Mexican President Vicente Fox promised to strengthen his often rocky relationship with Congress and acknowledged that his administration must do more to improve the economy, but he also used his state-of-the-nation address to tell new lawmakers: "Mexico demands better of us."
Stalled during the first half of his term by an often hostile Congress, Fox on Monday urged the nation's 500 new deputies in the lower house of Congress to help him make economic reforms and reduce poverty.
PHOTO: AP
"The opening of this legislature is the opportunity to begin again and to respond to society's dissatisfaction at the delay in changes," he said.
Many lawmakers were unconvinced, foreshadowing what could be three more years of political gridlock.
Lawmakers repeatedly interrupted Fox to shout: "People are dying of hunger!" and "Lies!"
Fox appeared rattled by the interruptions, stumbling over words and turning red as Congress' president scolded lawmakers for the outbursts.
The image was a sharp contrast from the confident Fox of three years ago, when his presidential victory unseated the long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party.
Fox took office riding a wave of enthusiasm, and promised to create millions of jobs so that Mexicans wouldn't have to work illegally north of the border.
He also pledged to negotiate a migration accord with the US, but those talks were sidelined by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. On Monday, lawmakers criticized the lack of jobs and said Fox had fallen short of his many promises.
"Mexicans voted for a change," said Oscar Gonzalez of the Labor Party. "You, Mr. President, have not known how or have not been able to deliver that. You have betrayed the trust of the Mexican people."
In response, Fox dropped his normally triumphant tone and admitted that the "lags and challenges we face remain huge."
"We have conquered democracy, but now we must perfect it and make it more effective," he said.
He urged the country to work together to reduce poverty, fight crime and increase education levels, and he called for an end to political infighting.
"What we decide today will be part of history," he said. "If we fail, the clamor shall not only be justified. It will be historic."
He asked lawmakers to work with him to pass his proposed labor and energy reforms.
But while most agreed on the need for reforms, many lawmakers objected to Fox's plans to allow private investment in the energy sector and raise taxes on food and medicine.
"We won't accept any more taxes on the poor," said Pablo Gomez of the Democratic Revolution Party. "We want the rich to pay what they owe," he said.
Interviewed after Fox's speech, Gomez called it "the same mediocrity as always."
Fox could face an even tougher battle in his last three years in office. July 6 midterm congressional elections left his National Action Party with 25 percent fewer spots in the 500-seat lower house of Congress. The PRI boosted its representation to 222 seats.
One of Fox's closest allies in the PRI, Elba Esther Gordillo, called for unity by saying: "Nobody wins if Mexico loses."
But Gordillo, the leader of her party in Congress, appeared to have little control over her followers. PRI lawmakers spent much of Fox's speech holding up signs in protest and shouting insults at the president.
Lawmakers also called on Fox to do something about the string of murders in the rough border city of Ciudad Juarez.
Fox responded by saying he would appoint a commissioner to coordinate the federal government's participation in solving the cases.
As he spoke, several female lawmakers held up signs that read: "Not one more victim."
James Watson — the Nobel laureate co-credited with the pivotal discovery of DNA’s double-helix structure, but whose career was later tainted by his repeated racist remarks — has died, his former lab said on Friday. He was 97. The eminent biologist died on Thursday in hospice care on Long Island in New York, announced the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he was based for much of his career. Watson became among the 20th century’s most storied scientists for his 1953 breakthrough discovery of the double helix with researcher partner Francis Crick. Along with Crick and Maurice Wilkins, he shared the
OUTRAGE: The former strongman was accused of corruption and responsibility for the killings of hundreds of thousands of political opponents during his time in office Indonesia yesterday awarded the title of national hero to late president Suharto, provoking outrage from rights groups who said the move was an attempt to whitewash decades of human rights abuses and corruption that took place during his 32 years in power. Suharto was a US ally during the Cold War who presided over decades of authoritarian rule, during which up to 1 million political opponents were killed, until he was toppled by protests in 1998. He was one of 10 people recognized by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in a televised ceremony held at the presidential palace in Jakarta to mark National
US President Donald Trump handed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban a one-year exemption from sanctions for buying Russian oil and gas after the close right-wing allies held a chummy White House meeting on Friday. Trump slapped sanctions on Moscow’s two largest oil companies last month after losing patience with Russian President Vladimir Putin over his refusal to end the nearly four-year-old invasion of Ukraine. However, while Trump has pushed other European countries to stop buying oil that he says funds Moscow’s war machine, Orban used his first trip to the White House since Trump’s return to power to push for
LANDMARK: After first meeting Trump in Riyadh in May, al-Sharaa’s visit to the White House today would be the first by a Syrian leader since the country’s independence Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa arrived in the US on Saturday for a landmark official visit, his country’s state news agency SANA reported, a day after Washington removed him from a terrorism blacklist. Sharaa, whose rebel forces ousted long-time former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad late last year, is due to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House today. It is the first such visit by a Syrian president since the country’s independence in 1946, according to analysts. The interim leader met Trump for the first time in Riyadh during the US president’s regional tour in May. US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack earlier
RSS