Vicente Fox

Vicente Fox Quesada
72nd President of Mexico
In office December 1, 2000 – December 1, 2006
Preceded by	Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León
Personal details
Born	July 2, 1942 Mexico City, Mexico
Political party	National Action Party
Spouse	Marta Sahagun

Vicente Fox Quesada (born July 2, 1942) is the current President of Mexico. He was elected in the 2000 presidential election, a historically significant election that made him the first president elected from an opposition party since Francisco Madero in 1910. His current term runs through 2006, after which he has said he will retire from political life—re-election is not possible under the Constitution of Mexico.

Early life

Vicente Fox was born in Mexico City to a middle class Mexican family of mixed Spanish-Irish descent (his father Jose Luis Fox was of Irish descent and his mother from the province of Asturias in Spain). As a young child his family moved to San Francisco del Rincon in Guanajuato where he spent his childhood and his adolescence. He moved back to Mexico City to attend the Universidad Iberoamericana where he got a Business degree. He has attended seminars put on by the Harvard Business School. After the end of his formal education he went to work for The Coca-Cola Company where he started as a route supervisor and drove a delivery truck. He rose in the company to become supervisor of Coca-Cola's operations in Mexico, and then in all of Latin America.

Early political career

Fox joined the Christian Democratic and conservative National Action Party (PAN) in the 1980s by invitation of Manuel J. Clouthier, a distinguished member of the party, who was also an entrepreneur and presidential candidate in 1988. In that year, Fox was elected to the Chamber of Deputies (the lower house of Congress) representing León, Guanajuato. He ran for governor of Guanajuato in 1991, in a disputed election where Ramón Aguirre Velázquez, of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) was declared the winner; however, the political climate forced behind-the-scenes negotiations with President Carlos Salinas, and the governorship was given to Carlos Medina Plascencia of the PAN on an interim basis. Claiming the governorship should have been his, since he was the candidate, Fox abstained from political activity for the rest of Salinas's term.

Fox with Laura Bush, Marta Sahagún, and George W. Bush, Crawford, Texas, March 5, 2004

At the end of Salinas' term, the 82nd article of the Mexican constitution was modified to allow Mexicans born to a non-Mexican parent to run for the presidency. This change was interpreted by some to favor some of the PRI's politicians. Fox, whose mother is Spanish, became eligibile for the presidency.

In 1995 Fox again ran for the governorship of his state. This time he won by an indisputably wide margin and took office. His term as governor in Guanajuato was uneventful; his policy was to promote private investments and government efficiency and transparency.

Presidential candidacy

In 1997, three years before the presidential election, Fox declared his candidacy. He was met with skepticism because he was mostly an unknown figure in national politics. Even party colleagues suggested his lack of experience would inhibit him from even competing for the candidacy. But, by using his governorship to promote his image, he quickly rose to the national scene where he claimed he was an honest, experienced entrepreneur, and a citizen more than a politician (the general opinion of politicians in Mexico is very poor).

Although he made several mistakes during the early stages of the campaign, such as instances when he directly confronted prominent figures from his own party like Diego Fernández de Cevallos, his cavalier approach paid off. When 1999 came he was too popular for his party (PAN) to consider a different candidate, even when it was thought Fox was more foxista than panista (representing himself as an individual more than as a representative of the party). Fox was nominated and chosen with little opposition as the PAN's presidential candidate for 2000.

Presidency

After an aggressive campaign, Fox won the presidential election on July 2, 2000 (coincidentally his birthday) with 43% of the popular vote, defeating the PRI's candidate Francisco Labastida (interior minister under Zedillo). This made Vicente Fox the first opposition candidate to win a Presidential Election since the Mexican Revolution. In December he assumed the presidency.

Fox found himself with a minority in Congress, dominated by parties he had portrayed as either ineffective or corrupt. He lacked the full support of the PAN because his candidacy was driven more by his popularity than the internal support of his party. He also managed to infuriate some members of Congress within the first minute of his term when, immediately after being sworn as president and donning the presidential band, he began his inaugural speech by first greeting his sons and daughters by name and then addressing the Congress, breaking with the ceremonial protocol.

