Thread: Mexican president expects to prevail over organized crime

www.ledger-enquirer.com

Posted on Tue, Aug. 16, 2005



Mexican president expects to prevail over organized crime

BY LENNOX SAMUELS
The Dallas Morning News

ABOARD MEXICO'S PRESIDENTIAL PLANE - (KRT) - President Vicente Fox on Tuesday rejected suggestions that he has lost the upper hand in the fight against organized crime and vigorously defended his almost 5-year-old administration, saying it has brought "a plenitude of freedom" to Mexico.

Fox cited accomplishments that he said include the strongest economy in the country's history, the largest monetary reserve, reduced unemployment, improvements in education, health care and social services, and above all the introduction of full democracy in Mexico.

He said that crime driven by drug trafficking is "a great challenge" for Mexico and the United States and that it could get worse before it gets better.

"Most of our situation derives from narco-trafficking, production and consumption," Fox said in a candid interview with The Dallas Morning News en route to the cities of Hermosillo and Tijuana to inaugurate transportation projects.

But that situation only "describes this moment," he said, and he expects his government to prevail in its continuing face-off with drug cartels, which have been terrorizing parts of the country, notably Nuevo Laredo, across the border from Texas.

"Why are we having all these homicides and all these crimes on the streets?" he asked. "Why? Because we've been winning this campaign. The more we destroy the production of drugs, the more we catch drugs in transit ... the more they are desperate and challenging the authorities.

"Now that this is happening, we are doubling our efforts. We are in a very strong strategic drive. We will accomplish our objectives."

He said the drugs and violence issue was a shared burden for the United States and Mexico and noted, "I think we have a very strong, good relationship with President Bush's government. We have a great relationship based on trust."

Fox acknowledged that a chorus of critics has attacked his government, charging that it has gotten little done.

"I have a product to sell that I have not been able to sell in Mexico. I need to convey the message that people should look for information and digest it. That's the difficulty I'm having," he said. "I do accept that the message is not getting out."

He said Mexicans are "enjoying absolute freedom" after 71 years of authoritarian rule - including, he said, freedom of the press that means "everybody can speak loudly and can criticize the president, the first lady" and others.

Fox said Mexico has to build on that democracy but indicated he is limited by political reality.

"I have to say I'm a minority government," he said. "I don't have a majority in either the lower house or the Senate."

Fox said he expects that the next president, to be chosen in July, also will operate a minority government.

"I don't think the winner will get more than 40 percent of the vote," said Fox, who was elected in 2000 with 42 percent of the vote.

Critics, including some U.S. officials, have expressed disappointment with Fox's inability to push reforms and other programs, including overhauling the judicial and energy systems, through Mexico's Congress. The country shares a 2,000-mile border with the United States and is a key strategic partner. The countries have been trying to reach an immigration accord for years. Many Mexicans survive on remittances, estimated at up to $16 billion a year, that they receive from relatives in the United States.

Fox said critics fail to look at other improvements, including "an economy that is growing for the first time in decades."

He said that the economy is the 10th largest in the world and that the unemployment rate, at 3.7 percent, is low even compared with the United States and Europe. But he added that Mexico does not have enough jobs and that the pace of creating new jobs is slow.

Hundreds of thousands of Mexicans leave for the United States each year in search of jobs, and many "employed" Mexicans work in the informal economy of sidewalk vendors and windshield scrubbers.

"An economy has to have a human face, and that has been our priority - to reduce poverty and improve distribution of income," Fox said.

The government, he said, has reduced the poverty rate by 30 percent in four years and added thousands of people to social security rolls, subsidizing the poorest families. His administration also has dramatically improved access to education, he said, noting that "we have coverage; the challenge is quality of education."

Public education is free, and the government has awarded scholarships to 5.6 million children, he said.

"This should be reducing significantly migration in the years to come," Fox said. "Kids will be in school instead of (going to) the United States.

"In Mexico, any kid that puts his part of the effort, he can reach university. No matter how poor his family is. That's a big, big change."

Critics of the Fox government, including presidential candidate and former Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrado, say that Fox's claims are exaggerated and that half of Mexicans remain poor.

Fox said the government would install 175,000 electronic blackboards that are digital and interactive in every fifth- and sixth-grade classroom in the country.

"This is a big step forward to a standard, high-quality education," he said. "This is a revolutionary change in education in Mexico."

He added that his administration is investing $20 billion in building 600,000 homes this year, a number that should jump to 750,000 in 2006.

"This government is absolutely recognized as the housing government," Fox said, adding, "A program like this can only work when you have a stable economy.

"That's my message to all of Latin America. Stability pays off. Economic discipline pays off. Budgetary discipline pays off. Not having deficits pays off."

Asked whether he is concerned that a new president, perhaps from the former ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, might reverse the democratic gains that he has spearheaded, Fox said, "Democracy is exactly that. Anybody can win."

Rather than concern himself with who might win, the president said he is focusing on making sure there will be a good transition.

"My only preoccupation is that we go through this election with full stability. That's why we are pre-paying all foreign debt and ensuring economic equilibrium. There will be no crisis, no devaluation, no problems like we had in the past," he said.

As for any backsliding on democracy, Fox said he does not expect populism or authoritarianism to prevail.

"The last 10 years show where Mexico should go. If Mexico can keep on developing through stability, good government, transparency and rule of law ... that's all we need and that's what we're going to get."

ABOARD MEXICO'S PRESIDENTIAL PLANE

Which is nicknamed "The Open Borders Express."

V. Fox says the next 10 yrs. will show where Mexico will go???!!!

Go where? HERE....

WE might as well go down and take all of Central America, make it a part of the US and start taxing all of them....let them pay, like we do.

And, of course, no one believes that Mexico is benefitting in any way from all the drugs that cross the border.

RR

Vincente Fox typically produces so much meaningless hot air when he speaks, he is regularly invited to Balloon Festivals. Tell us what you've done so far Vinny? Nada? I thought so.