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Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War!
Fox triumps in Mexico
71 years of PRI toppled
07/03/2000
By Alfredo Corchado and Laurence Iliff / The Dallas Morning News
MEXICO CITY – Maverick politician Vicente Fox ended the ruling party's
71-year grip on Mexico Sunday, winning the presidency by awakening hopes in
Mexicans weary of economic crises, corruption and a growing crime wave.
More election news
This story: En español
New leader promises
reform | En español
Audio: Exclusive interview
with Fox (Requires free RealPlayer 7)
Obstacles anger border
voters | En español
Voting in Chiapas relatively
calm | En español
Dallas residents say they're
hopeful
Video from khou.com
(Requires free RealPlayer 7)
Election photos
Exit poll results
Mr. Fox, of the center-right National Action Party, or PAN, faced not just
the ruling party's world-famous political machine but a divided opposition in
his 12-year political quest to make history in Mexico.
Shortly after 11 p.m. local time, President Ernesto Zedillo congratulated Mr.
Fox on his victory and promised to work closely with his successor to ensure
Mexico's first ever peaceful transition of power.
"The next president of the Republic will be Vicente Fox," said Mr. Zedillo,
whose Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, has ruled since 1929.
With 87 percent of the official count tallied early Monday, Fox had 43.4
percent and Francisco Labastida of the ruling party had 35.2 percent.
Preliminary turnout was a record 65 percent.
Mr. Fox, the former Coca-Cola executive and Guanajuato governor, was
comfortably ahead of PRI candidate Francisco Labastida, who conceded shortly
after the Mexican president acknowledged the ruling party's loss.
"The citizens have taken a decision that we should all respect," said Mr.
Labastida, in humbly conceding defeat. "I'll set the example."
In the first interview given to a news organization, Mr. Fox told The Dallas
Morning News that after Sunday's celebration – which came on his 58th
birthday – he would begin preparing for the transition that will take place
Dec. 1.
"This is historic and this is great for Mexico," he said. "This is the change
we have all been waiting for. And the challenge starts today."
He said he would meet Mr. Zedillo on Monday.
"We will work very closely with President Zedillo and certainly take all the
advice and the experience that exists in his government," he said. "We're
sure that we will work with harmony on all matters and we will keep and
continue advancing governmental programs and start to put together next
year's budget."
Asked about his relationship with the United States, Mr. Fox said:
"Fortunately, I do have a deep knowledge of the philosophy, the thinking of
the U.S. people. I'm looking forward with enthusiasm and excitement to the
future we can build. We are neighbors, we are friends, we must be partners.
We must have a common future, according to development, to jobs, to better
income, to good quality of life.
"And I'm absolutely convinced that through working together, through NAFTA
and through other institutions that we can build up for the future and make
sure that the two countries can win, win, win."
The polling firm Mitofsky International gave Mr. Fox a lead of 44 percent to
Mr. Labastida's 38 percent. And in a distant third was leftist leader
Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, running for a third time, with 16 percent.
A separate exit poll sponsored by the U.S. bipartisan group Democracy Watch
also gave Mr. Fox a 6-percentage-point margin over his nearest rival. A third
sponsored by Mexico's National Chamber of Radio and Television gave Mr. Fox
43 percent to Mr. Labastida's 34 percent.
And a "quick count" of results at a representative sample of polling places
sponsored by the nation's highest electoral authority, the independent
Federal Electoral Institute, put Mr. Fox at 46 percent to Mr. Labastida's 37
percent.
"Should these tendencies be confirmed, it would be an end of an era," said
Televisa anchorman JoaquÃn Lopez Doriga. "It would be an expression of a new
Mexico."
On hearing the exit poll numbers, thousands of well-wishers surrounding the
PAN headquarters in Mexico City began chanting "We won, we won, this one is
for Mexico."
