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Vicente Fox Quesada (born July 2, 1942) is the current president of Mexico.
He was elected in the 2000 presidential election, a historically significant
election that made him the first president elected from an opposition party
since Francisco I. Madero in 1910. His current term runs through 2006, re-election
ist not possible under the Constitution of Mexico.
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Fox was born in Mexico City to a wealthy Mexican-Spanish family (with his
father of part-Irish American descent), and grew up on a farm in the state
of Guanajuato. His education included the Universidad Iberoamericana and
seminars imparted by lecturers from the Business School of Harvard
University. After the end of his education he went to work for the Coca-Cola
Company, starting off as a route supervisor and driving a delivery truck. He
rose in the company to become supervisor of Coca-Cola's operations in Mexico,
and then in all of Latin America, despite the fact he didn't graduate from
university until he became presidential candidate in 2000.
Early political career
Fox joined the National Action Party (PAN) in the 1980s by invitation of
Manuel J. Clouthier , a distinguished member of that party, also an
entepreneur and presidential candidate in 1988.
The PAN party promotes free market economies and conservative values and
policies (the party is normally associated with the Roman Catholic church).
It was the oldest opposition party in Mexico, a citizen, middle-to-high-class
oriented group, the first to get a congressman (just one in a PRI dominated
congress), a municipal president and a state governor (in the late eighties).
In 1988, Fox was elected to congress representing León, Guanajuato. He ran
for governor of Guanajuato in 1991, and many thought he had won but the
ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) candidate was declared the
winner in what a number of observers considered a fraud by the government.
In the ensuing uproar and after behind-the-scenes negotiations with
president Carlos Salinas, the governorship was given to Carlos Medina
Plascencia of the PAN on an interim basis. For that reason Fox retired from
political activity for the rest of Salinas's term. At the end of Salinas'
term the 82nd article of the Mexican constitution was modified to allow
Mexicans born to a non-Mexican parent (his mother is Spanish) to run for the
Presidency. While this change was interpreted to favor some of the PRI's
politicians, in the end it enabled Fox to become president.
In 1995 Fox again ran for the governorship of his state. This time he won by
an undisputedly wide margin and took office. His term as governor in
Guanajuato was uneventful however, promoting private investments and
government efficiency and transparency.
Profile:
Term of office: December 1, 2000 – present
Preceded by: Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León
Succeeded by: incumbent
Date of birth: July 2, 1942
Place of birth: Mexico City
Profession: Industrialist
First Lady: Marta Sahagún
Political Party: National Action Party |
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