As President, Fox began to fight the long standing corruption within the federal government, he limited his power to the Constitutional limits and granted more power to the state and municipal governments. In the international framework he gave priority to subjects such as international commerce, economic integration, migratory policies, and human rights, as well as fighting against drug trafficking. On September, 2001, the National Endowment for Democracy granted him the Democracy Award 2001 and pointed him as a “hero of democracy”.

However, some of Fox's promises weren't fulfilled, most notably his assurances of ensuring annual economic growth of 7% and his promise to "solve the Chiapas problem in fifteen minutes", referring to the EZLN anti-globalization movement, hinting he would make peace with them. In the EZLN's case he turned the requested constitutional changes to Congress as mandated by law. Congress heard an EZLN representative, but chose a constitutional reform contrary to the interests of the EZLN. The 7% growth has been re-interpreted to be applied across the full six-year term. As of 2005, it appears unlikely that Fox will achieve any of these goals before the end of his term in 2006.

His popularity remained strong for the first year, but by the 2003 mid-term elections his party had lost several positions. The sweeping changes he proposed were seen as unpractical: dismantling the existing bureaucratic structure, which Fox depicted as corrupt and inefficient, could have meant unemployment, government paralysis and costly retraining, as well as union opposition.

Fox included in his cabinet many officials from previous governments (not necessarily priístas) and also from the other opposition party, the Partido de la Revolución Democrática (PRD). A PAN official half-jokingly wondered aloud whether Fox considered having a PAN member in his government -he had none at the beginning. Many of the cabinet members were selected by a team of headhunters and the resulting cabinet was called el gabinetazo (roughly, the "super-cabinet"); many were entrepreneurs or successful businesspeople.

The first real problem Fox had was the so-called "Toallagate" by the press, involved the purchase of expensive 4000 pesos ( roughly 400 dollars) towels (toallas) for the official residency (Los Pinos). The incident, occurring only shortly after his inauguration, lead to the resignation of one of Fox's most trusted aides.

Early 2005 was difficult for Fox. On December 31, 2004, the brother of escaped drug lord Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán was murdered in the maximum-security prison La Palma that houses many drug dealers but also notable kidnappers and murderers. In January 2005 an unprecedented operation by the Mexican army lay siege to La Palma (and later the other maximum-security prisons of the country). It turned out that drug dealers had taken control of the prison and ran their affairs (even ordering the murder of their enemies) from inside the prison. The government described the whole operation as "regaining control" of the prisons. The apparently exaggerated presence of the army (they even dug trenches) was decided when the government knew a full scale assault to free the drug lords in La Palma was about to take place, including ground-to-ground missiles and aircraft to make good their escape.

Relations with Congress

Fox's appearance in (opposition controlled) Congress to give his annual state of the union report in 2004, as mandated by Constitution, was met with heavy expressions of discomfort: interruptions, signs, photographs of AMLO (Andrés Manuel López Obrador) and so on. The signs of disaffection lasted throughout the duration of the speech. Fox, having made similar protests when he was in Congress against the current president, was unable to criticize or denounce the behavior. The political class acted as if Fox's term was about to end, two years before it did, openly discussing who would succeed him. Felipe Calderón, PAN president at the time, launched his candidacy in public, supported by one of PAN's state governors. He resigned under pressure (but won the candidacy in 2005).

The probable reasons for the discord between the President and the Congress are several. President Fox has publicly encouraged communication between Congress and him but has often criticized it before the press. Cuban president Fidel Castro also released a phone conversation between him and Fox in which Fox told him, "you eat and then leave" ("Comes y te vas") after a United Nations gathering in the northern city of Monterrey, Nuevo León, so as not to offend US President George W. Bush with Castro's presence. The finding of the recording enraged politicians of the left who sent a group of Congressmen to offer an apology to Castro in Cuba. Fox has often promised foreign investors opening the state-controlled industries of electricity generation and oil production to private investment. Congress won't pass legislation on the matter, and Fox has on some occasions openly criticized them when addressing the nation in special messages transmitted in television prime time. Opponents and conspiracy theorists often claim the supposed and unsourced control that the rightist secretive organization of El Yunque supposedly has on the presidency.

