COHA's Paula Beatriz Mian Interviews Former Mexican President Vicente Fox Cohistas
go to original March 14, 2013

U.S. drug consumption is to blame for rise of drug cartels in Mexico, and only legalizing drugs can solve the problem, said Vicente Fox in this Newsmax interview in March, 2011. (NewsmaxTV)

Vicente Fox was elected president of Mexico in 2000 and served for six years. Since leaving office in 2006, he has written his memoirs, guided the creation of his presidential library, and has traveled abroad as a public speaker.

The following is an interview with Vicente Fox conducted by COHA Research Fellow, Paula Beatriz Mian.

Quality of Democracy

Q1: Do you agree with the optimistic perception regarding the quality of democracy in Mexico?

Vicente Fox: I do not only agree, but I also support this optimistic perception. We live in a different Mexico when compared to the country of 12 years ago. Democracy is the most valuable resource on which Mexicans rely today, like never before freedom of speech allows us the possibility to give our opinion and raise our voice when we need to defend our democracy. There is certainly a long way to go, but we are on the right route.

Q2: Is the Pact for Mexico a threat for the country?

Vicente Fox: Nobody in his right mind could think that the Pact for Mexico poses a threat to democracy and to plurality. It is a political agreement with great importance. Its vision is to reach great actions and specific reforms that project Mexico to a more prosperous future. The Pact for Mexico is the result of the president’s political will along with the will of the three Mexican political parties, PRI, PAN and PRD, to realize the reforms that the country needs. With the inclusion of the legislative power in this pact, I don’t doubt that it is going to succeed.

Q3: Do you believe that the PRI’s return to federal government is a pushback against the Mexican quality of democracy? Do you predict an authoritarian government under PRI’s influence?

Vicente Fox: It would be the same as if the new generation of priistas threw everything out that they had won in the party’s comeback.

Q4: Are you in favor of the obligatory vote? Do you defend that voting is a responsibility, more than a civil right?

Vicente Fox: Suffrage is both a responsibility and a right. On one side, we are all responsible for the carrying through of the mandate that we provide with our vote.

Education

Q5: How would you evaluate the recent changes in the Ministry of Education concerning Elba Esther Gordillo?

Vicente Fox: We gave a vote of confidence in the incoming government. It is too early to evaluate.

Q6: What is your opinion regarding the new educational plan? Do you think that Peña’s educational reforms are going to weaken the trade unions?

Vicente Fox: By the way of strengthening the quality and the equity of education, unions also get stronger. Today there has been a new impulse for the calling of state reforms, integrating the coincidences that take us to the construction of a political system and a vigorous and fair rule of law. We need to give preference to the only possible coincidence: Mexico.

Economy

Q7: What are the current challenges and opportunities for the Mexican economy regarding growth potential?

Vicente Fox: We want our country to progress. Mexico has, as a great challenge, the need to catch up with the countries that are going ahead. Mexico urgently has to defeat poverty. Mexico has to offer its compatriots opportunities. Mexico requires from its citizens that they reflect and act in harmony with the public and private sectors a vision in compliance with development. Mexico has to take advantage of its relations with the European Union, strengthen its commerce with China and build an alliance with India (the latter two countries are probably going to be great powers by 2050). Mexico has to revive NAFTA and strengthen its commerce with the USA and Canada. In sum, Mexico has to once again be a leader in Latin America. I hope that the strength and the energy of the country isn’t stopped by distractions, the noise nor by the division of attention between Mexicans.

Q8: How would you evaluate Peña’s lack of propositions regarding the rural areas?

Vicente Fox: I don’t see a lack of propositions regarding the rural areas of the country. President Enrique Peña Nieto presented a plan to fight against the drought in Mexico, whose main components are going to be warning and early action in order to foresee and opportunely act in eventual climate contingencies that threaten the population and the productivity of the rural areas, which is a problem that, in the past years, has affected 17 states and has worsened poverty in many areas in the country. Another proposition is the support of all producers via insurance against catastrophes. Another one is related to the immediate creation of a Fund of Rural Support in case of Climate Contingencies, that allows

Q9: Mexico does not count on a robust tax system, and thus depends strongly on the revenue that comes from oil royalties. Taking in consideration the daring welfare and educational reforms planned by Peña, do you foresee a tax increase?

Vicente Fox: Not everything can be solved with tax hikes. The current tax system desperately needs improvement, simplifying the processes in order to make more efficient the collection of taxes, as well as amplify the taxpayer base and combat tax evasion. This is the recipe.

Q10: Do you think that the Pacific Alliance with Peru, Chile and Colombia is going to benefit the Mexican economy? Do you foresee narrower Mexican relations with the countries in the South, such as Brazil and Colombia?

