BY ANDRES OPPENHEIMER
MEXICO CITY -- Vicente Fox, 57, candidate for the center-right
National Action
Party (PAN), studied business administration at the Universidad
Iberoamericana
in Mexico City and did post-graduate studies at Harvard University.
He was
president of Coca-Cola in Mexico, was elected congressman in
1988, and
governor of Guanajuato state in 1995. He is divorced, and the
father of four
adopted children, who live with him. Main points of his with
The Herald last week:
His political platform: ``The PRI offers a monopoly of power,
whereas we offer
power sharing. They offer presidentialism, while we offer federalism
and
decentralization. They offer a make-believe democracy, while
we offer a real
democracy.''
Economic issues: ``We have to bring an end to monopolies, like
the monopolies
we have in telecommunications, in the unions, in [the state-run
oil company]
Pemex and in the electricity industry.''
Privatizing Pemex: ``I'm not an [all-out] `privatizer.' We don't
need to privatize
Pemex to meet our economic program of 7 percent annual growth.
. . . On the
other hand, we can't have issues that are taboo, or untouchable.
If there are
political conditions to do so, I would propose to the people
of Mexico the
alternative of opening up Pemex and placing a minority of its
stock in the public
market.''
Education: ``We will double the education budget. To do it, we
will take money
from a fiscal reform that will among other things free funds
from Pemex and use
them for funding education, science and technology. And we will
cut by 30
percent what the government spends in bureaucracy, give-aways
and corruption.''
The North American Free Trade Agreement: ``We have to insist on
asking the
United States for the free passage of people along the border.''
Foreign policy: ``We do not believe in Mexico's policy of blind
nonintervention. . . .
When there are cases of human rights violations or genocide,
I think Mexico must
denounce these cases.''
Copyright 2000 Miami Herald