Critics say Fox lacked backbone to meet promises

MEXICO CITY — By now, President Vicente Fox's Mexico was supposed to be a different place, a place where workers moved easily and legally over the border into the U.S., increased investment created more jobs, and the jailing of drug kingpins meant fewer border gunbattles.

Instead, many Mexicans complain that they have seen little of the new Mexico that Fox promised, and disappointment with his "government of change" has contributed to the rise of an anti-Fox: former Mexico City Mayor Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a leftist who until recently led the race to replace Fox in July's presidential election. Topping off Fox's troubles, the U.S. Congress is moving ahead on legislation to wall off the border with Mexico.

With six months to go in his term and legally barred from running again, the cowboy who raised hopes of reforming Mexico top to bottom now rarely mentions the boldest promises of his historic victory in 2000.

While circumstance and unrealistic expectations were partly to blame, many here also attribute the problems to Fox's idealistic notions of democracy and what some say was a lack of backbone in dealings with foes. In Fox's eyes, those traits were a strength rather than a weakness and part of his overriding campaign to anchor democracy in Mexico.

"I do not use pressure," Fox said in an interview earlier this year. "It's either a democracy or it isn't. You can't be a little bit democrat and a little bit dictator. I prefer that they brand me as weak than violate democratic principles that would have me behaving like a dictator."

But Fox's views of democracy and power — some would say his naiveté — have played a role in his frustrations.

Fear of unrest

Former aides say that even before Fox took office, he made a decision not to confront the former ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which still dominates Congress. His fear was that protests and unrest might lead to one of the economic collapses that occurred at the end of other presidents' terms.

The one reform project that made it to a vote in Congress exposed the Fox government's shortcomings. A proposal to increase government revenues by expanding the sales tax was defeated by 17 votes in December 2003, with opposition leaders saying Fox failed to negotiate and others criticizing him for failing to threaten.

But Fox boasts that he will deliver a stable, relatively quiet Mexico to his successor in December. He has been a mindful custodian, proud and protective of his role in bringing democracy to Mexico by ousting the authoritarian PRI after 71 years in office. But many believe his term has been dictated less by his own vision than by outside forces such as the 2001 global economic slump and the partisan politics of his enemies.

Fox's defenders, even Fox himself, compare him to Poland's Lech Walesa or the Philippines' Corazon Aquino — charismatic figures who coalesced dissent around them to help oust repressive regimes but later were not as good at crafting institutional reforms.

Personally, Fox remains quite popular, owing to his cowboy charm, earnest reputation and Mexicans' appreciation for what he did in 2000. But when people are asked about his government's performance, the favorable opinions drop sharply.

"We voted for a statesman, and we got a manager, and not a bad manager," said Sergio Aguayo, a democracy campaigner and frequent Fox critic. "He has, at the same time, both built and torpedoed democracy. The weakening of the presidency has helped the transition because it made us realize that other [government] institutions didn't work."

No one can question Fox's democratic inclinations. The rancher and former Coca-Cola executive suffered firsthand the corruption of the old regime when its vote rigging allegedly robbed him of victory in his first run for governor of Guanajuato state in 1991.

Some progress

His administration has made some undeniable progress. A transparency law has made government more accountable, there is more freedom of expression and he has kept the economy stable, although it grew far slower than he promised.

But those present in his government's first euphoric days say they detected early signs that Fox would not use the full force of his power. He refused to use the PRI's corrupt past as leverage to coax compromises from it. And he declined to wholeheartedly pursue PRI leaders behind the 1960s and 1970s "Dirty War" atrocities.

Another distraction was the controversy over his wife, Marta Sahagún, who had been his campaign spokeswoman. While Fox remained aloof from the nitty-gritty of governing, she ruffled feathers by intervening in state decisions and exposing her political ambitions.

For weeks, Fox's opponents in Congress have made daily headlines by investigating whether Sahagún's adult sons illegally used their family connections to enrich themselves.