In the last annual state of the union in 2006, President Fox was prevented by PRD opposition lawmakers from delivering his speech. He, instead, gave a televised address to the nation. PRD lawmakers did this as a protest against the result of the 2006 election, and as a protest for the Federal Police protecting the Legislative Palace. However, the decision from sending the police to defend the Palace was done after threats by the PRD of inciting violence inside congress.

Relations with Latin American countries

Vicente Fox had several controversies with Latin American countries such as with president of Argentina, Nestor Kirchner related the FTAA during the 2005 Mar del Plata Summit of the Americas, with president of Chile regarding the new OAS Secretary General election, 2005 ^details and president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez about his theoretical support for the U.S. president George W. Bush.

However, the relations with Chile, Brazil, Costa Rica, and other important Latin American countries are stable and positive. It is to be noted that controversies seem to spring by misunderstandings with countries that have far-left governments, such as Venezuela's Hugo Chávez, or Cuba's Fidel Castro.

The presidential couple

First Lady Marta Sahagún, President Vicente Fox, and First Lady Laura Bush

Exactly a year after his victory in the 2001 election, Fox married his former spokesperson, Marta Sahagún. Critics have on several occasions referred to the President and Sahagún as la pareja presidencial ("the presidential couple"). This nomenclature is inconsistent with the terms of the Mexican Constitution (Art. 80: Supreme executive power is deposited in a single individual, who shall be called 'The President of the United Mexican States'). Therefore, critics advance the nomenclature as an indication of Sahagún's own political – even presidential – ambitions. The presence of Marta Sahagún in Mexican politics was even a subject of ridicule; she was often suspected as the real power-holder behind the president while Mexican custom traditionally requires that the wife of the president to abstain from behind-the-scene political powers. In fact, even the title "First Lady" does not officially exist, and the wives of previous presidents usually had a low profile, with little or no involvement in government affairs, except being honorary heads of the DIF, a government institute for family and childhood welfare.

These supposed political ambitions, which Sahagún never addressed directly, were the cause of much controversy. They were fueled by some spending and funding scandals, like the one discovered in 2004 by the British publication Financial Times in which it is accused that her philanthropic foundation, Vamos Mexico, received indirect funding from the government's Lotería Nacional (The "National Lottery" organizes lottery and gambling which are almost exclusive by the governmental and educational institutions). This caused a congressional probe, and then Fox's private secretary publicly quit, stating in an open letter he did not agree with the way Fox supported the political ambitions of his wife. A few days later Fox announced a new general director for the National Lottery.

By the middle of July 2004 the pressure was so great President Fox assured the press both he and Martha would go home after ending his term, and announced his wife would give a press conference about that. That press conference was delayed once, but finally, after one week, Marta Sahagún announced she would not run for the presidential office.

Fox candidates

Fox supported several of his closest collaborators in different elections, but all of them failed:

1. Santiago Creel, his Interior Secretary, lost the presidential candidacy against Felipe Calderón.
2. Javier Usabiaga Arroyo, Secretary of Agriculture, lost the Guanajuato state PAN candidacy
3. Rubén Mendoza Ayala plummeted to last place in the Mexico State election after leading the polls
4. Luis Ernesto Derbez ran for head of the Organization of American States, and was forced to compromise and desist his candidacy, after many voting rounds that ended in ties.

The Day of Democracy

In 2005, in the midst of the 2005 Mexican elections, President Fox and his supporters organized a celebration of the "Day of Democracy". All opposition parties and even the independent Federal Electoral Institute requested Fox to abstain from the event, which would take place on July 2, a day before the state election of the State of Mexico (the largest in the country in number of voters) and Nayarit. President Fox, his spokesperson and the PAN argued that such event was not illegal since it was independent of party-affiliation. The event took place as it was planned but the attendance was much less than anticipated and the PAN lost both elections by a significant margin.

