Mexico Ushers In New Era With Fox at Helm

President Vicente Fox took office Friday pledging to transform a country ruled by a virtual one-party system for seven decades, as Mexico joyously celebrated its first peaceful, democratic transfer of power to the opposition.

In a day of nonstop festivities--from a tamale breakfast with street children to a mariachi-serenaded event that packed Mexico City’s giant Zocalo plaza--Fox promised to eradicate the vestiges of Mexico’s authoritarian government and bring new energy to fighting the nation’s pressing problems, from poverty to drug trafficking.

“We Mexicans had a date with history. We met our commitment,” Fox exulted in a message to the nation, referring to the July 2 election in which he broke the 71-year hold on power by the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI. “Welcome, democracy!”

It was an inauguration the likes of which Mexicans had never seen.

A magnitude 5.5 earthquake and a burst of smoke from the nearby Popocatepetl volcano in the morning underscored the seismic shift in Mexican political life--and in its style.

Shattering the tradition of a near-imperial Mexican presidency, the former rancher and businessman began the day’s activities in jeans and cowboy boots, and used jocular slang even in his inaugural address. Fox, 58, broke a political taboo by repeatedly emphasizing his Roman Catholic faith, starting with a morning visit to the Basilica of Guadalupe--an unprecedented act in a country whose officially secular government generally has been hostile toward the influential Catholic Church.

“Fortunately for us, today a new era began. I see people have reacted to this change with great optimism,” said Carlos Gelista, a Mexican auto executive who was in the crowd listening to Fox’s afternoon address to the nation. “I see he has raised many expectations.”

In a solemn ceremony before a joint session of Congress, Fox took the red, white and green presidential sash from Ernesto Zedillo, the 13th consecutive PRI president, who won international praise for overseeing Mexico’s fairest presidential elections. Past votes had been marred by violence, fraud and other irregularities.

Scores of dignitaries, from Cuban leader Fidel Castro to California Gov. Gray Davis, looked on as Fox pledged in an hourlong speech to build a new political culture.

“The traditional presidency imposed its monologue for many years. Now, more than ever, governing means dialogue,” said the towering, gray-suited Fox, standing before a wall emblazoned with the gilt inscriptions of names of Mexican heroes. “The strength of the nation can’t come any more from just one point of view, just one party or just one philosophy.”

Fox, of the conservative National Action Party, or PAN, pledged to guarantee freedom of the press and respect for human rights, and end political repression. He also held out an olive branch to the Zapatista rebels, who launched a brief uprising in southern Chiapas state in 1994, saying his first proposal to Congress on Tuesday will be to try to revive stalled peace talks. And Mexican troops began pulling back from jungle and mountain conflict zones.

Signaling his eagerness to make changes, Fox pledged in his inaugural speech and the subsequent national address to immediately launch a host of reforms, ranging from a higher-profile office for indigenous affairs to “Project E-Mexico,” which would expand Internet access throughout the country.

“The citizens’ vote on July 2 was, above all, a plebiscite in favor of change,” Fox said.

Many Mexicans seemed thrilled at the possibilities of rapid change.

“I was at home this morning, but I said: ‘No, I want to see this guy. I want to applaud him,’ ” said Reyna Gutierrez, 45, a masseuse who joined a crowd of about 200 hoping to glimpse Fox as he emerged from the capital’s National Auditorium, where he presented a message to the nation at midday.

“Everything is different,” she said. “He’s going to be better for the country.”

Some, however, worried that Fox had raised expectations to unrealistic levels, virtually guaranteeing eventual disillusionment.

“My biggest concern is exaggerated expectations, that this one person is going to be able to transform Mexico overnight. That’s clearly going to be impossible,” said Peter H. Smith, director of Latin American studies at UC San Diego.

“It also entails a contradiction,” he said. “Those who think he can do so also implicitly assume he will have an imperial presidency that he is dedicated to dismantling. And you can’t have it both ways.”

It was immediately clear that Fox won’t face a smooth road governing. Members of the PRI, who make up a plurality in Congress, heckled the new president throughout his inaugural speech. They indicated that they saw Fox not just as an opposition politician but also as someone who could betray a defining element of Mexican political culture: the separation of church and state, established in 1857 under liberal hero Benito Juarez.

At one point, dozens of PRI legislators jumped to their feet, pumped their fists in the air and interrupted Fox with a chant: “Juarez! Juarez! Juarez!”

Undoubtedly deepening such concerns, Fox received a large wooden crucifix from his daughter Paulina during his afternoon address to the nation.

The PRI isn’t Fox’s only problem. He is a relatively untested politician whose Cabinet includes business executives who are political neophytes. Fox spent much of his adult life working for Coca-Cola and his family’s businesses before becoming governor of the small state of Guanajuato in 1995. He then spent most of his governorship running for president, breaking the rules of Mexican politics by starting his campaign three years early and focusing heavily on media and marketing.

Despite such drawbacks, Fox won admiring reviews Friday from guests such as Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

“It’s good to have high expectations, but then you have to have high energy,” she told foreign correspondents. “It strikes me that he really wants to move.”

Indeed, Fox made it clear Friday that he intends to dismantle the legacy of the PRI, which has its roots in the Mexican Revolution.

He pledged to transform a system that long exchanged government subsidies for the loyalty of farmers, poor families and others. He implicitly criticized the national health service, a sacred cow, saying Mexicans should be able to choose their own doctors. He called on Mexicans to abandon the tradition of dependence on the government.

He vowed to eradicate corruption, the oil that greased the PRI machine, even insisting that his new Cabinet take an oath of honesty.

“The great corrupt people of the past, the present and the future will be called to account. There will be no blank slate,” Fox warned. “Nevertheless, no action related to the past will be inspired by any resentment, vengeance or desire for personal vindication.”

Fox indicated that he will step up attention to Mexicans who migrate to the United States, establishing a special office to defend their rights.

Before the inauguration ceremony, Fox went with his four adopted children to the Basilica of Guadalupe, where he prayed to the image of the revered “Brown Virgin.” In jeans and a denim shirt, he then shared tamales and hot chocolate with street children in the capital’s Tepito slum, a gesture of his commitment to creating opportunities for the roughly half of Mexico’s 100 million people who live below the poverty line.

Responding to his easygoing manner, residents of the poor neighborhood dropped the formality Mexicans generally use for the president. They called him simply “Vicente.”

Missing were the huge, bused-in crowds of PRI supporters that the government once delivered to inaugurations. But the historic occasion generated excitement.

In the evening, tens of thousands of people jammed the Zocalo, the heart of Mexico’s political life since the Aztec empire, for a sound-and-light show to celebrate the inauguration.

From the balcony of the Spanish colonial National Palace, Fox told the cheering crowd: “Today I bring you fresh news. Today Mexico is on the move, and no one can stop it.”

Then, in shirt sleeves, he joined the crowd before heading to a gala dinner at Chapultepec Castle, the onetime presidential residence.

“You can feel the electricity. In the last couple days, in the street, talking to business leaders, meeting with the Cabinet, it was almost euphoric,” said California Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, who was part of the official U.S. delegation.

Fox plans to continue celebrating this weekend with a “victory lap” around the country in which he will meet with peasants, indigenous groups, artists and intellectuals. Then it’s down to business.

“If I had to summarize my message today in one sentence, I would say: Today Mexico has a future, but we have lost much time and wasted many resources,” Fox said. “Mexico has a future, and we must build that future starting today.”