Uncovering Mexico
Jeremy Schwartz is the Mexico correspondent for Cox Newspapers. He is based in Mexico City.What's on this page?
All the entries posted on October 04, 2007.
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Home > Uncovering Mexico > Archives > 2007 > October > 04
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Fox’s legacy taking a beating
Things just keep getting worse for ex-president Vicente Fox. Ever since scandal erupted last week over Fox’s lavish digs at his Guanajuato ranch, it seems each new day brings another revelation related to his wealth. The Mexican Congress is forming a commission to investigate Fox and determine if he used the presidency to get rich.
On the front page of today’s El Universal is splashed a picture of Fox’s bright red Jeep, which a businessman now says he bought for the president at the bequest of Fox’s wife, Marta Sahagun. The problem is, Fox never declared the vehicle in his list of holdings.
Meanwhile, the Reforma newspaper is asking questions about a white Jaguar, which likewise has yet to appear on Fox’s declarations. Reforma also has a story about three employees of the former first lady’s foundation, Vamos Mexico, who apparently have been getting paid by the federal government.
All this adds up to bad news for the former leader, who has been described as hyper-sensitive when it comes to his legacy. In his soon-to-be-released memoir, Fox brags about how different he is from past presidents who fattened their bank accounts while in office and fled the country once their term ended.
A recent poll shows 66 percent of Mexicans now believe Fox engaged in illicit enrichment while in office, while his wife’s favorable rating has plunged from 44 percent in 2005 to 23 percent.
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Going to Mexico City? Put that cigarette out!
Mexico City likes to smoke. Residents smoke in restaurants, cafes, walking through the mall, in the stands at baseball games, at the airport and of course, in bars.
But all that is about to change as the Mexican capital is implementing a tough, American-style smoking law that will ban the nefarious activity from all public, indoor spaces. Restaurants and bars will be allowed to build no-smoking sections, which must be walled off from the rest of the building and have a dedicated ventilation system.
That will be too costly for the vast majority of the city’s hole-in-the wall taquerias, torta joints and cantinas. The city’s restaurant association has blasted the law as “drastic and arbitrary,” according to the local press.
And if the law is to succeed, it will require some drastic changes in the behavior of the locals. Some 40 percent of the city’s population between 12 and 45 smoke, according to the city’s 2006 Addiction Poll.
The smoking law is just the latest to be hailed by social progressives in Mexico City, where lawmakers have approved a gay rights bill and legalized abortion over the last year.