Support Fades in PAN Stronghold

Tomas Puente is deeply disappointed with President Vicente Fox and his unkept promises to reduce crime, boost the economy and build public works projects.

Things have only gone sideways or in reverse for Puente and other residents of this hardscrabble Monterrey suburb since Fox took office in 2000 following his victory that broke the Institutional Revolutionary Party’s 71-year hold on the presidency. While some are willing to give Fox and his National Action Party, or PAN, more time to make good on his promises, Puente and others in this former PAN stronghold deserted the president in Sunday’s voting.

“It’s only gotten worse for families paying the bills. What happened to all the roads and the new hospital they promised us? And the crime, drugs and misery are growing, growing,” said Puente, a medical supplies salesman who voted for Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, candidates for mayor of Santa Catarina and governor of Nuevo Leon state.

Puente’s complaints echoed the disenchantment that many Mexicans expressed as they exited the polls of Santa Catarina, an industrial, middle- to lower-class town of 230,000 ringed by shantytowns.

Many residents here say they have yet to feel any benefit from the PAN’s having taken power. They say they are still terrorized by crime, their homes remain in jeopardy because of a lack of drainage, and they are still in need of a full-service hospital.

Many blame Fox and the PAN state governor for failing to deliver.

“They did some things but not enough,” said housewife Andrea Arreguin. “Maybe the PRI can do better.”

Up for grabs in Sunday’s midterm election were 500 seats in the lower chamber of Congress, six state governorships and hundreds of mayors’ posts. Many Mexicans said they had been turned off by a host of factors, including heavy campaign spending, a deadlocked Congress and Fox’s disappointing record at promoting reform.

Here in Nuevo Leon state, voters overwhelmingly supported Fox and his reformist platform in his victory over the PRI, but the former ruling party made a strong showing in the territory Sunday.

PRI gubernatorial candidate Jose Natividad Gonzalez and the PRI’s Monterrey mayoral candidate, Ricardo Canavati, won their races, and initial results showed that the party’s mayoral candidate in Santa Catarina, Irma Adriana Garza, also would win handily.

Nevertheless, many voters here said they appreciate that Fox’s victory made Mexico’s political system more pluralistic.

“Mexicans have more alternatives, which makes change happen faster,” computer programmer Veronica Rodriguez said as she left a polling station in Guadalupe, a Monterrey suburb of 700,000. “We’re seeing more democracy and more legality every day.”

Computer salesman Javier Cadena said the PAN deserves more time to carry out its reforms. “Rome was not built in a year, nor in six years. You can’t expect seven decades of history to be changed all at once.”

Jesus Buentello, a retired heavy equipment operator, said he was not happy with the chronic lack of police patrols and profusion of drug dealing on Santa Catarina’s streets. But a return to the PRI, which he called a “gang of shameless thieves,” is not an option, he said.

“The PAN has worked hard to break the power of the corrupt unions and done a lot for the people,” Buentello said.

However, the majority of voters interviewed were impatient, citing a sour economy and a deterioration in their quality of life.

“Everything is expensive and we continue in poverty. All I know as a housewife is that everything I buy costs more and that joblessness is up,” said Monica Vargas de Perez. “I voted for the PAN last time, but now I feel nostalgia for the PRI.”

Factory worker Geraldo Ramirez also voted with his wallet, switching to PRI candidates from his previous support of the PAN.

“Salaries are the same, while gas and water cost more. You don’t see any difference with the PAN,” Ramirez said.

In agreement was Diana Laura Hernandez, a secretary and mother of three, who said the new governor’s first order of business is to get the economy rolling and boost job growth.

“We need higher wages and home loans. The present government hasn’t done anything and we continue in poverty,” she said. “I don’t want to give the PAN any more time. They are only out for themselves.”

Tour guide Florentino Cantu Guzman expressed the cynicism of many in saying it makes no difference which party rules.

“I am from the middle class, am a little more educated than most, and I can visualize what real improvement in Mexico will look like,” Cantu said. “But not in the next 400 years.”