Pubdate: Mon, 27 Nov 2000
Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Copyright: 2000 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
Contact:  PO Box 120191, San Diego, CA, 92112-0191
Fax: (619) 293-1440
Website: http://www.uniontrib.com/
Forum: http://www.uniontrib.com/cgi-bin/WebX
Author: Niko Price, Associated Press

FOX URGES U.S. TO FACE ITS DRUG HABIT

President-Elect Also Set To Push 'NAFTA-Plus'

SAN CRISTOBAL, Mexico -- Only days before his historic inauguration as 
president, Vicente Fox said America should deal with its drug habit and 
pledged to join the United States and Canada in what he called "NAFTA-plus."

In an interview before he takes office Friday, Fox said the United States 
is too quick to write off Mexico as a corrupt haven for drug smugglers, and 
too reluctant to look in the mirror.

"The United States, year after year, blames us. Why?" Fox asked. "Who lets 
the drugs into the United States? Who is doing gigantic business in the 
United States, then sends down millions of dollars that corrupt Mexican 
police officers and government officials?"

Fox said the two countries need to "sit down . . . and work this out together."

Fox has promised strong measures against drug corruption, but his comments 
indicate he will continue -- or increase -- Mexico's long-standing 
complaint that the supply of drugs would not exist without a demand in the 
United States.

He also said that despite a tepid reaction from both George W. Bush and Al 
Gore, he was confident that he would persuade his northern neighbors to 
expand the North American Free Trade Agreement and eventually to open their 
borders entirely to Mexican goods -- and maybe even workers -- along the 
lines of the European Union.

"I am proposing a 'NAFTA-plus,' " Fox said. "I'm proposing that 20, 30 
years down the road we form a North American common market in which we 
become partners, the United States, Canada and Mexico.

"I will continue to insist on this, and I know I will win the battle," Fox 
said. "I am going to persuade Bush or Gore, whoever it is. And I am going 
to persuade the American people."

Fox's election July 2 was a historic change for Mexico, ending 71 years of 
rule by a single party. On Friday, the country enters a new era as Fox 
takes office -- and takes on dire problems including crippling poverty, 
widespread corruption and rampant crime.

A farmer and former Coca-Cola executive, Fox pledged to treat the country 
as a CEO would a money-losing company, and to build "a government that 
costs less and does more."

This weekend, he took his final breather before assuming his office, 
retreating to his hometown of San Cristobal, a farming village 210 miles 
northwest of Mexico City.

Fox milked a cow, tended to horses in the stables, played tennis and joined 
his children in an out-of-tune number with a mariachi band. He sat for 
interviews Saturday with The Associated Press and CNN in his mother's 
living room amid porcelain figurines of horses and black-and-white wedding 
photos of family members.

Chatting with his children and posing for photographers, Fox seemed relaxed 
given what he's facing.

"It's just like in school," Fox said. "When it's time for exams, the people 
who have studied go in calmly, with the confidence that everything will go 
well. . . . I am going to be the best president this country has ever had."

Fox said he was aware of the giant -- probably unrealistic -- expectations 
Mexicans have for him, but claimed he wasn't worried about them. On the 
contrary.

"I would never throw cold water on that enthusiasm, on that hope," he said. 
"I dare say that this is Mexico's revolution of hope."

But he cautioned people not to expect too much, saying most of the changes 
he envisions will take much longer than his six-year term.

"I think the development process Mexico is facing will be long," he said. 
"We have said that in a generation we want to have the Mexico that we 
always should have had. . . . The 21st century is the century of Latin 
America and of Mexico. We are going to be the winners."

Fox said he had been surprised by the smoothness with which Mexico has 
accepted the democratic opening in which he was elected, and that he had 
expected more resistance from the ruling party and other opposition forces.

"I'm very satisfied, and I have to recognize not only the Mexican people 
but also President (Ernesto) Zedillo, who came onto national television . . 
. and declared the winner Vicente Fox because he was convinced that I had 
won," Fox told CNN.

Then he smiled.

"Maybe," he said, "this should happen in the United States."
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