NOW IT'S MEXICO'S TURN TO GLOAT

BAJA CALIFORNIA SUR, Mexico -- I am basking in the desert sun of a nation
with a new president. This silver-buckled, Western boot-wearing,
macho-oozing man has turned this country topsy-turvy, starting with last
year's electoral overthrow of the party that dominated Mexico since 1929
and continuing, as recently as last week, with his daring domestic
extermination plan aimed at narco-traffickers and their corrupted
government accomplices.

President Vicente Fox's intelligence and leadership are measured by his
command of language, his ability to sift through layers of distracting
material to construct coherent policy, and his commendable corporate
leadership in the soda-pop industry.

Proof of his political IQ was first evident in the way he campaigned. A
former chief executive officer for Coca-Cola of Mexico, Fox could have
launched a slick Madison Avenue-style campaign. Instead his Jesuit
schooling came into play in the form of a grass-roots campaign, somewhat
independent of his National Action Party bloodline, that pried the
presidency from the historically intransigent Institutional Revolutionary
Party.

The remnants of his Amigos de Fox campaign can be seen in many parts of the
country, where PRI signage is fleeting. It is seen here in Baja California
Sur, where the outer walls of some buildings still read, "FOX, 2000," the X
marked in red.

Unlike what some U.S. voters suspect of the George W. Bush administration,
there is no co-presidency here and there have been no protests of the
outcome of Fox's election as fraudulently based.

There is only Vicente Fox, the towering presence who stole the show at last
month's global economic forum in Davos, Switzerland, and who most likely
will overshadow President Bush when he visits Mexico later this month.
Theirs will not be a meeting of equals by any standard measure, not even
when one considers that they were both once governors, Bush of Texas and
Fox of Guanajuato.

Despite how smart Fox has proved to be, there are some in Mexico who
suspect that his immediate public crackdown on what appears to be
culturally entrenched corruption is proof that he is slightly bonkers, if
not politically suicidal. It's one thing to take on the PRI in a fight
picked by the voters; it's quite another to take on drug smugglers in a
fight picked by one man.

Common sense dictates that a country with the decades-old tradition of
showering imprisoned drug lords with such perks as party girls and
furloughs and where jailers are more bellhops than guards, isn't likely to
adapt easily to drastic change.

This is a country where corruption has gone all the way to the top. And,
despite Fox's unquestionable legitimacy, this country is known for the
taco, the ballot stuffing technique named for the food. Corruption will not
be erased overnight. But the Fox presidency has brought hopeful signs and
surprises.

Lately, Fox, his cowboy hat shading his face, has been swaggering
throughout Mexico like the new sheriff in town, promising law and order
wherever he goes. After the Jan. 19 escape of drug lord Joaquin Guzman from
Punte Grande's maximum-security prison, Fox authorized the house arrest of
71 top prison officials. Next, the Fox-appointed customs director announced
that all but four of the 47 customs supervisors had been fired for alleged
corruption and incompetence.

Fox's new government commission against corruption is something unheard of
and sets Mexico on a course not charted since 1992, the last year for such
a housecleaning. U.S. lawmakers, especially those weary fighters in the
drug war, should be pleased. Meanwhile, opinions shift from skeptical to
optimistic. Guzman, after all, remains at large.

But Americans are hardly in a position to look down on Mexico and Fox is
hardly the man to spar with. Fox often reminds U.S. lawmakers of the
consumption side of the drug war and the United States role in it. This is
a man who will not be -- and will not let Mexico -- be pushed around.

Some Mexicans are amused by and concerned about what has happened in the
United States, particularly in Florida where presidential ballots remain in
dispute. Mexicans are used to having the legitimacy of their elections
questioned and not seeing doubts cast about any of ours.

It's Mexico's turn to gloat now. And few could blame the people if they
did. Fox gives them plenty of reasons, economically and politically, to
feel good about and hopeful for Mexico for a change.

In other words, it's morning in Mexico.