Mexico Government

In one of its final acts, the outgoing congress in Tabasco state named a former ruling party legislator as acting governor Sunday, two days after a top court stripped the party of its recently won governorship. The naming of Enrique Priego, 53, came amid protests from opposition parties, which won a major victory Friday when Mexico's top electoral court annulled the results of the gulf coast state's October elections, backing opposition claims that the balloting was marred with errors.

The Mexican government's challenge of a $16.9-million award to Metalclad Inc. will be heard by a Canadian court on Feb. 12, the Newport Beach hazardous waste management company said Wednesday. The company said in a press release that the Mexican government seeks to overturn the award made Aug. 30 by a tribunal set up under the North American Free Trade Agreement.

In his first official act at the chief executive's compound, President Vicente Fox met Sunday with Mexicans who live in the United States, signaling his resolve to improve ties with the millions of his fellow citizens driven to emigrate in recent decades. At a reception for more than 200 Mexican emigrants just two days after his inauguration, Fox said the era is over when Mexicans who left their country are scoffed at back home.

Businesspeople and investors in the U.S. are enthusiastic yet wary about Mexico as Vicente Fox takes over as president. Enthusiasm is high because Fox, who started his six-year term Friday, is an international businessman himself. He headed Coca-Cola's operations in Mexico for many years and has appointed several multinational businesspeople to positions in his government. Fox sees joint ventures with U.S. and other foreign companies bringing capital and expertise to Mexican industry.

New President Vicente Fox is taking over a fast-growing economy fueled by rising foreign investment, a stable peso, cooling inflation and a balanced government checkbook. Who could ask for more? Fox himself does, and therein lies the risk as the former Coca-Cola executive, who took office Friday as the first opposition party president to rule Mexico in 70 years, embarks on his six-year term.

President Ernesto Zedillo leaves office today at the height of his popularity--esteemed by the public, praised by the opposition and hailed internationally as a democratic reformer who deserves a place in history. Members of his own party, however, wish him a different fate. "Death to Zedillo!" members of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, cried when the president's name was mentioned at a recent party ceremony. Zedillo, 48, may be remembered as the president who won by losing.

With his final batch of Cabinet appointments, President-elect Vicente Fox has consolidated a team of tough-minded managers who are expected to inject new discipline into governing Mexico--as long as Fox's complex executive structure proves functional. Fox on Monday night named a security secretary and attorney general known for their relentless campaigns against crime, corruption and impunity--probably the issues of greatest concern to ordinary Mexicans.

Announcing the final portion of his Cabinet on Monday, President-elect Vicente Fox chose a tough army prosecutor as attorney general and a calm negotiator as interior secretary. As the top military prosecutor, Gen. Rafael Macedo de la Concha has taken tough stands against army malcontents and fellow officers accused of drug smuggling. As a congressional leader for Fox's party and a top election official, Santiago Creel has learned to build consensus among fierce opponents.

Nearly five months after Mexico's ruling party was voted out of power, its formerly bustling headquarters here bears the moribund feel of a boomtown gone bust. Its plaza, once decked with giant campaign banners, is bare and nearly deserted, thanks to staff layoffs and a dwindling flow of visitors seeking party largess. Inside the stark office buildings, leaders of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, face a political landscape as gloomy.

President-elect Vicente Fox on Friday picked a businessman to head Mexico's labor secretariat and named special representatives for Indians and Mexicans living abroad, doling out some of the most sensitive jobs in his Cabinet days before his inauguration. Fox created special offices for the first time to deal with discrimination and minorities. But the appointments also revealed his inability to draw other parties into his Cabinet, dominated by conservative northerners and business executives.