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 Business News | May 2006 
Mexican President Hits at Leftist Threat
 Daniel Dombey - FT.com
| | Mexico's President Vicente Fox , right, gestures while speaking during a media conference an EU Latin America summit in Vienna, on Friday May 12, 2006. European and Latin American leaders called for unity and better cooperation Friday amid a growing feud over energy and trade policy at summit talks between 58 European and Latin American nations. Seated left is UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and center is Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel. (AP/Michel Euler) |
Vicente Fox, president of Mexico, yesterday delivered a salvo against the leftwing policies of Venezuela and Bolivia, warning that protectionism and nationalisation could damage the prospects of Latin America.
In an interview with the Financial Times, he made a thinly veiled attack on Hugo Chávez, Venezuela's president, and Evo Morales, his Bolivian counterpart, who recently moved to nationalise the gas industry.
"I respect the opinions of other presidents and do not want to interfere in their decisions," Mr Fox said, when asked about the rise of economic nationalism in the region. "But, yes, I can say if something has not worked well in Latin America, it's precisely populism, demagoguery, deception, which only hurt the process of development and impoverish people even more."
Mr Fox added that he would today ask for a first-hand account from Mr Morales on how the country's plans for gas nationalisation would affect co-operation with Mexico.
"I want to hear from him . . . not to interfere but because of how it might affect what we have worked on," he said. "I want to hear from President Morales what his position is." Mexico has invited Bolivia and other states to compete for a long-term contract to supply it with natural gas.
Speaking in Vienna on the eve of a Latin American European Union summit, Mr Fox said the region needed instead to show it was open for business.
"I hope Latin American countries reaffirm our willingness to open up markets for trade and investment," he said, adding that the meeting needed to "draw to Europe's attention that not everything that glitters is gold in China, in Asia or India. Today, we are in a global arena where no one can decide not to participate."
But, after Mr Morales' latest declarations on limiting compensation to foreign investors in the gas sector, the summit may well disappoint Mr Fox's hopes.
Despite the attendance today of leaders such as Tony Blair, British prime minister; Jacques Chirac, French president; and José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Spanish prime minister, the Austrian officials organising the event found it hard to come up with any concrete results for the summit. |
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