(Fifth of eight parts)
In the previous installment we pointed out that Vicente Fox Quesada was supported by President Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leónby operating against the PRI candidate for the presidency of the Republic Francisco Labastida Ochoawhose defeat has not yet been overcome by the latter.
Vicente Fox Quesada served as President of Mexico from December 1, 2000 to November 30, 2006. He was the first president emanated from the National Action Party (PAN) with 42.5% of the votes cast on July 2, 2000, a date that coincided with his 58th birthday.
Said president continued with the neoliberal economic policies that his PRI predecessors had adopted since the 1980s.
During the six years of the mandate (2000-2006) of Vicente Fox, there was an average annual economic growth of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 2.3%.
With Fox, the gross external debt federal public sector went from 84,600.2 million dollars in the last quarter of 2001 to 73,002.5 million dollars to the second quarter of 2006, decreasing its share of GDP from 13.9% to 8.8% in this period. The reduction in external debt was due to the surplus of foreign investment in the Capital Balance and the transfers in the current account balance, despite the fact that the balances of trade, factor services and non-factor services presented deficits during the six-year term.
In terms of internal debt, it is observed that it did not suffer the same trend, since in the same period it went from 712,046.7 million pesos to 1,476,525.4 million, increasing its participation in GDP from 12.3% to 15.6%, respectively. Internal and external debts jointly contracted their share of GDP from 26.2% to 24.4% in the same period.
The total foreign debt of the country went from 144,526.6 million dollars in 2001 to 133,647.9 million dollars in the second quarter of 2006.
During the Fox government the exchange rate of our currency went from 9.45 pesos to the dollar in December 2000 to $10.98 in June 2006which represented an annual deterioration of the Mexican peso against the dollar of 2.5% per year.
In the political and diplomatic field, we observe with Vicente Fox solid relations with the United States of America. Instead, he had a major diplomatic conflict with Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
It also had diplomatic conflicts with Venezuela and Bolivia, after supporting the creation of the Free Trade Area of the Americas, which those two countries opposed.
During the Fox administration, there was a strong political conflict with Andres Manuel Lopez Obradorthen head of government of Mexico City, as an unsuccessful attempt was made to remove him from office and thereby prevent him from participating in the 2006 presidential elections.
In the last year of his government, Fox oversaw the controversial 2006 elections, where the PAN candidate Felipe Calderon he was declared the victor by a very narrow margin over his opponent López Obrador, who claimed that the elections were rigged and refused to recognize the results, holding protests across the country. The PRD even tried to boycott with great force the inauguration of Felipe Calderón Hinojosa as president of Mexico. From the facts and numbers dear reader, you judge Fox dear reader.
On the same day that Felipe Calderón was sworn in – December 1, 2006 – Andrés Manuel López Obrador proclaimed himself “legitimate president” in a massive act in the Zócalo of Mexico City; having presented three days later to his “cabinet”. We will talk about this last character in the last issue of this series.
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#Economic #political #synthesis #Díaz #Ordaz #López #Obrador