Mexico's movers and shakers seen in Fox's cabinet

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (Reuters) -- Some of Mexico's best and brightest are being touted for President-elect Vicente Fox's Cabinet, expected to be announced in the next few days ahead of his assumption of office on December 1.

Fox, of the conservative National Action Party (PAN), won a July general election, ousting the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) after 71 years in power. Fox has pledged to bring in a plural, cross-party government.

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The most burning question is who will be finance minister.

Luis Ernesto Derbez, who with Eduardo Sojo has led Fox's economic transition team, has an economics doctorate from Iowa State University and from 1983-1997 ran programs in Chile, Central America, Africa and India with the World Bank.

He drafted Fox's economic platform for the election campaign. However, Derbez has no experience working in the public sector in Mexico.

Another much-cited candidate is Francisco Gil Diaz, a former deputy central bank governor with a doctorate in economics from Chicago University. Since December 1997 he has headed long-distance phone operator Avantel.

As head of Avantel, which competes with Mexican phone giant Telmex, Gil Diaz has been a key proponent of reforms and regulations that would curb the market dominance of Telmex.

One theory is that Derbez may have a role overseeing economic policy, with someone like Diaz as finance minister.

Mexican Energy Minister Luis Tellez, who was key in engineering a series of oil supply cutbacks along with Saudi Arabia and Venezuela that helped reverse the lowest oil prices in decades has also been mentioned as a possible finance minister.

Some have suggested that current Finance Minister Jose Angel Gurria should stay on.

Gurria is well respected in the international financial community but at home he is regarded as damaged goods due to his often fractious relations with Congress and a controversy over his collecting government pensions from previous jobs while serving as minister.

Eduardo Sojo headed Fox's economic cabinet during his 1995-99 term as governor of Guanajuato state. His name has also been linked in the local press with the trade ministry.

Fausto Alzati Araiza is viewed as the most obvious choice for energy minister. A one-time cabinet member and head of energy planning in Fox transition team, Alzati sat on the board of state-owned oil company Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex).

However, Alzati carries political baggage. He was forced to resign from his job as education minister under President Ernesto Zedillo after acknowledging he had listed a doctorate from Harvard without having formally defended his thesis. Industry analysts also question whether he has the experience or contacts for the delicate, market-moving job.

For the interior ministry, PAN candidate for Mexico City mayor and former PAN deputy Santiago Creel is the favorite. A lawyer by profession and citizen's advisor to electoral watchdog IFE, Creel has a reputation as an adroit conciliator.

Rodolfo Elizondo, a former PAN senator who participated in Chiapas peace talks, is the only other name cited for the job.

In the trade ministry the race appears down to Sojo and Valentin Diez Modoro, vice-president at Mexican brewer Grupo Modelo. Modoro spearheaded the company's export program for Corona throughout the world, putting Corona on the map.

For foreign minister, leftist political scientist and columnist Jorge Castaneda and independent senator Adolfo Aguilar Zinser are strong hopefuls. The two joined the Fox camp late in the campaign and were advisors to leftist icon Cuauhtemoc Cardenas in the 1988 election.

On the downside, Castaneda has made an enemy of the local press through his abrasiveness and is not liked by the U.S. foreign policy community.

Another contender is Andres Rozental, a former deputy foreign minister and career diplomat with over 30 years in the foreign service. Rozental was retired early from his last post as Mexico's ambassador to London amid speculation he was being punished for his closeness with Zedillo's political opponents.

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