Legacy

Fox's term has been marked by an unprecedented economic stability and by a democratic atmosphere that is new to Mexico. Fox's term will be remembered for being the first of an opposition party in modern times. However, critics consider that his administration would be primarly remembered for the many controversies that clouded his term, and for, what they consider, is following the steps of previous governments (most notably previous president Zedillo) but doing little of its own. This opinion is disputed, as supporters argue that many innovative actions where done during Fox's administration.

The Index of perception of corruption of Mexico has been decreasing during his government. Also, according to the World Economic Forum, the competitiveness ranking of Mexico fell from number 48 to 55 from 2004 to 2005. The World Trade Organization has, however, indicated that the reason for this is Congress opposition to pass reforms proposed by Fox.

Economy

President Vicente Fox has favoured a contractionist economic policy that favors financial stability over inflationary growth. As a consequence, it has produced mixed results, and so analysts are not in agreement about the quality of his achievements.

Supporters, both domestic and from overseas, commend President Fox for producing the lowest inflation in decades, which was also single-digit, a novelty in Mexico. This has allowed that, while many other countries in the rest of the world suffered a steep economic decline, Mexico was able to keep growing, though at a slower pace.

This slower pace of growth is criticized by opponents, particularly from the left, who argue that it has produced a loss of jobs (180,000 jobs lost from 2000 to 2005) . This criticism is serious, for President Fox had promised one million jobs created year-to-year. Most serious are the comparisons that the PRI makes when comparing to previous Presidents; they note that Zedillo had created many jobs, while Fox didn't. Supporters answer to this accusations by pointing the grave economic depression of Mexico's trading partners, particularly the United States, and how this has an important influence in Mexican economy. Supporters argue that Zedillo had a favorable US economy, and Fox didn't. International analysts agree that without Fox's policies, the job loss would have been much worse, and none of the other economic achievements would have been possible.

These other achievements include a better exchange rate policy, the lowest inflation rate in decades, the "Oportunidades" welfare program, a stable economic growth, and the reduction of poverty.

The peso/dollar exhange rate had been marked in the past by unstability that caused economic depressions. President Fox has managed to keep the exchange rate at $11 pesos per dollar throughout his presidency, through pressures such as a control of expenditure and an increase in the national reserves (in dollars). The national reserves have hit record highs since Fox is President. It is to be said that in Mexico, exchange rates are determined by free market, and so the federal government has no direct control over it (like previous presidents had), and so Fox has managed to achieve a stable exchange rate through indirect methods. Critics over this policy come from prominent Mexican businessmen who seek a higher exchange rate so that imports from other countries would have a disadvantage over their products to compete. Fox has constantly ignored such criticism, claiming that a stable exchange rate favors the buying power of the average Mexican.

Another achievement is his program "Oportunidades", a federally funded social assistanceship program. This has been his most praised social program. Critics argue that Oportunidades (spanish for oportunities) is just the continuation of previous social programs (such as Zedillo's Progresa, or Salinas's Solidaridad), however the differences are substantial enough to earn a praise that the others never had. The most notable differences are in the targeting areas. Previous programs where famous for targeting beneficiaries by meeting a political and electoral agenda. Vicente Fox and his Social Development secretary created failsafes to prevent the program to be used politically, and to target only those living in extreme poverty. Another difference is the philosophy of the program. While previous programs where strictly assitanceship programs that gave wealth to people without any other purpose, "Oportunidades" is an assistanceship program that favors the creating of economic opportunities for beneficiaries to carry their own progress by themselves.

His inflation control has also been praised. President Fox has delivered the lowest, single digit, inflation in decades. In the 1980s, Mexico had suffered of hyperinflation, and since 1993 the inflation rate had usually been double-digit, but since Fox the inflation has been of 4% in average. This has been achieved through control in government spending and a contractionary policy that is heavily critiziced. However, it has created a stability in prices and investor confidence that has resulted in record-highs in the Mexican Stock Exchange [1]. Further, this inflationary policy has produced the lowest interests rates for credit in decades, and the construction industry has benefited from the largest housing program in history, resulting in a sprawl of new homes nationwide.

