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| PRESIDENT ERNESTO ZEDILLO | |
 July 25, 1997 
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CHARLES KRAUSE: President Zedillo, welcome. Thank you for joining us. PRESIDENT ERNESTO ZEDILLO, Mexico: Thanks for this opportunity. CHARLES KRAUSE: You were described at the Council on Foreign Relations luncheon as the architect of the political revolution in Mexico. Is that what happened on July 6th?
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| Zedillo's
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CHARLES KRAUSE: As you know, the results of the election were interpreted in Mexico and here in the United States as a major defeat, a repudiation of the PRI, of the corruption, of the alleged corruption, and some of the other -- the economic problems, which have affected your country.
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| Mayor Cuauhtemoc Cardenas | ||||||||||||||||||||
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PRESIDENT ERNESTO ZEDILLO: Well, I'm not particularly concerned for several reasons. Number one, because I think that the policies that my government is pursuing are the right, the sensible ones, and I think I have the arguments to convince the Mexican people, and for the same reason, I hope I have the arguments to convince all political parties to endorse those policies that are truly in the national interest. Second, I think that now the other political parties have acquired a new role in our political life. They will behave quite responsibly. I am not pessimistic at all about the consequences of democracy.
CHARLES KRAUSE: So you're saying that you do not believe that the results of this election were a vote against the policies that you'd been following? PRESIDENT ERNESTO ZEDILLO: That's not -- we don't have any evidence supporting that view. |
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| A vote for change? | ||||||||||||||||||||
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CHARLES KRAUSE: Do you agree with the notion, though, that people were voting for change; that to some extent Mexicans have separated you as president from the PRI and the political system, which has governed Mexico for nearly 70 years?
CHARLES KRAUSE: Is one of those individuals your predecessor, Mr. Salinas? PRESIDENT ERNESTO ZEDILLO: A golden rule of decent politics is for a Mexican president not to speak about former presidents.
PRESIDENT ERNESTO ZEDILLO: No. I see him as the next mayor of Mexico City. And, as such, he should have all the collaboration that he will need as mayor of Mexico City from the federal government. CHARLES KRAUSE: Would you expect that he will attempt to use his position as mayor to criticize your government, the PRI, in order to mount his own campaign for president? PRESIDENT ERNESTO ZEDILLO: No. What I expect from him is to make his best effort to deliver what he offers the citizens of Mexico City during his campaign. CHARLES KRAUSE: It is said that there are hard-liners within the PRI who would like to stop the kinds of reforms that you have pushed so hard to see realized; that they would like to go back to some of the practices that occurred in the not-so-distant past. Is that a problem? Is that a real concern, or are these reforms now irreversible?
CHARLES KRAUSE: President Zedillo, thank you very much for joining us. PRESIDENT ERNESTO ZEDILLO: Thank you, Mr. Krause. |
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PRESIDENT
ERNESTO ZEDILLO: Well, I think that's an overstatement of the situation
that we have in Mexico. I don't want to claim as my soul mate what happened
on July 6th. I think that the July 6th election is the culmination of
several steps that Mexico has taken for a number of years to have through
democratic normality. Certainly, it was my wish and also my responsibility
to push for what I called at the time the definitive electoral reform
that we negotiated with all political parties in 1995 and 1996. Certainly,
that reform was very important to have legal transparent and fair elections
on July 6th. And certainly because of those elections, now we are where
we wanted to be, you know, in a system that is truly democratic, where
everybody is human political competition, and where pluralism is already
a fact of Mexican political life.
CHARLES
KRAUSE: I think many people wonder why you, as the president of Mexico,
as a member of the PRI, why would you have pushed these reforms, knowing
that they could lead to the defeat of your own political party? 
PRESIDENT
ERNESTO ZEDILLO: Well, for one thing it didn't lead to the defeat of
my political party, and I think that has to be acknowledged. I think
Mexico has made this evolution without major breakdown -- without conflict,
without altering social peace or basic fundamental equilibrium. I think
that the magic of it is that we have had as a country the intelligence
and the capacity to push for these reforms without having any major
breakdown. And why I did it, well, for a simple reason. I think Mexico
will be better with a full democracy than without it. That was a commitment
I had since I was candidate to the presidency of the republic. And what
I've done is just to deliver what I promised before, and I think is
going to be good for Mexico, is going to be good for all political parties,
including the PRI, if the PRI wants, as I think it does, to be a major
player in Mexican political life in the 21st century. 
PRESIDENT
ERNESTO ZEDILLO: I don't know exactly why that interpretation has been
given to the results. I would take a much more constructive interpretation
of the elections. I think it is just fair to say that the PRI accompanied
me to make the reform from the beginning to the end. And I think that
should be recognized to the PRI. I don't think there was a referendum
on July 6th on the economic or the social policies that are being followed
by this government. I think what happened is that the Mexican society
expressed its plurality. We have a plural society. Some are in the right;
some are in the left; some are in the center. The majority is in the
center. And I think that will show up very clearly in this election.
CHARLES
KRAUSE: One thing that is indisputable from this election, and that
is that Mr. Cardenas is now the mayor of Mexico City, or will be, and
that the lower house of congress for the first time is not controlled
by your party, the PRI. How will that affect your ability as president
of the country to govern? 
On
the contrary, I am very optimistic, if anything, what one can read out
of these electoral campaigns and what the parties have said after the
election is that they had moderated what used to be rather extreme positions
about many issues of Mexican political life. And the reason why that
is happening is because now they are more accountable before the Mexican
public. When these parties -- or at least one of them -- didn't see
itself as having a true chance to have responsibility, they could say
anything. They could propose anything. Now that they have responsibility
and they are more accountable before the Mexican people, well, they
are thinking twice what they are proposing. 
CHARLES
KRAUSE: Understood. Mr. Cardenas, do you view him as a rival; do you
view him as someone who you will attempt to get along with? How will
you deal with him over the next three years? 
PRESIDENT
ERNESTO ZEDILLO: Well, the reforms are irreversible for many, for many
reasons. They are irreversible because they are good for the country,
and they are irreversible because they have been supported by the biggest
political force in Mexico. And that is the PRI. I think all those stories
about hard-liners and everything will probably they make nice newspaper
stories, but, if anything, I have been fully supported by my party to
carry out these reforms, and I think it is rather unfortunate that over
and over again we get these stories about a mysterious, unknown group
of hard-liners opposing these reforms. At least, I don't know them,
and being the one that has headed those reforms, I think that by this
time I should have felt somehow that opposition, which I haven't.