WEYMOUTH: Some opposition members allege that you are constantly moving around the country, opening government programs, and in so doing, you are helping your party’s candidate, Francisco Labastida. ZEDILLO: Early in the campaign, I decided not to campaign actively in favor of the presidential candidate of my party. It’s unfair to say that because I am doing my job, I am working for a candidate, especially [when] a good part of the campaign by [the] opposition has been to question the government’s record.
Do you expect the election to be free and fair? We have an electoral system built through a series of reforms, and we [can] guarantee a free, transparent and fair election.
Wasn’t it you who was largely responsible for carrying out the electoral reforms? It is true that one of my first initiatives as president of Mexico was to convene the political parties for an electoral reform that provided for full independence of the electoral authorities and for fair access to the mass media for all political parties and candidates. [Moreover,] this reform provided public financing of political campaigns… I also promoted democratization within my political party and suggested that the candidates for the presidency be elected in an open primary.
I know you reformed the Supreme Court. Are there other reforms you wanted to conduct but did not have time to get to? No, we achieved the full independence of the judiciary. Now the Congress has a new law that guarantees its full independence from the executive branch. We have a national commission on human rights that is now fully independent.
In 1995, just five weeks after your inauguration, Mexico had a disastrous fiscal crisis. Can you look back to those bleak days and recall how you turned around the economy? We had a huge foreign current-account deficit that was financed by short-term capital. The public debt became vulnerable to short-term capital movements. We had short-term obligations denominated in dollars in excess of $40 billion. Once the crisis started… it became enormous. We had to put in place a very strong economic program and also seek external financing. It was painful for Mexico, especially for the poorest people, because we had a sharp decline in production and an acceleration in inflation. However, the crisis was over sooner than expected.
Do you think wealth should be spread more evenly? The wealth will be better distributed as long as we are successful and continue to invest heavily in education, health, programs against extreme poverty.
A lot of people argue the wealth isn’t spread… They are confused. You don’t get better income distribution by taking from one and giving to another. You get better income distribution by em-powering people to have the capacity to share the benefits of development… Those paternalistic and populist policies that unfortunately were prevalent in Latin America for many years showed their failure a long time ago.
Can you tell me about your relationship with President Clinton? Well, Mexico has in President Clinton a very good friend.
Under your presidency, Mexico became more fully integrated with the United States. A country has to participate in the global economy. Isolation conspires against development.
Do you expect that after the upcoming election, there will be another financial crisis? Unfortunately, every six years during the last 24 years, there’s been a financial crisis. But this time it will not happen.
Of what are you most proud? I detest vanity, and it is up to the people to say what I’ve done well.
What’s next for you, Mr. President?, A long time ago, I made the decision not to decide what to do [in the future] until I leave office. Of course, I know I will be working, hopefully doing something related to my profession. I have two professions: I am a professional economist and a professional politician. Since I will be leaving politics, I am left with the professional-economist option. But where, how, I don’t know.
