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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | July 2005 
Mexico President's Backers Hold Controversial Celebration on Anniversay of Victory
 John Rice - Associated Press
| | Crowds were smaller than those five years ago. |
Mexico City – President Vicente Fox returned Saturday to Mexico's Independence Monument for a repeat celebration of his victory five years ago that toppled a 71-year-old regime and signified Mexico's emergence as a democracy.
"After five years, we have a lot to celebrate: not only having won democracy ... but what democracy has given us," Fox said in an interview Friday with The Associated Press.
But the rally, held at the place where supporters danced and cheered on the night of his presidential victory, also showed Mexicans are still debating what that democracy means as Fox's victory slips back into history.
Opposition parties accused Fox of using the rally to skirt a three-day legal ban on politicking ahead of Sunday's gubernatorial election in the State of Mexico, the country's most populous state, which borders Mexico City on three sides.
The issue is heated because Mexico's three main parties are sparring for advantage under still-evolving rules ahead of next year's presidential elections.
The Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, that Fox defeated in July 2000 has threatened to file legal action against the president and his National Action Party over the rally.
National Action announced it had withdrawn as a key backer of the event, leaving it in the hands largely of businessmen and conservative social groups that have backed the president.
The PRI's candidate is leading the polls in Mexico State and its continued role as the largest party in Congress shows how far Fox fell from his promise to crush what he called a corrupt and destructive power during his 2000 campaign.
In a statement clearly aimed partly at Fox, both federal and state electoral officials appealed for political leaders to follow Mexican tradition of staying aloof from open campaigning.
They were alarmed by Fox's announcement during a trip to Russia in June that he would openly promote his party from the presidency.
While Mexican presidents under the PRI had a heavy behind-the-scenes role in campaigns – sometimes bluntly rigging them – in public they were supposed to pretend to be nonpartisan, a role bolstered by the country's constitutional ban on re-election.
In the AP interview, Fox shrugged off the complaints: "I believe that this is part of the democratic transition," he said adding that Mexicans "have not achieved true maturity" in politics.
Fox said Friday that his achievements include a stable economy that has allowed housing and construction to flourish while bringing at least some reductions in the rate of poverty, according to U.N. figures.
"I'd like to be remembered for the economic, political and social stability ... that has allowed the country to advance," Fox said.
But another aspect of democracy, a nearly unprecedented opposition-dominated Congress, has kept Fox from achieving many of the political, economic and legal reforms he hoped would be part of his legacy.
The late-night rally on July 2, 2000, was a raucous, impromptu affair at the foot of the pillar holding the gilded Angel of Independence.
Fox appeared before a deliriously happy confetti-dusted crowd of 15,000.
Almost unable to believe the PRI had finally conceded defeat, the crowd chanted at Fox, "Don't fail us."
After five years of power and caution, the scene was far different on Saturday. The scaffolding of huge, costly sound systems and stages ringed the Angel and hundreds of black-uniformed police and soldiers patrolled the blocked-off streets, forcing spectators to pass through metal detectors and undergo searches. |
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