Because of the stability that his inflation policy provides, President Fox has, incorrectly, called his economic policy "growth with stability". This was a policy of Mexican presidents between 1958 and 1970 where they achieved economic growth of approximately 6% [2]. However, such policies included a strong control of the exchange rate through direct government intervention, internal market orientation (instead of open market globalization), and heavy investment in government owned companies. Because of this, Fox's economic policies do not qualify as "growth with stability". Poverty has decreased dramatically during President Vicente Fox's government. Income has grown from 2000 to 2006 an average 26% [3]. However, lower incomes have grown much more than higher incomes, and so critics point to the middle class to deny any reduction in poverty.

Because the economic policy of President Fox is contractionary, and mostly because of the fierce competition of other countries such as China, Brazil, Poland, and India, Mexico has left its spot among the ten largest economies of the world to become the number 13th (see List of countries by GDP (PPP)). This is seen by critics as an indication of a worsening economy, ignoring the competitive advantages of the surpassing countries. However, it is to be noted that when measuring GDP per capita, Mexico is the third largest mainland Americas economy per capita, surpassed in the continent only by the United States and Canada. (see List of countries by GDP (PPP) per capita).

Foreign Policy

Before Vicente Fox, Mexico had a Foreign Policy "doctrine" known as the Doctrina Estrada (Estrada Doctrine, so named after its creator, Genaro Estrada). The Doctrina Estrada was a foreign policy directorate that favored an enclosed view of sovereignty. It claimed that foreign governments should not judge, for good or bad, governments or changes in governments in other nations, because it would imply a breach to its sovereignty. [4]

This doctrine is still widely accepted among Mexican intellectuals. However, it had earned its criticism as an excuse by then dictatorial Mexican regimes to avoid any sort of criticism. It was a "don't judge me and I won't judge you" implicit agreement.

US President George W. Bush, Fox and Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper stand in front of the Chichen Itza Archaeological Ruins Thursday, March 30, 2006.

President Fox appointed intellectual Jorge Castañeda to be his Secretary of Foreign Affairs. Castañeda immediately broke with the Estrada Doctrine, promoting what was called by critics the "Castañeda Doctrine". [5]

The new foreign policy called for an openess and an acceptance of criticism from the international community, and the increase of Mexican involvement in Foreign Affairs. Mexico actively sought (and gained) a temporary position in the UN Security Council. Mexico also hosted many International Summits, and assumed a more proactive foreign policy, with actions such as criticizing Cuba, and eventually, Venezuela.

In the Monterrey Summit of 2001, which ended in the adoption of the Monterrey Consensus, President Fox and his Foreign Relations cabinet were protagonists of one of the most serious diplomatic scandals of his administration. For the Summit, many heads of State where invited to the International Conference on Financing for Development, including Cuban President Fidel Castro. However, he surprisingly stood and said that he was leaving the city because the Mexican government had asked him to on behalf of the United States.

The Mexican government denied any pressure to make Castro leave. However, a few days later, Cuba released to the Mexican press a recording of a telephone call between Castro and Fox in which the latter asked Castro to leave Monterrey before President George W. Bush arrived to the summit. President Fox used the expression "comes y te vas" (spanish for 'you eat, and then you leave', which means that he just wanted Castro to show up to say that he showed up, but didn't really wanted him to remain at all). The incident generated criticism for President Fox, and exposed Castro for his lack of ethics in International Relations.

Another major controversy in Mexican Foreign Policy came in 2003, when Mexico voted in the UN Security Council against a War in Iraq. This started a period of tension with the United States that lasted about a year.

The Mexican opposition, who still believe that the Estrada Doctrine had been one of the most important intellectual contributions of Mexico to the world, were angered almost daily by Castañeda's Foreign Policy. Castañeda was then removed and replaced by Ernesto Derbez. However, the abandonment of the Estrada Doctrine continued throughout Fox presidency.

In November 2005 Fox criticized the Mercosur members: (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay), along with Venezuela, for not agreeing to discuss the FTAA (Free Trade Agreement of the Americas). Since these countries feel there are differences that do not benefit them (particularly, the United States agricultural subsidies), these countries refused to discuss any agreement. Mexico's position on the issue is also of criticism against the US's subsidies.

