VICENTE FOX ELECTED
July 3, 2000

PAN candidate Vicente Fox was elected the next president of Mexico, officially ending the PRI's 71-year hold on Mexican political power.

The Online NewsHour's Coverage of Politics in Mexico June 29, 2000: A look at the final days on the campaign trail. March 21, 2000: An interview with PAN candidate Vicente Fox. Nov. 8, 1999: Mexico holds its first presidential primary Oct. 21, 1999: Flood victims blame corrupt zoning codes for deaths. Jan. 12, 1999: Crime waves threaten Mexico City's mayor. Aug. 12, 1997: Cuauhtemoc Cardenas becomes mayor-elect of Mexico City. Sept. 3, 1997: A look at Mexico's war on drugs. July 25, 1997: A interview with President Ernesto Zedillo July 15, 1997: Changes in Mexico's political power. July 7, 1997: Opposition parties gain ground. May 5, 1997: President Ernesto Zedillo on relations with the US Oct. 4, 1996: Rebel army revolts against Zedillo's reforms. Browse the NewsHour's coverage of Latin America     Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) National Action Party (PAN) Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD)	GWEN IFILL: Mexico's dramatic election: We start with some background. GWEN IFILL: Mexican voters took to the streets last night to celebrate. After decades of one-party rule and expectations of election fraud, Mexico elected a new president: businessman and political outsider Vicente Fox. Fox described his victory as a "moment of democracy."
	Building a new Mexico
	Vicente FOX: (speaking through interpreter) Today we celebrate; tomorrow we will have to work. I know I can count on all of you to build a new Mexico. GWEN IFILL: A record turnout of younger and female voters delivered a surprisingly large margin of victory for Fox. The ruling party's candidate, Francisco Labastida, swiftly conceded defeat. He stated, "the citizens have made a decision that we should respect, and I'll set the example myself." Outgoing President Ernesto Zedillo announced the results. ERNESTO ZEDILLO: (speaking through interpreter) The Federal Electoral Institute has already released preliminary but reliable information about the results, which show that the next president of Mexico will be Vicente Fox Quesada. GWEN IFILL: Fox represents the conservative National Action Party also known as PAN. He ran a three-year-long grassroots campaign, appealing for change and pledging to end political corruption and economic inequality. Labastida's ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, known as the PRI, promised political stability and reform. With 92 percent of the votes counted, Fox had 42 percent, Labastida 36 percent. Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, of the leftist Democratic Revolutionary Party, had 17 percent. Cardenas hailed the PRI's defeat. CUAUHTEMOC CARDENAS: (speaking through interpreter) This election has begun the dismantling of the state-party regime.
	National Action Party victories
	GWEN IFILL: Fox's party also made strong gains in the Mexican Congress. Depending on the final vote count, it could become the largest party in both houses. A record 65 percent of the electorate turned out to elect Fox. Tens of thousands of Mexicans living in the US were allowed across the border to vote at special polling stations set up in northern cities, like Tijuana. For the first time, yesterday's election was monitored by an independent commission, rather than the government's interior ministry. Former President Carter and a delegation of some 800 international election observers reported few irregularities. JIMMY CARTER, former US president: I think the major credit, however, should go to the people of Mexico, who have now witnessed 71 years of, you might say, one-party rule where, in many people's minds, the PRI and the government of Mexico are one and the same. And for them to make that judgment yesterday, calling, I think, not for a choice between candidates necessarily, but a choice between parties and a call for change, I think this shows great maturity on their part. GWEN IFILL: Mr. Fox takes office in December.
	Mexico's clean election
	GWEN IFILL: For a closer look at the election in Mexico, we get four perspectives, two Mexican and two American. The Mexicans are Jose Carreno, Washington correspondent for Mexico City's daily newspaper, El Universal; and Yemile Mizrahi, visiting fellow at the Woodrow Wilson center and professor of political science at the center for economic and political studies in Mexico City. The two Americans are George Grayson, professor of government at the college of William and Mary and fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He's just back from Mexico City, where he served as an international observer monitoring yesterday's election. And Jaime Rodriguez, director of the Latin American Studies program and professor of history at the University of California at Irvine. He is the editor of the Mexican Studies Journal. Jose Carreno, Vicente Fox likes to say, and he said it on this program in March, that beating the entrenched party in Mexico for this election would be like putting a man on the moon. Did he accomplish that? JOSE CARRENO, El Universal Newspaper: Yes, absolutely, although I would say that the country was more ready for change than what everybody first believed. GWEN IFILL: What do you mean? JOSE CARRENO: Well, the distance he got on respect to Mr. Labastida or Cardenas was huge. We are talking six and more than ten points percentage. GWEN IFILL: Professor Mizrahi, do you agree with that? Was this a question of the fact that he managed to really seize people's attention, or was it that people were just anxious for some change, any change? YEMILE MIZRAHI, Woodrow Wilson Center: I think both. People were anxious for change and actually viewed some the two opposition candidates, they are more than 50 percent. So half