Thousands of Mexico City residents poured into the streets around campaign
headquarters and began gathering around the Angel of Independence, a national
monument in the capital, where they danced, cheered and celebrated the end of
71 years of PRI rule. Cars honked their horns in rhythmic unison, while
pedestrians waved Mexican flags or the white and blue colors of the PAN.
"This is something beautiful!" exclaimed Arturo Gómez, 46, who owns a
plastics factory in Mexico City. "After 71 years, it's about time."
PAN officials set up loudspeakers and a dais, where a party was expected to
last most of the night. In an election night irony, most of the intersection
around the Angel was decorated with huge plastic banners of Mr. Labastida,
which were promptly torn down, stomped on and ripped apart.
"This is the change we want for our children," said Dr. Lourdes Bustamante
Gallo, 31, a physician from the nearby state of Mexico. "We want our children
to grow up in a free country.''
The apparent victory for the opposition may signal a new beginning for a
country that has lived with the same political party, through good and bad
times, since 1929, during the administration of President Herbert Hoover.
For many Mexicans, the unthinkable has happened, a milestone that some have
likened to the fall of the Berlin Wall or the end of apartheid in South
Africa.
For others, the winner in Sunday's election was a nation hungry for democracy.
"I've seen a lot of changes in this country but none as great as the changes
I saw today," said former Texas Gov. Ann Richards, who was in Mexico City as
an electoral observer for the National Democratic Institute, the
international wing of the Democratic Party. "To see democracy in action in
Mexico on voting day is an amazing thing."
Mr. Labastida and Mr. Fox had been in a statistical tie in several polls
before the election, and several political analysts said that a heavy voter
turnout could help Mr. Fox.
Given the tight race and Mexico's history of vote fraud, thousands of Mexican
and foreign election observers closely monitored the process.
As many as 60 minor incidents were reported at polling places, with some
foreign observers reporting that desperate ruling party chieftains in the big
prize states, such as the state of Mexico, were seen hovering over voters,
coaxing them on who to vote for.
The stakes for Mexico's nearly 100 million people couldn't be higher,
analysts said.
The ruling power has held the presidency since the Mexican Revolution and
oversaw rapid economic growth in the 1950s and 1960s. But the last 25 years
have been full of economic crises linked to the presidential succession. The
last, in 1994, was the worst economic slowdown in 60 years.
"The elderly want the PRI because they still have memories of the 'Mexican
miracle,'" said political analyst Primitivo RodrÃguez. "Young people want
change because they are the children of crises. They are searching for a new
horizon."
Half of all registered voters are under 35 years old, with 6 million new
voters since the last presidential election in 1994.
The stakes were high not just for Mexico but for its northern neighbor as
well.
"I think what happens in Mexico is extraordinarily important for the United
States," said former Secretary of State of James Baker, head of the
International Republican Institute foreign observer delegation. "It's
obviously for Texas, but it's also important for the United States. What
we're seeing here is progress toward liberation, opening up the Mexican
political system."
About the high voter turnout, Mr. Baker remarked, "We could learn some
lessons in the United States."
Mexico City businessman Costi Curi, 47, wasn't surprised at the turnout. He,
along with his wife, son and daughter-in-law, waited nearly 90 minutes in
line. All voted for Mr. Fox.
"This is our moment in history," Mr. Curi said. "We vote today and shut up
for the next six years. If you don't vote you can't complaint about the final
outcome."
He added: "We want our new leaders to reflect the love we have for this
country. We want them to love and care about Mexico like we do. That's the
change we want."
As in 1994, the major complaints had to do with balloting places designed for
out-of-town voters, given that Mexico doesn't allow absentee balloting. By
noon, many of these polling stations were out of the limited number of
ballots they are allowed to have by law.
Screams of "We want to vote, we want to vote" and "Vi-cen-te," referring to
Mr. Fox, echoed from some plazas.
Other complaints were the all-too-familiar cries of vote coercion.
