Towel flap pops Mexico's Fox

Dirty laundry was not exactly what President Vicente Fox was expecting to be hit with as he marks one year since his historic election.

But revelations of a presidential palace renovation including $400 monogrammed towels and $1,000 sheet sets have some Mexicans wondering whether Mr. Fox is living up to the ideals of his campaign.

Pledging to end waste and corruption and transform the economy, Fox broke 71 years of one-party domination by defeating the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) last July 2.

But now the advocate of budget austerity finds himself fending off comparisons with former free-spending leaders of this country where about 40 percent of the population lives in poverty.

Fox has ordered an investigation by the federal auditor and says heads will roll for the costly purchases.

The scandal, known locally as "toalla-gate," or towel-gate, comes as a growing minority of disappointed Mexicans are concluding that nothing has changed with the election of Fox.

Some analysts voice the view that simply defeating the PRI isn't enough, and that Fox may not be the leader to deliver a new Mexico as he promised.

Yet a strong majority of Mexicans still support Fox seven months after he took office Dec. 1. Surveys show that Fox's approval rating has slid from a previous 70 percent but still remains high. A poll released June 22 by the Mexico City daily Milenio showed two-thirds of Mexicans approving the president's work.

Patiently waiting

What has shifted is that many of his supporters no longer expect the quick progress Fox himself promised in the campaign.

"You can't expect change immediately," says Ricardo Perez Pena, a young Mexico City restaurateur, "especially when you're talking about dismantling the way of doing things for so many decades."

Recalling the enthusiasm he felt on July 2, 2000, Mr. Perez says a year later, "I really don't feel any disappointment at all. I understand better now that the changes we need will take even more than Fox's term. But I think he's off to a good start."

Even with the economy suffering from the slowdown north of the border, many Mexicans say they are just thankful there wasn't the same economic meltdown with Fox's arrival that hit Mexico in recent transitions from one PRI president to another.

Fox has not yet spent all the currency he won with Mexicans by accomplishing what had once seemed impossible - defeating the PRI. The party that ruled longer than any other political party in history gave Mexico what was called the "perfect dictatorship" - as well as a system corroded by corruption and inefficiency.

"What will be possible in six years of government [the Mexican presidential term] will be sowing the seeds of change," says Alicia Buenrostro, a Fox press official. "The fruits of that change - a revolution in education, expanding opportunities, the cultural changes, like stopping corruption, that take so long - will really be felt in 30 or 40 years."

Page: 1 | 2