of the electorate wanted change. And Fox just portrayed himself as being the man who could defeat the system. And so I think that's why. GWEN IFILL: Okay. How did he do that? YEMILE MIZRAHI: He did it... Well, first of all, he always portrayed himself as a winner. He never hesitated for one minute that he could not win. He always said, from the very beginning, that he was going to defeat the PRI. And I think that he got the vote of the undecided. It was 19 percent in the polls. And he also managed to reach the left-leaning center of the electorate, who more than anything else wanted the PRI out of office. GWEN IFILL: Professor Grayson, you're just returned from Mexico City. You observed the elections. Were they clean? GEORGE GRAYSON, College of William & Mary: Gwen, the electoral authorities deserve a five-star rating because they managed to convince the electorate, which is some 60 million people, that their votes would be both secret and free -- and as a result, as you mentioned earlier, there was an extraordinarily high turnout, and the Mexicans showed their sense of civic responsibility. Now, having said that, in the several weeks before the election, the Institutional Revolutionary Party, the PRI, that's governed for 71 years, did spend millions of dollars of public funds to encourage, to co-opt, and in some cases coerce voters in hopes they would vote for Labastida. GWEN IFILL: But that didn't work? GEORGE GRAYSON: It didn't work. Although the most ingenious move was probably in the state of Yucatan, where the governor is a wily old dinosaur, and he was actually giving out washing machines. And I don't think that was to ensure a clean election. GWEN IFILL: So what was it like on the streets of Mexico City after the election results rests came in? GEORGE GRAYSON: Gwen, it was a combination of, I guess, New Year's Eve and New York with a touch of Mardis Gras. There were people singing. They were dancing. And I know this because the place where they congregate was about a block from my hotel, and they kept going to about 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning. And I saw one youngster, their parents had clearly gotten him out of bed and stuck a shirt on him that said, "my parents say that I can miss school tomorrow because I'm watching history being made tonight." But Gwen, the street vendors seemed to anticipate the victory by Fox even before the pollsters and the pundits got the word, because in the two or three days before the election, the hottest selling item on the streets of Mexico City were these Vicente Fox masks. And he's an extremely handsome gentleman. This mask doesn't do him justice. GWEN IFILL: No, it doesn't. GEORGE GRAYSON: But I think it shows that the street vendors had really had their ear to the ground.
	A vote for change, or for Fox?
	GWEN IFILL: Well, what a lovely mask it is. Professor Rodriguez, we talked a lot here about change and about how important it was. People thought it was important to vote for change after all these years of one party rule in Mexico. What does that mean? JAIME RODRIGUEZ, University of California, Irvine: Well, I think change is going to come about, but it's not going to be dramatic change, partly because he has to govern with the PRI. Congress is about 38 percent PAN and 36 percent PRI, and about 18 percent PRD, so that in order to get his policies through, he will have to work with them. In many ways, there is already precedent for that, since PRI had to work with PAN during the previous period. But clearly he wants to introduce change. He talks about decentralization, deregulation, ending corruption and other kinds of changes. He's pro-business, and so I think he will continue much of what PRI has done. But there is much reform that is needed, as he has espoused. GWEN IFILL: Professor Mizrahi, there wasn't an obvious economic catalyst for change, as there often is in this country, as well as in Mexico. What was the catalyst for this? Why were people so willing to try something different? YEMILE MIZRAHI: Well, because, you know, bread and better issues, in an election not always works. This was an election. It was whether people wanted the PRI or in power or they wanted change. And that's what defined it. And they are 71 years of the same party. And for the past 20 years, economic -- cyclical economic crisis, so there might not be one now, but people are just afraid that the same party continues to win, then there is a crisis, then they promise that everything will be good, and this is just a change from that pattern. GWEN IFILL: Well, professor... Mr. Carreno, let's assume people voted for change as much as they voted for the idea of Vicente Fox. What if he doesn't deliver change immediately. Do people then fall out of love? JOSE CARRENO: I think the honeymoon will be short, because politics in Mexico will not allow him to deliver everything he has promised. You will have a congress, as it was said before, that is very divided, that will take his rightful place in a democratic country. So that democracy, that part of democracy will stop Fox of delivering everything he had promised. GWEN IFILL: But Mr. Carreno, what is he promising that's different from what he has promised before, than what Labastida was able to promise? They weren't really that different in their policies. JOSE CARRENO: We're talking politics, right? GWEN IFILL: Are we? JOSE CARRENO: This is politics. This will be politics. You will have the PRI, for instance, delivering the vote in some things in exchange of others. So folks will have to make compromises and negotiate. That will stop him. GWEN IFILL: So will Mr. Rodriguez, Professor Rodriguez, what are the differences in policy between the ruling party that we have seen before, that we have seen in power for 71 years more or less, and what Mr. Fox will be bringing to the office?