"We wished the process would have been cleaner," said Luz Rosales, president
of Citizens' Movement for Democracy. "But old tricks are hard to die."
Ms. Rosales said her organization, with 300 offices nationwide, had some 50
observers documenting incidents that were forwarded to the Federal Electoral
Institute, or IFE. The most troubled areas were in Guerrero, Oaxaca and the
State of Mexico, Ms. Rosales said.
For instance, just hours before the polls opened, Ms. Rosales said PRI
operatives were passing out free fertilizer in exchange for PRI votes. Others
were reminding voters that if they voted against the PRI, public works
projects in their communities would come to a halt.
During the electoral process, some voters, unable to read or write, would
depend on PRI officials to tell them how and who to cast their ballots for.
"I think all these irregularities will be magnified if the results are razor
thin," said Eric Olson, an observer and director of the Mexico Program for
the Washington Office on Latin America. "Suddenly, this becomes significant
if the final results are razor thin, like 1 percent or so."
In Chiapas, home of the Zapatista Indian rebels, voters were casting ballots
under blue skies and air of tranquillity – with no violence and little
evidence of the balloting shenanigans that have marred past elections there.
Chiapas was of special interest to observers Sunday. About 1,633 Mexican and
foreign observers were registered by election officials in a state burdened
by an ongoing struggle between the government and Zapatista rebels. In 1994
ballot boxes were burned and fights broke out at some polling stations.
Likewise, in central Mexico, the mood was generally calm, with many voters
expressing confidence that this time their vote will make a difference.
Whether that meant Mexico was on the brink of change, meaning the end of the
71-year-old PRI, or ready to try its first opposition government varied.
In many ways, it was an exercise that reflected two vastly different visions
of Mexico, with youthful and urban voters favoring Mr. Fox and older, rural
voters sticking with Mr. Labastida, opinion polls before election day showed.
Martha Chávez and her husband, Horacio Chávez Fernández, walked out of a
polling place in Mexico City's middle-class Del Valle neighborhood confident
that a nation often fearful of change would be pretty much the same on Monday.
Both 70, the couple voted for Mr. Labastida because "he represents safe
change," Mr. Chávez said. "The change that the opposition represents is
uncertain, unpredictable. They talk a lot, but what have they done?"
His wife added: "Yes, the PRI has made mistakes, but our country continues to
move forward. Change isn't easy. It takes time."
Time, however, is what 24 year-old Eduardo Carbajal feels is slipping away.
"The PRI has been in power for 71 years. We need change now. It's now or
never."
In 1994, Mr. Carbajal voted for Mr. Cárdenas. This time, however, Mr.
Carbajal went with Mr. Fox, "because he shares our anger, and our passion for
a new country."
In the Mexico City slum of Chalco, more than a decade of promises to turn
dirt streets and makeshift homes into a dignified neighborhood ended last
month when a canal overran its banks and raw sewage rose as high as six feet.
Pointing to water marks on their homes, voters on Sunday said they were in a
payback mood.
"I cannot believe that anyone here would vote for the government party," said
Antonio Velasco López, 56, a maintenance worker at the National University.
"All that sewage completely changed the way we think."
The Federal Electoral Institute will not announce final results until
Wednesday, although more than 95 percent of ballots should be counted by
Monday.
In Ecatepec, a key electoral battleground on the northern border with Mexico
City, the age-old influence of the PRI was apparent, although support for
opposition candidates was palpable.
At a nearby polling place, Juan Carlos López and his wife, Teresa Valdéz,
initially said they had voted for the PRI. Mr. López, a 45-year-old telephone
technician, even provided an eloquent explanation of why, saying Mexico needs
the stability and continuity that only Mr. Labastida offers.
But as the crowd thinned, Ms. Valdéz, 35, who also works for the phone
company, whispered the truth: "We didn't really vote for the PRI. We just had
to say that because there were a lot of people standing around. We really
voted for the PAN. The PAN offers hope."
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