Fighting Mexico's Mariana Image

...Fox departed from previous policy as well in approving the amnesty law passed by the Oaxaca State Congress...

...Its target areas are the marginal regions of Mexico's Southeast and, according to Sojo, "especially Chiapas...

...Guillermo Ramirez, director of the Economic Faculty at Mexico's National Autonomous University, thinks "the new government will have a very difficult time living up to its promises...

...The defense counsel protested that Lopez was never furnished with a translator...

...But with Fox it has been different...

...But Navarrete stopped short of advocating that Pascoe be expelled from the party...

...Eduardo Sojo, a presidential coordinator for the Public Policy Office, has announced that the government and a group of investors are launching a program called March to the South...

...Ramirez doubts that the Fox Administration can achieve its professed aim of helping the poor while it cuts public spending and reduces inflation...

...The most recent danger sign was a split among PRD leaders over a choice by Ricardo Pascoe, one-time right-hand man to party presidential candidate Cuauhtemoc Cardenas...

...The human rights activists who oppose his Cabinet appointment claim he failed to heed recommendations from the National Human Rights Commission that he take action against several military commanders accused of torture and executions...

...Again, the new government appears to be responsive...

...With Vicente Fox in the Saddle Fighting Mexico's Mañana Image By Addison De Witt Mexico City THAT OLD CHESTNUT about Mexico being the land of manana is particularly galling to the man who recently became his country's 63rd president...

...The h-word was uttered 26 times during his speech when taking office and 43 times in an address to Congress...

...Fox visited the border cities of Ciudad Juarez and Nuevo Laredo, too...

...Mexicans tend to be wary about selfappointed redeemers...

...Unlike politicos of the past, who derided Mexican-Americans as malinchistas, "gringoized" traitors to their culture and heritage, he has energetically courted U. S. citizens or residents of Mexican origin...

...Whatever their feelings about Macedo, human rights and anticorruption advocates have taken heart from two other "initiatives": the so-called Paisano Program to protect Mexican-Americans from extortion by corrupt border officials, and an amnesty law in the Southern state of Oaxaca...

...For one thing, his victory signaled the end of a 71 -year party dictatorship whose longevity exceeded even that of the CPUSSR...

...In one of the strongest statements in his inaugural address, Salazar directly accused the PRI state government of "permitting and encouraging a surge of anti-Zapatista vandalism...

...Laudicina predicts that it will show "real exuberance about Mexico...

...The committee also declared that his experience as a military jurist will be valuable in his new post...

...In an interview with a Mexico City daily, Laudicina said the Council's interest in Fox began because of his skill in using "efficient business practices to meet the social needs of a large state in Mexico...

...Party President Dulce Maria Sauri seems to be trying to find a middle road, declaring that "we want neither a minimalist nor a paternalist state...

...Hoy, hoy, hoy" shouted Fox—with such emphasis that the words became a slogan among his supporters...

...A hardliner nicknamed "the tractor," Albores strongly advocated a military solution to the Zapatista insurgency...

...José O'Farrill, a political commentator and member of Mexico's most prominent journalistic family, expressed the hope that the new Administration will press the Guerrero State Congress to adopt an amnesty measure...

...Macedo strongly denies any intention to militarize the PGR...

...Though some of his subordinates have military backgrounds, he insisted that "they will have no exceptional duties because the important positions will be filled by prestigious civilian lawyers with a vast professional background...

...Since the ambushers were masked, how could anyone be sure one of them was Gutierrez...

...Macedo, who is both a lawyer and an Army general, was the Military Justice prosecutor before being named to his present post...

...The Council is made up of international CEOs, opinion molders and government officials who focus on the effects of globalization on geopolitical, economic, technological, and social change...

...At a preliminary meeting on May 23,2000, the date set for the second nationally televised debate, Fox' two main presidential opponents, Francisco Labastida of the then dominant Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and Cuauhtemoc Cardenas of the moderate Leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), seemed to be hedging and trying to set up an alternate date...

...Moreover, while PAN has a slight edge in the Senate, the Chamber of Deputies is in effect evenly split between the two parties, and PRI holds almost a 2-1 edge in governorships...

...His weapon for attacking the poverty, crime and pollution that plague this megalopolis, he says, will be money saved by hacking away large chunks of official blubber...

...On December 5, just four days after taking office, he sent an Indigenous Rights Bill to Congress...

