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| VICENTE FOX ELECTED | |
 July 3, 2000  |
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PAN candidate Vicente Fox was elected the next president of Mexico, officially ending the PRI's 71-year hold on Mexican political power.
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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." |
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| Building a new Mexico | ||||||||||||||||||||
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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.
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. |
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| National Action Party victories | ||||||||||||||||||||
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GWEN IFILL: Fox's party also made strong gains in the Mexican Congress.
Depending on the final vote count, it
GWEN IFILL: Mr. Fox takes office in December. |
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| Mexico's clean election | ||||||||||||||||||||
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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?
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?
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 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?
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. |
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| A vote for change, or for Fox? | ||||||||||||||||||||
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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?
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?
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?
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? |
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| 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?
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?
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. |
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| 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?
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.
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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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.
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. 
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. 
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. 
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.
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.
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. 
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. 
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.
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.
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.