Fox vs. Chavez
December 12, 2007
Alvaro Vargas Llosa



SAN CRISTOBAL RANCH, Mexico—Vicente Fox is defying that old Mexican tradition by which presidents become nonentities once they leave office. As Fox’s recent tour of the United States to promote his autobiography indicates, this former Mexican president is speaking out and building a front to stop Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez from spreading his revolution.

Although Fox presided over an admirable transition from the one-party era of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) to multiparty democracy, he was unwilling to push through a series of unpopular but necessary reforms during his single term as president. Now the fire in his belly is back.

I recently spent a day with Fox at his family’s San Cristobal Ranch in Guanajuato state, where he is building a huge center that will serve as a think tank, cultural venue, library and consulting firm. He is enlisting the help of former Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso and former Chilean President Ricardo Lagos for his campaign in favor of the rule of law and the market economy.

“Latin America lost the 20th century miserably,â€