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 Editorials | Issues | May 2007 
Former Mexican President Vicente Fox Reveals Life in Retirement
 Associated Press
| | Former Mexican President Vicente Fox gestures during a meeting with foreign journalists at his hacienda in San Cristobal, Mexico, Friday May 25, 2007. Fox, who gave a glimpse of his life after retirement on Friday, is turning the hacienda into a multimillion-dollar think tank, museum and academic facility focused on free enterprise. (AP/Mario Armas) |
San Francisco del Rincon, Mexico - Former President Vicente Fox gave a glimpse of his life after retirement on Friday, saying he plans to work to defend liberty, private property and free enterprise across Latin America.
In one of his first meetings with foreign journalists since stepping down in December, the avid horseman showed reporters a gun tower at the edge of a hacienda where his grandfather fought Mexican revolutionaries.
Today Fox is turning the hacienda into a multimillion-dollar (euro) think tank, museum and academic facility focused on free enterprise.
"This center will have the mission of defending and promoting liberty and democracy for Mexico and Latin America," he said, "above all in the face of the waves of populism, demagoguery and defeat that exist in some countries in Latin America."
The conservative Fox, who during his chat with reporters repeatedly quoted the late U.S. President Ronald Reagan, lashed out against Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chavez, with whom he traded barbs while in office.
"Today in Venezuela, someone who is making clear steps toward dictatorship, toward a monopoly of power, Mr. Hugo Chavez, is about to close a very important news outlet," Fox said, referring to Radio Caracas Television — the country's most widely watched channel, which is set to go off the air Sunday.
Fox accused Chavez of not renewing the license of RCTV, a frequent critic of the government, "simply because he doesn't like criticism."
Fox is deeply concerned about establishing his legacy. He views himself as the first president to bring true democracy to Mexico, and has signed a deal with Viking Press for a memoir about his ups and down with world leaders, from Cuba's Fidel Castro to U.S. President George W. Bush.
But he did not answer growing questions about his term Friday while taking reporters on a tour of the library complex he is building in his home state of Guanajuato to hold documents from his 2000-2006 term.
Some projects Fox rushed to inaugurate in his term are either unfinished or flawed — such as a sprawling Mexico City library that was closed down less than a year after it opened because of structural problems.
The country's human rights commission recently accused his administration of "unjustified delay" in intervening in political unrest last year Oaxaca, and the country's top electoral official criticized Fox's "irresponsible, undesirable" comments before the disputed July presidential vote.
President Felipe Calderon, of Fox's National Action Party, was eventually declared the winner of the tight race after a monthslong electoral court battle with his main rival, leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
Fox took another jab at Lopez Obrador on Friday, saying that "within this framework of populism, demagoguery and deceit I think he fits well."
Fox, whose electoral win in 2000 ended 71 years of single-party rule in Mexico, now views himself as a sort of lone cowboy battling the radical leftist regimes that have been elected in several Latin American countries.
Asked if he saw any similarity between himself and Reagan, Fox replied, "We were both citizens who came into politics from the outside."
In an interview with The Associated Press in April, Fox said: "I'm riding again. I'm on my horse. I'm fighting dictatorships, fighting demagoguery, fighting populism."
"But now, I am going to be doing it in Latin America. Last time, I did it within Mexico," he said. |
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