The photo printed by several Latin American newspapers could not be more descriptive. A follower of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) cries hopelessly at the gates of the party’s headquarters after hearing something he believed he would never hear: PRI losing the presidency of Mexico for the first time in 71 years.

In fact, the story of the defeat of PRI and the unexpected victory of Church-friendly Vicente Fox dominated the headlines of the region’s newspapers for several days after the July 2 presidential elections in Mexico. The reason for such interest, according to Uruguayan political analyst Alberto Methol Ferre, is that it was Mexico, and not the tiny island of Cuba, which stood as the region’s equivalent to the Berlin Wall before Latin America’s road to democracy.

The role played by PRI in the life of Mexico is hard to overestimate. Since it was founded by the followers of General Plutarco Elias Calles in 1929, PRI became the cradle-to-the-grave party, with control over everything from schools to health care, broadcasting to banking, and oil.

The combination of patronage, persuasion, brutality, and bribery with which PRI managed to stay in power despite holding elections every six years deserved to be called “the Polite Ogre” by Mexican writer Octavio Paz and “the Perfect Dictatorship” by Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa. One of the lesser known but significant marks of PRI was its staunch policy against the Catholic Church. In fact, despite its influence in Mexicans’ daily life, until very recently, the Church lived under the harshly anti-clerical 1913 constitution passed by the government of Venustiano Carranza.

Carranza nationalized Church property, prohibited the clergy from wearing clerical garb and from providing Catholic education, banned religious activities outside churches, put a limit on the number of priests, and removed the Church’s legal status.

Plutarco Elias Calles, who ruled Mexico from 1924 to 1928, tried to implement fully the Constitution—which until then was never seriously enforced—unleashing the “Guerra Cristera,” a revolt of Catholic peasants mainly from Jalisco and Guanajuato, that almost defeated the government forces. After three years of guerrilla wars and 70,000 deaths —many of them martyrs as proclaimed by Pope John Paul II—the “Cristeros” and the government reached a verbal agreement mediated by the then US ambassador in Mexico. PRI promised not to persecute the Catholic Church, but the text of the anti-clerical constitution remained unchanged as a sword hanging over Catholic leaders over the years.

Only as late as 1992, under President Carlos Salinas de Gortari, the Mexican Constitution was rewritten to grant legal status to the Catholic Church, but kept restrictions over education and media ownership.

Vicente Fox
As astonishing as the fall of PRI is the rise of Vicente Fox and his party, the “Partido de Accion Nacional” (PAN) into power. Being a member of PAN was always seen as a deliberate option for suffering disappointments. In fact, the party was founded under the inspiration of Jose Vasconcelos, a famous Mexican intellectual who converted to Catholicism and was stripped of the victory when running for president in 1929 against the recently founded PRI. PAN candidates, always regarded as Church-friendly, time and again lost any election for president or governor, and only received enough places in Congress and the Senate to keep the facade of a democracy. Nevertheless, eventually, PAN won its first state governorships by landslides that were impossible to hide. President-elect Fox was one of those first successful candidates.

The second of nine children, the 58-year-old Fox grew up in a strongly Catholic family of farmers in the rural town of San Cristobal, in the state of Guanajuato.

Fox says of his past:
My father, Jose Luis Fox, a farmer, and my mother Mercedes Quesada, brought me to Rancho San Cristobal, where I grew up with other farmer boys and met face to face one of the evils of our nation that we can combat: poverty.

After finishing his studies, he started a brilliant career at the Coca-Cola Company, becoming the youngest-ever president of the company’s Mexican and Latin American branch. He then moved back to Guanajuato, where he became a successful farmer and entrepreneur in the shoe industry. PAN invited him to enter politics, and in 1995, surprisingly, he became the first non-PRI governor of Guanajuato.

A father of four adopted children, always known for his militant Catholicism, Vicente Fox has promised to bring dramatic changes to the political and economic life of Mexico, but his ambitious program could also have a significant impact for the life of the Church in Mexico.

An ambitious program
Since his election, Fox has promised he will bring a “business-like approach” to government. He promised he will lead a government “of reconciliation and multi-party agreement.” He also promised “bold initiatives” to bring peace to the conflict-ridden southern state of Chiapas, and said he would personally try to meet the leader of the Marxist rebels before taking office.

