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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | January 2006 
Mexican Drugstore Magnate Vows to Forge Ahead with Surprise Presidential Candidacy
 Mark Stevenson - Associated Press
| | Gonzalez founded Farmacias Similares, which sells Mexican-made generic medicines at prices up to 80 percent lower than those of brand-name prescription drugs. |
Mexico City – Discount drugstore chain owner Victor Gonzalez came a step closer to winning recognition for his quixotic presidential bid last week, when he accepted the nomination of a small party which has split bitterly between him and another candidate.
Like Gonzalez's on-again, off-again campaign – funded by the magnate's millions, it has featured bevies of models and giant dancing puppets of "Dr. Simi," the cartoon mascot of his drugstore chain – the events leading to his nomination were both odd and controversial.
One wing of the tiny Alternative Social-Democratic and Farmers Party had already endorsed another candidate, Patricia Mercado, when another wing called a rump assembly on Thursday, scuffled with her supporters and voted to nominate Gonzalez.
"I think that what he has done is frankly contemptible ... to try to offer 100 million pesos to take control of a party," Alberto Begne, the Alternative party president, said on Friday.
Ironically for the party – whose slogan is "Let Nobody be Left Out" – 107 party representatives were locked out of a hotel ballroom where about of 87 Gonzalez's supporters, mainly from the farmers' wing, voted to nominate him.
"There was a group of thugs that prevented us from entering ... just like in the darkest days of our nation's political history," said Begne, who noted one female party member was hit in the face.
Begne was referring to Gonzalez's offer to deposit money – equivalent to about US$9.5 million (euro7.84 million) – to pay for his presidential campaign on the party's ticket.
Gonzalez's campaign organizer, Victor Garcia, said the magnate had only offered the money because he doesn't want taxpayers to foot his campaign bill; none of it, he said, was intended to pay supporters. Mexican political parties are largely funded by the government, something Gonzalez opposes.
Garcia said neither Gonzalez nor his campaign team were present at the Thursday assembly, but defended the decision to accept the nomination and said he would formally ask authorities to recognize his candidacy probably on Saturday.
Authorities will decide between the two competing nominations by next week. Begne said "there is no possibility" that Gonzalez could win official recognition, arguing his nomination "lacked any legal standing or validity."
Gonzalez spokesman Vicente Monroy said Alternative party statutes "clearly allow for the substitution of a candidate, if he or she has hurt the party or endangered it."
Gonzalez is not a member of the party. Mexican electoral laws allow only those candidates endorsed by one of the eight recognized parties to appear on the ballot.
Monroy denied Gonzalez had never given up his presidential bid – "he's always left open the possibility" – even though he told reporters in November that "I'm not a candidate."
Unlike most politicians, Gonzalez has intentionally tried to cultivate an image as a womanizer, often appearing in ads with women he dubs "Simi Chicks" on his arm.
He has campaigned as a champion of the poor, supporting universal health care, improved education and a crackdown on corruption.
Gonzalez founded Farmacias Similares, which sells Mexican-made generic medicines at prices up to 80 percent lower than those of brand-name prescription drugs.
In eight years, the company has grown from a single Mexico City location to a wildly popular chain with 3,500 drugstores in Mexico, Central America, Argentina, Ecuador and Chile. |
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