...The new Chiapas Governor, Pablo Salazar, exemplifies the new spirit here...

...At this early juncture a prediction for 2006 would be foolhardy...

...A good way to measure Fox' progress and prospects is to study the state of his two major rival parties, the PRD and the PRi...

...Some of the attendees thought Laudicina was joking when he introduced Fox as the next president of Mexico, but by the end of the conference that perception had dramatically changed...

...Fox also helped himselfby changing the longstanding image of his National Action Party (PAN) as mainly devoted to protecting the interests of big business and the Roman Catholic Church...

...In what appears to be a cleansing ritual, PRI has expelled a number of tainted caciques (local bosses) and disowned paramilitaries in Chiapas who style themseives priistas...

...There is no doubt that some of these involved gross human rights violations, such as forced and forged confessions...

...At the same time, the opening initiatives toward ending the conflict in the tortured region have been impressive...

...Sojo also expressed the hope of attracting capital from the United States and Asia...

...Regardless of whethernegotiations with the Zapatistas are successful, Fox plans to make Chiapas part of an economic development zone...

...At a three-day conference back then he described his efforts to create industrial growth, jobs, credit, and other conditions that would enable Guanajuato citizens to help themselves...

...The Council has set up what it calls the FDI Confidence Index (the initials stand for Foreign Direct Investment...

...During a recent press conference he emphasized that he will act as a lawyer, not ageneral...

...While the worst violations have occurred in Chiapas, there is an unhappy nationwide tradition of "disappeared" student activists and murdered journalists and labor leaders...

...The group has had its eye on Fox since 1997, when he was Governor of his native state of Guanajuato...

...The bill is based on an agreement negotiated in 1996 between the former government and the rebels in the Chiapas village of San Andres Larrainzar...

...The goal for 2001 is 20,000 jobs in the fields of textiles, auto parts and coffee and cocoa production...

...Ramirez believes Fox' moves toward trimming the public sector will have a disastrous effect on the poor...

...HUMAN RIGHTS is another area of continuing concern in Mexico...

...Heading the investment team is the powerful Grupo Monterrey, along with industrialists from Coahuila and Tamaulipas...

...Drawing an ominous parallel, he notes that both Hitler and Fox promised their countrymen employment and an economy car, in Germany's case a Volkswagen...

...Addison De Witt is the pseudonym of a freelance journalist who lives in Mexico...

...It is personal and he will have to deal with the consequences...

...Under this no-frills approach top officials will receive a 15 per cent pay cut, and such perks as new cars and trips abroad at city expense will be eliminated...

...We reiterate the party's decision not to participate in Fox' government," he announced...

...PRD controls the Federal District, whose newly-installed Mayor Manuel Lopez Obrador combines populism with austerity...

...Fox' appointment of Rafael Macedo to head the Attorney General's Office (PGR) has displeased a number of human rights organizations...

...Paul Laudicina, Managing Director of the Global Business Policy Council, rejects the view that Fox cannot both alleviate poverty and take the air out of the country's bloated bureaucracy...

...Can PRI reform to the extent of being able to recapture the presidency in a free election...

...However, Macedo was cleared of this charge by a Senate committee onjustice...

...At the press conference Macedo announced he would soon be presenting a "true plan" aimed not only at drug trafficking but at kidnappings and at the street violence that has become an increasing problem...

...Maybe not Fox," he hedges, "but there are people around him...

...Despite these bright predictions, it is precisely in the area of economics that some of the most pessimistic evaluations of the Fox Administration have emerged...

...by hunger, authoritarianism and desperation...

...As if to exorcise the demon for all time, the word hoy— "today"—appears time and again in Vicente Fox' political rhetoric...

...Three guerrilla groups operate in that state and in neighboring Guerrero—the Popular Revolutionary Army, the Popular Independent Army and the Popular Revolutionary Armed Forces...

...The judge, who surely qualifies for a Marie Antoinette award, sniffed that "My maid is Chol and she speaks Spanish very well...

...Yet should Fox stumble, should his fortunes reflect the prognostications of Guillermo Ramirez rather than those of Laudicina and his Council, then it is not too far-fetched to envisage a scenario in which Mexico's not-so-Grand Old Party stages a Dracula-like exit from its political crypt...