Vicente Fox: Effectively, I foresee a greater and better relation with our neighbors from the south and from the north of our own continent. I hope we become the leader of Latin American once again. I hope we are respected for being a country of peace, harmony, and forward looking vision.

Security

Q11: Regarding the Merida Initiative, do you agree with Calderón’s decision of accepting economic support from the United States in exchange for strategy instructions? Do you believe that Peña should continue with Calderón’s policies?

Vicente Fox: Each president has his own ideas and he has the right to develop the strategy that he considers to be more convenient to solve the problems. According to his declarations regarding security, President Enrique Peña Nieto is doing a 180-degree turn in order to make true the desire and right of Mexicans to live in an environment of peace and tranquility. He intends to gradually take the army away from the streets and replace it with the Gendarmerie in order to combat the violence, amongst other measures.

Q12: Do you think that replacing the army by a police force is a good option for combating violence on the streets? Is this model, previously applied in Colombia, a valuable security policy?

Vicente Fox: Any measure that has been tried and has succeeded in combating organized crime and violence on the streets is welcome.

Q13: On December 13, Peña achieved his first victory in Congress by passing a law that eliminates the Secretary of Public Security (created by you and kept by Calderón). Security questions will now be treated by the Government Secretary. What is your opinion about that?

Vicente Fox: The Secretary of Public Security was eliminated but its functions were not. Reforming the police body in order to make them more honest and efficient is always going to be a permanent task of governments.

Q14: What do you think about Peña’s desire to unify the Penal Code? Do you believe he is going to succeed?

Vicente Fox: You had the same problem with the oral judgments and these continue throughout the whole country. With the unification of the Penal Code you will continue to have the same problem, it will only become more institutionalized while it would be more beneficial to establish homogenous elements to the process

Q15: Analysts recently commented on the impact of marijuana legalization in the American states of Colorado and Washington on the Mexican cartels. Do you believe that drug legalization is a reasonable mechanism to combat violence? How important is it to have Joaquim “El Chapo” Guzman under custody to decrease violence levels in Mexico?

Vicente Fox: In many debate forums and articles, I have insisted in the legalization of drugs as a reasonable way to diminish levels of violence. Legalizing is a great way out of the trap in which we find ourselves. This way out offers substantial benefits, such as:

• Separate violence and crime from the subject of health
• Decrease in consumption, as it happened in Portugal with the legalization
• Reduce substantially the cartels’ revenue
• Allow the government the budget to inform, educate, and prevent
• To give time and resources to attend other extended forms of criminality
• To educate in the capacity of deciding, and exercising our liberties responsibly
• Rescue thousands of young people that today are on the wrong path and that are, to a certain extent, the future of the country
• To go back to economic development and the generation of opportunities, so that the country goes ahead and not only sees the others passing

International institutions that study these problems, such as the Comisión Global de Políticas sobre las Drogas y el Instituto Cato, national academic institutions like UNAM, as well as intellectuals with the stature of Mario Vargas Llosa, Carlos Fuentes, José Emilio Pacheco, Héctor Aguilar Camín, Jorge Castañeda, Rubén Aguilar y el ex Presidente de México, Dr. Ernesto Zedillo, along with the actual presidents of Guatemala and Uruguay have suggested being in favor of a change in the current paradigm concerning the use of force to combat violence.

Foreign Relations

Q16: What can be expected from the negotiations and meetings held by Peña and Obama concerning immigration issues in Mexico and the United States?

Vicente Fox: Obama has the great opportunity to make his great mark on history if he acts as Abraham Lincoln did during his epoch. I hope he establishes a constitutional amendment in order to execute an immigration policy that defends the decision of immigrating as a human right, going against its criminalization. Only by the way of doing that he is going to be known.

Q17: If you were in Peña’s place today, what would you do differently? What would your priorities be? What would you do differently from the beginning of your own term?

Vicente Fox: I would analyze the results of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), between Mexico, the U.S. and Canada, 19 years after its creation. Today we need a reinforced NAFTA, we need a NAFTA with new ideas, new strategies, a NAFTA that allows us to energetically face the challenges that our countries have already faced and will face in the years to come.

In addition, I would take a look at the progress of the Alianza para la Seguridad y la Prosperidad de América del Norte (ASPAN), signed in March 2005, whose objectives are to incentivize integration and prosperity in each country, in terms of economic, comericial, and social improvement, the improvement of these factors in each country will directly effect the others. In this way, North America will take on globalization via a regionalism, committing itself to a greater and more structured cooperation.

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