Opposition Wins Mexican Elections

M E X I C O   C I T Y, July 3 -- — After 71 years, Mexico’s ruling party has lost its grip on power.

President Ernesto Zedillo declared opposition candidate Vicente Fox winner of the nation’s presidential elections, something that would have been unthinkable not too long ago.

Fox, of the National Action Party — known by its Spanish initials, PAN — defeated Francisco Labastida of Zedillo’s Institutional Revolution Party, or PRI, which has ruled Mexico for much of the past century.

Preliminary results “are sufficient and trustworthy enough to say that the next president of the republic will be Vicente Fox,” Zedillo said in a nationally televised statement. “I have telephoned him to express my sincere congratulations.”

Moments later, ruling-party candidate Labastida said, “The citizens have made a decision that we should respect, and I’ll set the example myself.”

End of an Era

Fox, a former Coca-Cola executive and rancher, called Sunday a historic day for Mexico.

“From today forward, we need to unite. We have to work together to make Mexico the great country we have all dreamed of,” he said.

The vote was the first in more than a century in which the outcome wasn’t clear beforehand. Despite hundreds of allegations of pressure and vote-buying — most perpetrated by the ruling party — the elections were widely seen as Mexico’s fairest ever.

People began gathering beneath the gilded angel of Mexico City’s Independence Monument, waving the blue-and-white flag of Fox’s PAN while plastic trumpets blared amid chants of “Yes you could!”

Fox wasted no time taking his message of reform to a U.S. audience. A day after his victory, Fox told ABCNEWS’ Nightline that he hoped to improve Mexico’s relationship with the United States by solving problems tied to migration, drug trafficking and trading.

“We’re going to give the mother of all battles against organized crime in Mexico,” Fox said on Nightline. “We will begin by eradicating corruption from within government becauise all of our police corps are totally contaminated.”