Mexico City Mayor Meets With Fox

Appearing to put an end to months of bitter partisan rancor with the federal government, Mexico City mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Friday that he and President Vicente Fox would cooperate to ensure that Mexico’s 2006 presidential elections would be “clean, free and peaceful.”

Lopez Obrador made his remarks after a much-anticipated meeting with Fox at the presidential palace, Los Pinos.

The visit, which lasted about 15 minutes, came just two days after federal prosecutors officially dropped criminal proceedings against Lopez Obrador. The abuse-of-authority charges, stemming from a 2001 municipal land dispute, could have barred the mayor from running for president next year.

On April 27, Fox accepted the resignation of the federal attorney general in charge of the case, a gesture that was widely seen here as a peace offering and a preamble to allowing Lopez Obrador back into the presidential race. In recent days, Fox has reiterated his belief that dropping the charges was necessary to allow Mexico’s democracy to move forward.

Lopez Obrador, of the Democratic Revolution Party, leads all other likely presidential candidates in voter preference polls. Fox, of the National Action Party, is barred by Mexican law from running again.

Lopez Obrador described the meeting with Fox as “short and good.” The president’s office issued no statement.

Lopez Obrador said “we spoke of our obligation” to ensure that the coming presidential election would be fair and democratic, and that its outcome would be respected by all sides.

In recent months, Lopez Obrador has sought to negate his political rivals’ charges that he is a radical leftist populist.

The mayor also said he had given Fox an extensive file detailing measures he had taken to improve Mexico City’s much-maligned public security system. Last summer, when thousands of citizens protested a rash of kidnappings, Lopez Obrador had responded angrily, accusing his political opponents of trying to embarrass him.

The mayor also said that he had told Fox that he would agree to a public health measure that the president supports, and that he had invited the president to attend the inauguration of new public works facilities.

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Cecilia Sanchez and Narayani Lasala in The Times’ Mexico City Bureau contributed to this report.