Mexican government methinks.