...Marcos also insisted on a complete dismantling of the PRi-sponsored paramilitary groups in Chiapas...

...With PRI discredited and bickering, and "no solid political parties, at least for the time being," Ramirez concludes, the vacuum "could lead to totalitarian, fascist levels...

...Where the attitude of Zapatista Subcomandante Marcos toward the Zedillo government had turned to total disdain, he has indicated that a rebel delegation would be willing to go to Mexico City in February and sign a pact expanding the rights not only of Indians in Chiapas but in other parts of the country as well...

...Another captive sentenced for homicide was a Choi Indian, Adolfo Lopez Vazquez, whose Spanish is limited...

...Decentralization also figures in Lopez Obrador's plans, with power and resources to be delegated to the District's 1,352 neighborhood governments...

...Is Ramirez comparing Fox to Hitler...

...To demonstrate that these were not simply empty words, the new government authorized a troop pullback throughout the state and agreed to review 100 cases involving imprisoned Zapatista activists...

...Neither was the judge persuaded by an official of the National Indigenous Institute, who testified that Lopez was incapable of writing and signing the three-page confession attributed to him...

...As for PRI, despite the liberation-ofParis euphoria that greeted the end of its long reign, one has to take into account that the party's defeat, albeit decisive, was hardly overwhelming...

...But that accord foundered on what the Zapatistas and their sympathizers considered the bad faith of the Ernesto Zedillo regime...

...He goes on to say, "I personally believe PAN will lose power in the 2006 presidential election if Fox falls short of his goals...

...His brash statement that he would solve the Chiapas problem in 15 minutes brought him 15 minutes of "fame" that he could well do without...

...Most notorious was the 1997 case of General Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, the highly publicized anti-drug "king" who turned out to be the pawn of a drug cartel...

...Leading by example, Fox traveled to the border crossing community of Nogales and pointedly told agents, "I'm here to personally supervise operations so that no paisano will fall victim to mistreatment, extortion and theft...

...PRD had pledged to have nothing to do with the new Administration, but Pascoe accepted Fox' offer to name him ambassador to Cuba...

...In a characteristically colorful aside, he added that "things go better when the boss is watching...

...Since all three organizations are more violent than the Zapatistas, and none have leaders with the media skills of Marcos, repression against them—and civilians thought to be sympathizers—has been particularly brutal...

...The new Administration's honey-over- vinegar policy seems to be paying off...

...The cruelty of these militias has been legendary, leading to atrocities like the 1997 Acteal massacre, in which 45 unarmed Indians, including women and children, lost their lives...

...Though the March to the South will proceed with or without the rebels, Sojo said that if dialogue is successful and "if peace comes soon, we can have even better results...

...One prisoner, the Zapatista leader Cristobal Gutierrez, was convicted of participating in an ambush that killed a man named César Santiz...

...Macedo also scored points with some tough comments about drug policy, a particularly sensitive issue because of past collusion between top military brass and the narco barons...

...Next to Chiapas, the two most guerrilla-ridden states in Mexico are Oaxaca and neighboring Guerrero...

...Salazar is the polar opposite of his predecessor, Roberto Albores...

...Ricardo Pascoe's decision is not a party decision...

...I recognized him from the shape of his body," said a cowed witness...

...Laudicina and his global-oriented Council colleagues are positive that a flow of capital from confident investors will lift all the boats...

...Not even the warmest Fox admirers, though, will deny his propensity for shooting from the hip...

...At his inauguration attended by a jubilant Fox and a grimfaced Albores, Salazar hailed the Zapatistas as freedom fighters who "went to war [because they] were forced to...

...It is too early to say whether this idealistic program will halt PRD's decline, confirmed by its weak showing in the 2000 election...

...In addition, the Mayor has pledged to build 20,000 low-cost homes annually, and to provide free health care for the poor plus free medicine for AIDS victims...

...This index gauges the preferences of a thousand global CEOs and appears in the form of an annual survey, with the 2000 edition due out in February 2001...

...Fox' popular vote margin over PRI candidate Francisco Labastida was 15-13...

...Like the Peanuts antihero Charlie Brown being urged once more to kick the football, they have been bumed too often to eagerly welcome yet another would-be dispenser of panaceas...

...Although Pascoe insisted that this was not a defection and that he was still a loyal perredista, PRD spokesman Carlos Navarrete took a decidedly dim view of the ambassadorship...