Mexico City – Sure, it would be easier to be a dictator. Or even a king.
But in a series of television and radio spots, Mexican President Vicente Fox reminds a populace seeking his successor that he was elected to be Mexico’s first democratic leader – and he promises to continue to fight for democracy no matter how much work that takes.
Featuring Fox in a library next to a Mexican flag, the five spots are designed to remind Mexicans of the often fraudulent elections under the long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.
The ads are running ahead of the president’s state-of-the-nation address Thursday to Congress – his last such speech before the July 2006 elections.
Fox, prohibited by law from seeking another term in office, also plans to spend the three days after the speech touring several Mexican states to talk with state and local officials about progress he’s made.
Interior Secretary Carlos Abascal says the campaign is aimed at making sure Mexicans “don’t forget how Mexico was in the past.”
“Having a historic memory means avoiding the errors of the past and not repeating them,” he told reporters Friday.
Mexicans have been frustrated with Fox’s ineffectiveness in office, and the front-runner in the polls is leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who recently stepped down as Mexico City’s mayor.
Lopez Obrador is loved by millions for his government pension programs and public works projects that left the city deep in debt. But some have worried that his winning might mean a return to Mexico’s old ways of patronage and financial irresponsibility.
Fox prides himself on being the man who ushered Mexico into a full democracy. His victory in July 2000 ended 71 years of PRI rule. While the PRI united the country in 1929 after years of civil war and strife, it became infamous for rigging elections and pouring money into public works projects in the run-up to elections – only to watch the economy crash as a new president took over.
