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Fox chides legislators for investigating wife
BY SERGIO JIMÉNEZ AND JORGE TEHER�N/EL UNIVERSAL
El Universal
Lunes 25 de julio de 2005
Nuestro mundo, página 1


President Vicente Fox on Sunday lashed out at legislators over what he said were unfair attacks on his wife, First Lady Marta Sahagún, and her family.
Fox singled out for criticism Congresswoman Martha LucÃÂ*a Micher, who is currently heading a legislative investigation into abuse of influence by the first lady's three sons.

Sahagún's sons, from a prior marriage, have been accused of amassing fortunes by taking advantage of government financing for construction projects.

The president also accused legislators Victoria Eugenia Méndez and Yolanda González of not doing their jobs and of spreading false information. The two congresswomen have accused Sahagún of vastly overspending public funds on her clothing budget.

Micher, Méndez and González, said the president, "were elected by the people to work for Mexico, not to waste time nor to try to deceive the public. To those three, I say that they should dedicate themselves to doing what they are supposed to do, and what they are paid to do."

Speaking to reporters at his ranch in San Cristóbal, Guanajuato, Fox said that the legislators had been elected "to solve problems like kidney transplants, water issues, economic development and employment. And that's what they should be doing."

Instead, he said, the women were "purely wasting time" with their investigations and allegations surrounding the first lady.

"I don't know why they were elected," he said. "But now that the public has seen them for what they are, they surely won't elect them again."

González, on a tour of San Luis Potosi state on Sunday, fired back at the president.

"(Fox) seems to forget that the public elected him as well," she said, "and they elected him and not his wife, to whom he delegates official duties."

She said that it was a "shame" that the president was attacking legislators for doing their job.

"These kind of declarations cannot continue," she said of Fox's Sunday attacks, and promised to "analyze" the president's posture with her fellow legislators when Congress reconvenes.