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 Editorials | October 2007 
Mexico's Ex
 Houston Chronicle
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| | Dallas Cowboys owner, Jerry Jones, left, and former Mexico President Vicente Fox visit before the start of the NFL football game between the New England Patriots and Dallas Cowboys, Sunday, Oct. 14, 2007, in Irving, Texas. (AP/LM Otero) |
Former Mexican President Vicente Fox is rewriting his country's rules on how to be an ex-head of state
"I'm not a monedita de oro" — a little gold coin — Mexico's former President Vicente Fox said during a visit to Houston last week. It's an expression that means not everyone is going to like him — or even want him around. But Fox, who upended 71 years of Mexican status quo by winning democratic election as an opposition candidate, now is transforming the concept of ex-president. Welcome or not, he's continuing to take part in public life.
His reappearance on the stage after leaving office last December has been contentious, but it's a healthy contribution as Mexico continues to build its democracy. In a country where former heads of state traditionally fade away, too often with plunder from public coffers, Fox, for the most part, is staying put at the ranch his family has owned for nearly a century.
Last week, he ventured out of Mexico to embark on a U.S. tour. The former president is promoting a new book, one that describes his family history (including immigration from the United States), his years in office, and his views on immigration, trade and other world leaders.
If Fox is rewriting the rules, he's learning them at the same time. In office, his achievements often fell short of his promises. But Mexico's democracy continued to grow under him, and he did much to promote government transparency and freedom of information. These were important changes, touching Mexican culture as well as government. In dismantling the repressed aura that surrounded an imperial presidency, Fox opened himself up to more public confrontation than Mexican presidents are used to.
The democratic clamor has only gotten louder since he left office. Probably foolishly, Fox opened up his ranch for a lavish cover story in a society glossy, Quien. The images of his wealth unleashed anger and deep suspicion — not unwarranted, since enrichment through public office is a poisonous Mexican tradition.
Now the country's federal auditor is investigating Fox's finances. Fox has taken all this criticism with middling grace. He's said his finances are an open book and he'll cooperate with the country's anticorruption ministry. He's less open to a congressional probe, which surely will involve his political enemies. And last week he stalked out of a Telemundo interview when the anchor asked too doggedly about the audit.
Still, Fox remains truly a historic figure in Mexico's progress. Naturally, his legacy will loom larger if he is cleared of wrongdoing. He should continue, nevertheless, to share his expertise both in Mexico and abroad. In his visit to the Chronicle, the tall, cowboyish Fox described his confidence in Mexico's future, citing a Goldman Sachs study predicting its economy in 15 years will be the world's fifth-largest.
Fox also pointed out that Mexicans have successfully reined in their birthrate and in a few decades will compete for laborers now pouring into the United States.
Fox also has used his book tour to press for more temporary visas for Mexican workers in the United States and a reduction to the xenophobia that has accompanied the immigration debate. These prescriptions are reasonable — if hard to hear from a president who signally failed to create the conditions in his own country for citizens to find work and dignity.
Even in the face of recriminations and investigations, Vicente Fox is creating a valuable new model of lifetime public service. He may be no "little gold coin," but the concept of a useful ex-president is money in the bank for Mexican democracy. |
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