Zedillo Vows ‘Orderly Peace’ for Mexico

President Ernesto Zedillo vowed Tuesday that the mounting violence in Mexico will not provoke him to turn to authoritarian methods to keep peace.

“I do not believe that the solution for Mexico’s problems is authoritarianism,” Zedillo said in the second of what his advisers promised will be monthly news conferences and the first open to the foreign press. “What Mexicans want is democracy; they want orderly, civilized peace.”

With the murders last month of a prominent investigator and an outspoken judge in the capital, combined with the police slayings of 17 peasants in the southern state of Guerrero and a general increase in crime, Mexicans have become increasingly concerned about public safety.

In a country accustomed to presidents with near-dictatorial powers, Zedillo has come under pressure to invoke the mano duro , or tough hand, to restore order. Many observers speculated that he was taking a tougher stance last week when he replaced an old friend with an experienced politician in the powerful Interior Ministry.

While acknowledging the destabilizing effects of the rising violence during the past 18 months, Zedillo insisted that the appointment does not reflect a change of policy and emphasized his commitment to democracy and power-sharing with other branches of government and opposition political parties.

In keeping with that policy, the president said he will not ask for the resignation of the governor of Guerrero, who opposition parties claim is ultimately responsible for the killing of the peasants en route to a political rally last week.

“Removing a governor is not within the president’s purview,” he said. Ten police officers have been arrested in the incident.