Mexico's unfamiliar political territory poses new questions

Fox signs autographs for his campaign team during a ceremony Wednesday in Mexico City

In this story: Economic plans Castro congratulates Street scuffles break out RELATED STORIES, SITES

MEXICO CITY -- Less than a week after Mexico's historic elections, advisers for President-elect Vicente Fox outlined his economic plan, while political analysts speculated on Fox's new administration.

Yet to be seen is how much control Fox's National Action Party (PAN) will impose on his promised coalition government.

The speculation and planning followed Fox's victory on Sunday against Francisco Labastida, Mexico's first defeated Institutional Revolutionary Party presidential candidate in 71 years.

As Fox formulates his power strategy, he should not follow PRI tradition by wielding his party's influence throughout the executive branch, former PAN member Carlos Castillo told CNN.

PAN officials said that would not happen. "We will neither mix nor fuse together interests as we had been accustomed to in the past," said Luis Felipe Bravo, PAN party president.

Political power is not new to PAN, which claims an influential bloc in the nation's legislature, and control of three states and several important cities.

PAN and its Green Party alliance won a majority of seats in the upper house of congress but could not muster a majority in the lower house. The legislature is scheduled to begin its new session on September 1.

A Fox adviser answered reporters' questions on Thursday about the president-elect's economic plan.

Chief economic adviser Luis Ernesto Derbez told a news conference that Fox's economic team is finding a "tremendous receptive attitude" from outgoing President Ernesto Zedillo's government and that Fox's team was working closely with Zedillo officials to have a 2001 budget presented to the legislature by the end of September.

"We would like to be as conservative as possible in terms of the revenue side in the next budget and have a target of about 0.5 percentage of GDP (gross domestic product) as public-sector deficit for the year 2001," Derbez said.

Zedillo's government has a goal of a fiscal deficit of 1 percent of GDP this year, down from 1.2 percent of GDP in 1999.

"We think that it will be around January or February maybe" that tax reform legislation will be sent to the legislature, Derbez said.

In the meantime, Fox officials will be meeting with interest groups in a bid to come up with a consensus tax bill, he said.

Fox appeared to be sticking to his campaign promises to not privatize state oil monopoly Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) or the country's national electricity company CFE. But he will seek more foreign and domestic private investment in key areas of the economy, including transportation, telecommunications and power generation, Derbez said.

Improving electricity output is key to meeting Fox's goal of Mexico's economy growing at 7 percent a year in the final years of his six-year administration, Derbez said.

Fox received a congratulatory box of Cuban cigars on Thursday sent by Cuban President Fidel Castro.

"Comrade Fidel sent a message congratulating Fox on his success. I know it arrived and was delivered personally," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Aymee Hernandez said.

The gift arrived despite campaign rhetoric in which Fox spoke of "flagrant" human rights abuses by Castro's one-party system, and criticized Cuba's "lack of democracy" and "abused economy."

At a news conference earlier this week, Fox again spoke of his desire for Cuba to "normalize" toward a pluralistic democracy and free market.

The unfamiliar political landscape showed itself through street scuffles on Wednesday in the state of Mexico, a traditional PRI stronghold.

On Thursday, Formato 21 radio said PAN supporters burned ballots in one municipality, accusing the PRI of winning a mayorship through fraud.

And Milenio newspaper reported Thursday that about 250 members of PAN and the Democratic Revolution Party, armed with sticks and stones, confronted about 400 PRI supporters in the town of Chimalhuacan, accusing the victorious PRI candidate for mayor of not complying with residency requirements for holding office.

Some political analysts had speculated before the vote that possible reluctance to accept a PRI loss could lead to widespread violence. But the swift acknowledgment of the result by Zedillo was believed to have done much to defuse tensions, despite Wednesday's clashes.

CNN Mexico City Bureau Chief Harris Whitbeck and Reuters contributed to this report.

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