	Fox and the Mexican Congress
	JAIME RODRIGUEZ: Well, in terms of overall economic policy, I don't think they're particularly great. But he has emphasized deregulation, opening up the system, reducing corruption, and in his argument, much of corruption is based on a very bureaucratic nature of government. What he tried to do in Guanajuato suggests what he might also try to do nationally. But I believe it is important to keep in mind that he does have to work with the other parties, particularly PRI. And so there is a limit to what can be done. Certainly the reform of the judicial system, and particularly making the police more responsive is very important and one of the areas that he has emphasized. GWEN IFILL: Professor Grayson, he also has to work now with the United States, and he has advocated, among other things, of opening the borders between Mexico and the United States for labor. What are the chances of him finding a receptive a here in Washington? GEORGE GRAYSON: I don't think he's likely to... That's a nonstarter But perhaps it was more campaign rhetoric than a commitment to try to add labor to the North American Free Trade Agreement. But getting back to his ability to work with congress, something Fox has that his predecessors didn't is that he can mobilize the public. He continually filled large stadiums with people. He's also going to emphasize a businessman's approach the politics, while at the same time showing a social conscience. And he's really caught the imagination of the people, although as our other colleagues have said, most voted for change, but they also liked Fox. GWEN IFILL: Professor Mizrahi, what happens with the PRI, which has been in charge for so long, and certainly it isn't just going to melt away? YEMILE MIZRAHI: No, it's not. And actually, in the state level, where they have lost elections, they have been able to recoup themselves and come back. For example, in the state of Chihuahua, they lost the elections in '92, and then they came back in '98. And I think that this is precisely a lesson for them. They will have to learn to become a real party and to live in the opposition and to transform themselves and learn to live in a more democratic setting, which they are not used to. GWEN IFILL: So you're suggesting that this defeat may bring about a real democracy in a way that another victory could not have. YEMILE MIZRAHI: I think the PRI would not be able to reform itself unless it lost an election at the presidential level. GWEN IFILL: So if the United States... I want to come back to the idea of what the United States can expect now of this new leader. With Vicente Fox there, and assuming we're talking about campaign rhetoric and we're talking about additions to NAFTA, what is to be expected of the United States, of this new leader.
	Mexico and the United States
	JOSE CARRENO: Of the United States, I do not think that it can be expected too much. He wants to cooperate. He wants to collaborate. He wants to negotiate with the United States. He does not... He cannot afford to be... Seem too cozy with the US GWEN IFILL: That's a tough little line that he's going to walk. JOSE CARRENO: Yes. GWEN IFILL: Is he capable of doing that? JOSE CARRENO: Oh, yes. He's very able. He's a very smart person, an extremely good politician. But he will have to be very careful. GEORGE GRAYSON: Gwen, there's another point there also, and that is that there's much less Mexico bashing going on in the United States, in part because our economy is growing at a rapid rate, but also because the Mexican-American voters form important blocs in states in this country that have lots of power in the electoral college. And so I don't think we're going to see nearly as much criticism of Mexico during the Fox period as we perhaps have seen in the past, unless the US economy goes into a nosedive. GWEN IFILL: Professor Rodriguez, one of the reasons this election went so well is because of the reforms that Ernesto Zedillo put in place, political reforms. Did he fall victim to his own success, good intentions? JAIME RODRIGUEZ: I guess one could say that. He certainly was committed to reform, and particularly to electoral reform. The election of '98 and this election is a clear indication of his commitment. Certainly he could have dragged his foot. He could have found ways of undermining the system, and he did not. The very reception of the election by the politicians, by all the PRI politicians and even from the PRD and the public is an indication of how much has changed in the last few years. GWEN IFILL: So Professor Mizrahi, is this an authentic beginning of a multiparty democracy in Mexico? YEMILE MIZRAHI: I think so. I think so. And we... It's not the real beginning, because we have been having these at the state and local levels -- and the congress level, as well. But losing the presidency for a country that based its political regime on the presidency, this is a big day for Mexico. GWEN IFILL: Jose Carreno, do you agree with that? JOSE CARRENO: Absolutely. It is a new dawn. There is no more presidential government, but a congressional and democratic government. GWEN IFILL: So what do we wait to see next? What are the next big signs of change? JOSE CARRENO: What will be the... How folks will negotiate the transition with Mr. Zedillo. That will be interesting. GWEN IFILL: Really? JOSE CARRENO: Yes. GWEN IFILL: When you say... Excuse me one moment. When you say folks, you mean the people who just were recently booted out of power? JOSE CARRENO: Well, Mr. Fox will have to negotiate a number of things with the government in place. That will be interesting, and that will point out a number of things. YEMILE MIZRAHI: Can I say something. GWEN IFILL: Go ahead…briefly. YEMILE MIZRAHI: I think also he will have to work importantly in reducing the expectations of people, because people are going to expect a lot of change. And, you know, change cannot be brought overnight. GWEN IFILL: And Professor Grayson, you wanted to add? GEORGE GRAYSON: Well, Zedillo has played a pivotal role in all of, this and this morning he met with the PRI, the leadership of his own party. Early this afternoon he met with the governors who belong to the PRI, and about the time this program is being aired, he's having a tête-à-tête with Vicente Fox, who afterwards will make a statement from the presidential palace, which is really unprecedented, and I think shows Zedillo's determination to make sure there's a smooth transition. GWEN IFILL: So what we have is the beginning, not an end. Thank you all four very much.

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