He has also said he would create 1.3 million jobs during his six-year tenure, and bring the yearly economic growth up to 7 percent starting his fourth year in office. Fox also said inflation would be brought down to 2 percent by 2003.

But probably the most convincing promise has been that to dramatically reduce government spending, something that will not be difficult considering the lavish lifestyle PRI officials were accustomed to having.

In the international field, Fox will introduce significant changes. First, Mexico will no longer be Cuba’s ally in the region. Fox, in fact, has said: “We will become Cuba’s true friend—because a good friend always pushes his partner in the right direction.” Second, Mexico’s government will no longer have a policy of “no involvement” toward authoritarian regimes in the region.

On judicial reform, Fox has vowed to set up a Security and Justice Ministry, taking responsibility for domestic security away from the Interior Ministry, and putting all federal police under the new body. Moreover, the Attorney-General’s Office will lose its power to investigate and judge cases, and will be turned into a US-style prosecutor’s office. Fox has also committed to set up a “commission of citizens” to investigate past political crimes such as the 1993 killing of Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo and the1994 assassination of PRI presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio.

Fox and the Church
Perhaps the most atypical commitment was the one Fox made with the Catholic Church in an open letter he addressed to the Mexican Bishops’ Conference (CEM).

In his letter, Fox said, if elected president, he would scrap the remaining forms of discrimination against the Catholic Church by allowing it to have a presence in education and to be allowed to participate in mass media.

He went even further: he promised to involve the Catholic Church in drafting a new national educational program based “on strong moral values and virtues.”

Fox’s letter also promised that Mexico’s official policy, “domestically and internationally,” would be committed to the defense of life and family. The consequences of this change in Mexico’s international policy is impossible to overestimate: Mexico, together with Brazil, is the strongest Latin American ally of birth control and even abortion—even though it is illegal in the country—and usually takes side against the Vatican and pro-life countries at international forums.

“A change in Mexico’s official policy in this field would put a regional Goliath on the side of pro-life forces,” says Jose Luis Serrano Limon, leader of the Mexican Pro-life Committee. “Imagine what could happen if this is met by a pro-life government in the US!,” he adds.

The bishops’ reactions
The enthusiasm of Catholic leaders, especially the bishops, was evident after the unexpected election of Fox. Nevertheless, public reactions were extremely prudent.

“You can’t call this a miracle, but certainly it is an extraordinary event,” said Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera, Archbishop of Mexico City, when asked about his opinion.

“Of course we are very pleased at the fact that President Fox is a Catholic man who has expressed openly his Christian commitment in the promises he made in his letter,” said Bishop Abelardo Alvarado Alcantara, Secretary General of CEM.

Nevertheless, Cardinal Rivera recalled that the Catholic Church is awaiting “formal, institutional relations with the new government.”

“We are neither expecting nor asking for any privilege, just the normalization of the relationship and the recovery of the same rights the Church deserves like anyone else,” the cardinal said. Bishop Alvarado Alcantara explained that CEM “wants to abide by the principle of separation of Church and State,” but “it is necessary to improve the law to give the Church the same rights other institutions have.”

The day after the elections, the Mexican Episcopate released a public statement congratulating Fox on his election as president and the Mexican people “for bringing our democracy to a new, higher level.” The document also said that the new president’s challenge would be to build a country “with a better future, fighting against corruption, injustice, poverty, and ignorance which are at the root of so many evils.”

“We invite all Mexicans to pray and participate in building a Mexico with justice, solidarity, reconciliation, and fraternity,” the document concludes.

Difficulties ahead
Despite the enthusiasm of Mexicans, Fox’s term will not be easy. On the one hand, his election sparked a record rise in the Mexican stock market and an increase of the peso against the US dollar. But on the other hand, he has several political complications ahead. With only 38 percent of the seats in the Congress, PAN will have to negotiate almost any initiative, probably with PRI legislators, since the third force, the left-wing Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), has called Fox’s election “a disaster for Mexico.”

In addition, PRI retains—through what some say is electoral fraud—the control of 21 of the 32 states’ governorships. Fox has promised that before taking office on December 1, he will personally visit each governor to explain his vision and plans to them.