Pubdate: Tue, 04 Jul 2000
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2000 The New York Times Company
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Author: Ginger Thompson

VICTOR IN MEXICO PLANS OVERHAUL OF LAW ENFORCEMENT

MEXICO CITY, July 4 -- The president-elect of Mexico, Vicente Fox
Quesada, announced plans today to rebuild the country's federal law
enforcement system, moving it toward an American model of justice as a
way to wipe out corruption that has crippled his nation for decades.

Mr. Fox also said he would travel to the United States soon to meet
with President Clinton and both major presidential candidates to press
his proposal to open the United States-Mexico border to a
less-restricted flow of immigrants.

The president-elect also explained some of the measures his new
government would take to deal with a range of Mexico's most persistent
and complex troubles, including the fight against poverty, efforts to
stem the flow of drugs through Mexico and the unresolved conflict in
Chiapas.

A two-hour news conference by Mr. Fox, whose election on Sunday ended
a 71-year rule of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, turned into a
wide-ranging foreign policy address. But his most detailed proposals
centered on his fight against corruption, a problem he considers a top
priority.

To accomplish the overhaul, he is likely to use executive powers that
allow him to create a federal police agency and to shift law
enforcement responsibilities from one agency to another.

Toward that end, he said, he will create a Ministry of Security and
Justice, similar to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, that will be
responsible for all the federal police.

Mr. Fox's plans would also significantly reduce the powers of the
Interior Ministry, which currently manages a recently created federal
police force.

And the attorney general's office would be similarly weakened, not
only by the removal of its control over federal law enforcement, but
also by Mr. Fox's plans to create a new agency of federal prosecutors
to manage investigations.

Because his ideas have widespread support, Mr. Fox's transformation of
the system is also expected to be well received in the Mexican
Congress even though it will no longer be dominated by any single
political party as a result of the election on Sunday.

In his wide-ranging comments, Mr. Fox brought up his goal of having
greater cooperation between the United States, Mexico and Canada. He
suggested the creation of a North American common market that would
allow a freer flow of merchandise and workers, with strict standards
for the protection of the environment, law enforcement and workers'
rights.

"It appears to me that both of us have lost sight of the goal," Mr.
Fox said, referring to the United States and Mexico. "The United
States' goal has been to put up walls, police and soldiers to fight
immigration. That can't work."

"Mexico's goal," he added, "has been to open an escape valve, allowing
350,000 young people to cross the border each year and washing its
hands of any responsibility."

"If we are serious," Mr. Fox concluded, "the least we can do is sit
down and say, 'This is the problem' and the goal is to close the
development gap."

In his answers to reporters' questions, Mr. Fox also offered specific
proposals for improving United States-Mexican relations, including
extending the benefits of the North American Free Trade Agreement more
evenly to small businesses on both sides of the border and turning the
drug certification program from a unilateral to a multilateral process
involving all countries affected by trafficking.

Mr. Fox said that in the next two months he would use five
international head-hunting concerns to help him select the members of
his cabinet so that leading up to his inauguration on Dec. they can
work side by side with the ministers they will replace. A team of
aides to Mr. Fox have also been assigned to work with the current
leaders of the Finance Ministry on setting next year's budget.

In trying to transform the law enforcement system, Mr. Fox's plans
could be upset by a backlash from below, where bureaucrats and
officers enjoy strong Civil Service protections.

President Ernesto Zedillo reorganized and renamed the nation's drug
police at least twice, and each time traffickers quickly infiltrated
the forces and bought off leading officials.

And he created a new federal police force to fight a mounting wave of
federal crimes, including kidnapping. But so far the new police have
done little to make Mexicans, especially those in larger cities, feel
any safer.

Jorge Chabat, an analyst of Mexican law enforcement, praised Mr. Fox's
plan to take the federal police out of the hands of politicians, who
used the agents for their own agendas. He said he felt some pessimism
over whether the new system would be resistant to the corrupting
forces of drug traffickers. But, he said, "someone has to try to fight
them."

"The truth is whatever the government tries, it will face a problem
with the corruption of traffickers."

In emphasizing his commitment to fighting corruption, Mr. Fox turned
the spotlight not only on the past, but also on his administration and
its future. He announced that he would create a "Commission of
Transparency," made up of Mexican citizens whose job would be to
investigate high-profile scandals of past administrations as well as
to serve as a watchdog over his own government.

But he was careful to make clear that he would not conduct wholesale
investigations of government conduct before taking office.

"We do not want to waste our government looking only at the past and
conducting witch hunts that could be misinterpreted," Mr. Fox said in
the news conference at the presidential residence, Los Pinos. The
transparency commission, he added, would be his government's way to
"set its sights forward, to construct a harmonious government and also
to make an accounting of the past."

In a signal of assurance to the Mexican military, Mr. Fox said he
would not consider appointing a civilian as chief of the Ministry of
Defense. "I see no reason to break a tradition that has brought
stability to the country," he said.

On other domestic issues, Mr. Fox said he wanted to visit Chiapas as
soon as possible and reopen peace talks with the Zapatista rebels. He
said he was willing to consider withdrawing the military from rural
areas of conflict in the state, one of the rebels' main demands.

Fighting poverty was another area that Mr. Fox called a priority and
he said that he would not approve budgets or program proposals from
members of his cabinet unless they could demonstrate in concrete terms
how these would help the poor.

"This would be our way to pay attention to the groups that have been
totally excluded from the development of our country," he said. "It is
one of the strong principals that we are going to introduce in the
decision-making process of the new government."
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