 |
|
|
 News Around the Republic of Mexico | November 2005 
Dispute with Venezuela Plays into Mexican Presidential Race
 Danna Harman - USA TODAY
| | Mexico's relations with Venezuela 'are not fractured' despite Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's remarks that his Mexican counterpart acted like a 'puppy' of the United States at the recent Americas summit held in Argentina, a government spokesman said last week. (AP/Jose Luis Magana) |
Loreto, Mexico — First, there was the name-calling: Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez called his Mexican counterpart an American "puppy dog" after President Vicente Fox defended a U.S. plan for a free-trade zone last week.
After Chávez, and most of the other Latin American leaders at the Summit of the Americas in Argentina, proclaimed the idea dead, Venezuela's leader taunted Fox, saying Fox was "bleeding from his wound."
Then came the threats: Fox's government ordered the Venezuelan ambassador to pack his bags and prepare to be expelled unless Chávez apologized. Chávez refused. Instead, he warned: "Don't mess with me, sir, or you will get stung."
Within a week, the spat escalated into a full-fledged diplomatic crisis. Both leaders recalled their ambassadors on Monday.
"There are some things that cannot be tolerated," Fox said in an interview on CNN.
Now, the bilateral dispute has been picked up by a Mexican politician to try to score points against Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the front-runner in next year's Mexican presidential elections.
The election, scheduled for July 2, will pit Roberto Madrazo, the Institutional Revolutionary Party's candidate, against Lopez Obrador and Felipe Calderon, the nominee of Fox's National Action Party. Lopez Obrador has been leading both Madrazo and Calderon in public-opinion polls by at least 10 points for close to a year.
"There are clear similarities between Chávez and Lopez Obrador," Madrazo said Monday. "They have very similar attitudes. I see authoritarianism in them both," he said at a news conference.
Lopez Obrador's populist, leftist appeal and the socialist-style handout programs he instituted as mayor of Mexico City have led some to compare him to Chávez, who is a fan of Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
Madrazo said that Lopez Obrador and Chávez did not respect the rule of law and that foreign investors would shun Mexico if Lopez Obrador came to power, just as they had Venezuela. "I foresee the capital flight that happened in Venezuela with Chávez's government that I don't want to happen here," Madrazo said.
He also accused Lopez Obrador of being in contact with Chávez aides and saidthe Venezuelan leader was trying to influence the upcoming election. Lopez Obrador did not respond to Madrazo's attacks. In the past, he has said he does not see the Venezuelan leader as a role model.
In fact, Lopez Obrador and his Party of Democratic Revolution (PRD) rallied behind Fox during the diplomatic spat. Juan Jose Garcia Ochoa, a PRD congressman, called the Venezuelan leader's remarks an offense to Mexico's national honor. "It matters to us as Mexicans," he said Tuesday. "We don't want any head of state to insult the president of Mexico."
Former Mexican foreign minister Jorge Castańeda urged Fox in a radio broadcast to "completely break" relations with Venezuela. "Chávez is orchestrating a campaign throughout Latin America to interfere in the elections in Bolivia, Colombia, Mexico and Nicaragua," he said.
Although most Mexicans support their president's stance towards Chávez, some here used the diplomatic dispute to slam Fox for his tendency to side with the United States on many issues. Mexico's left-leaning La Jornada newspaper ran a cartoon that portrayed Fox diving through the air to block a soccer ball flying toward Bush's head.
"This was all a big mistake on Fox's part," said Rafael Fernandez de Castro, dean of the department of international studies at the Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico, a private university. "Bush is one of the least popular presidents in Latin America in a very long time, and Chávez is capitalizing on all the anti-Bush feelings. There's no way to win something like this. You don't pick a fight with a professional fighter."
Contributing: Harman is Latin America bureau chief for USA TODAY and The Christian Science Monitor |
| |
|
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us