Mexican Congress rebukes Fox for mentioning poor

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (Reuters) -- Mexico's Chamber of Deputies on Tuesday passed a resolution criticizing President Vicente Fox for breaking protocol by mentioning the poor and destitute during his swearing-in speech.

Legislators from Fox's conservative National Action Party (PAN) sat in stunned silence during a heated debate in the lower house in which opposition lawmakers accused Fox of violating the Constitution.

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On ending 71 years of single-party rule last Friday, Fox pledged in his oath of office to respect the Constitution, as the Constitution stipulates.

But then he made an ad-libbed pledge to look after the "poor and marginalized of this country" and, further bucking tradition, began his speech by saying "hi" to his children instead of addressing the legislators.

His departure from the Constitutional oath protocol infuriated members of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which he ousted from the presidency in a July election.

PRI lawmakers and some members of the left-of-center Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) initially sought to have Fox sworn in again. But Tuesday's criticism does not call for a repeat of the oath of office.

The President of the Chamber of Deputies, Ricardo Garcia, proposed the statement criticizing Fox.

Garcia is a member of Fox's PAN but is viewed as belonging to a traditionalist wing that is not particularly close to the president.

"The presidency of the Congressional leadership committee will contact the president of the Republic to indicate his failure to stick with the text dictated by the Constitution," said Garcia, reading the resolution.

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