Zedillo Hails Mexico’s Journey to Democracy

A proud President Ernesto Zedillo delivered his final state of the nation address Friday night, assuring the country that it was headed for its first crisis-free change of leadership in decades and hailing the arrival of a new political era.

“Mexico has completed its journey toward democracy,” declared the president, who leaves office Dec. 1.

The speech marked a high point for Zedillo, who began his six-year term with a severe economic crisis and was castigated as a political bumbler. In contrast, he now presides over brisk economic growth--albeit growth that has not trickled down to many of the poor. He has been acclaimed as a Mexican-style Mikhail Gorbachev for reforms that recently contributed to his party’s stunning loss of power after 71 years.

In a quarterly national poll published Friday, the Mexico City daily Reforma found that nearly 70% of respondents approved of Zedillo’s performance. That compares with a 30% approval rating five years ago.

Still, not everyone was applauding. As Zedillo highlighted his accomplishments during his address before Mexico’s Congress, left-wing deputies hoisted letters forming the word “Lies!” in Spanish.

Zedillo’s fiercest critics include members of his own party. Some lawmakers of the long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, even tried unsuccessfully to organize a boycott of the president’s address. One PRI legislator stood briefly and turned his back on the president during the speech. They contend that Zedillo is responsible for the PRI candidate’s loss in the July 2 presidential election to Vicente Fox, a charismatic businessman from the center-right National Action Party, or PAN.

Zedillo did not specifically mention his party in the address but appeared to refer to the PRI as he urged political parties to cooperate with the new government.

“Now no one can remain forever in opposition, nor can anyone remain forever in office,” Zedillo said in his nationally televised speech.

But the democratic system, he added, provides incentives to all the parties.

“It is in everyone’s interest to care for our home. Not only because it belongs to all of us but because now anyone can be the head of the household,” the president said. And he assumed responsibility for his government’s actions but implied that Fox won because of a better campaign.

Zedillo dwelt at length on what may be one of his most important achievements: Mexico’s rapid recovery from the peso collapse and recession at the beginning of his term. The government took such unpopular measures as raising taxes and slashing spending to end the crisis.

“We were actually in jeopardy of losing not thousands but millions of jobs,” said Zedillo, 48, a Yale-educated economist.

He noted that Mexico not only has recovered its economic balance but is surging economically. The country is expected to log an average annual growth rate of 5% in its gross domestic product for the 1996-2000 period, the president noted.

Annual inflation is expected to be less than 10% this year, compared with 52% in 1995.

Zedillo did not mention the massive international assistance that helped the country avoid bankruptcy. But in a sign of Mexico’s stability, the Finance Ministry announced Thursday that it had paid $3 billion to the International Monetary Fund, closing the books on a loan dating from the 1994-95 crisis. And in 1997, a $13.5-billion U.S. loan was paid off early.

Zedillo vowed Friday to put an end to the string of economic crises that has accompanied presidential transitions for nearly three decades.

“The Mexican economy will not experience upsets or setbacks as a result of the change in government officials,” the president said. “Our economy is endowed with the appropriate conditions to continue growing in the years to come.”

Mexicans, who traditionally have bought dollars at the end of presidential periods, are still wary. The Reforma poll published Friday found that 46% of those surveyed expected an economic crisis at the end of Zedillo’s term. But that was down from 66% last September.

And, while giving Zedillo high marks overall, many Mexicans are not impressed by his economic performance. The president’s campaign slogan was: “Well-being for your family.” But only 37% of those polled thought that Zedillo’s economic management had been good or very good, according to Reforma.

On Friday, left-wing opposition lawmakers joined in attacking Zedillo’s management of the economy. In statements before his speech, they criticized everything from the privatization of government firms to a $100-billion bank bailout.

Still, other legislators were more conciliatory. The mood was far more civil than in some previous addresses, which were interrupted by shouting and heckling.

The president reminded Mexicans that, at his 1994 inauguration, he promised to make the country a true democracy. Zedillo ushered in reforms such as an independent electoral board that drastically reduced the fraud and lopsided advantages that traditionally benefited the PRI. He also abandoned the tradition in which presidents virtually handpicked their successors.

“We have achieved the shared goal I announced on Dec. 1, 1994: our complete satisfaction with the way in which elections are conducted, regardless of their outcome,” Zedillo said to warm applause, especially from PAN legislators.

A striking symbol of the new political pluralism in Mexico was the Congress inaugurated Friday. For the first time in Mexico’s post-revolutionary history, no party has a majority in either the Senate or the Chamber of Deputies.

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Times staff writer James F. Smith contributed to this report.