Hugo Chávez then started a series of insults against the Mexican President, including calling him "a puppy of the empire." The Mexico-Venezuela diplomatic relationship reached a record low, with both countries retiring their ambassadors. Mexico demanded an apology for Chávez's attitude, but an explicit, public apology never came.

Border control is a huge problem at the northern part of the U.S.-Mexico border, and many are displeased that Fox and the Mexican administration is not doing enough to help the U.S. However, the Mexican government has implemented an aggressive plan to stop illegal immigration from Central and South America with transit through Mexico. Thousands of illegal immigrants to Mexico are detained and repatriated each month.

Housing

There are other important improvements that can be attributed to Fox: the reform of the national housing system, INFONAVIT, originally meant to facilitate the buying of houses by workers using long-term lending against their salary. In practice it was affected by corruption at every level; during Fox's term the INFONAVIT became more efficient, increasing the number of homes bought by workers to an all-time record.

An average of 1000 houses a day were handed over to their new owners through the INFONAVIT, an organization that by law receives 5% of whatever employers pay to their employees. This institution came to existence in the mid 1970s. However, the funds were not fully used for their legal purpose until Fox's regime. In the past, a rather discretional use had been applied to the funds instead of using them for the building of homes for the labor force of the country.

Fox's administration also changed many operating procedures from INFONAVIT. In the past, the institution would build and administer the sales and credit of the houses. Now, the building of the houses and the administration of sales has been moved to free market, in which many companies build houses and compete for INFONAVIT funds. This also means that beneficiaries can chose their new home and the neighborhood they want to live in, incentivating companies to build homes in mass and creating ever more socially agreeable neighborhoods. The houses built for INFONAVIT are almost exclusively of the "social interest" class, which is a low income home made of concrete or cement in a very reduced space (40 to 70 square meters). Currently, there is a program to study the possibility of building larger homes using wood. If the results of the study are positive and the program is taken into effect, it would allow for cheaper and bigger houses for low income families who only have access to housing through INFONAVIT.

Health

Another creation of the Fox administration is the national system of medical insurance (Seguro Popular, "People's Insurance") covering families, consisting mostly of self-employed and part-time workers, left out of existing systems. For a small fee calculated against their socio-economical level a whole family can be insured against common maladies and events like pregnancies. Initially criticized for giving only a limited coverage and requiring a fee (though all government insurance schemes require one), it is the first that addressed a long-forgotten part of the population. Some time later its coverage was expanded to include cancer and cataracts for vulnerable groups (children and senior citizens).

Law enforcement

Also, more than 35,000 persons related to drug traffic and cartels' activities have been imprisoned during Fox's administration. The amount represents several times the number of detainees imprisoned during at least two previous presidential periods. However, several dangerous prisoners have escaped, such as Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán former leader of the Sinaloa cartel. Moreover, some Northern states, like Tamaulipas and Sinaloa, are in the middle of a crime war. Analysts concur in pointing that this crime war is a result of criminal rings reacting to the efficiency of the government in detaining organized criminals.

In 2006 Mexico's government attempted to find a way to decriminalize possession of small quantities of illicit drugs, including crack cocaine, heroin, and meth, while stiffening penalties for dealing. The president's spokesman said that the law "allows better action and better coordination in the fight against drug dealing." [6] [7] However, Fox sent the legislation back, asking that the decriminalization be removed. [8]

Employment

Before his election as president, Fox's campaign promised to provide every Mexican a job in Mexico. In practice Fox has relied highly on a border migration policy with the USA as a way to provide Mexican workers with the means of survival. The border migration policy has become the centerpiece of bilateral relations with the USA and a priority for the government of Mexico. Fox is an enthusiastic advocate for opening the border to permit free flow of people between both countries. His most recent request to the US was the creation of a Guest Worker Plan that according to Fox would provide increased security to the USA "The best thing that can happen to both our countries is to have an orderly flow, a controlled flow, of migration to the United States. [9]

See also

• List of national leaders

External links

• Template:Es icon Personal site
• Template:Es icon Office of the President of Mexico site
• Template:En icon CNN: Mexican leader criticized for comment on blacks