MEXICO CITES U.S. CORRUPTION IN DRUG SMUGGLING

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Mexican President-elect Vicente Fox said in an
interview with U.S. television that corruption in the United States
contributed to cross-border drug smuggling.

``We Mexicans are smart, but not that smart to be able to smuggle all
those drugs by ourselves,'' Fox, who will be inaugurated Dec. 1, said
in the interview to be broadcast on Sunday on CBS News' ``60 Minutes''
program. ``So there must be some corruption within the United States.''

In excerpts of the interview released by ``60 Minutes'' on Friday, Fox
said corruption had become ``a culture and a behavior. And so we have
to change that culture.''

Fox, a rancher and a businessman, led his conservative National Action
Party to victory on July 2 over the Institutional Revolutionary Party,
which ruled for 71 years.

``The billions and billions of dollars generated by drug consumption
comes from the United States,'' Fox said. ``And those billions of
dollars are used to bribe Mexican officials or Mexican policemen.
Let's face that we have a problem, that each one of us has it, and
let's meet it together.''

Fox said Latin America had ``a new attitude'' at the beginning of the
21st century. ``The 20th century was the century of North America, of
Asia, of Europe. Now's the time for Latin America. We have a new attitude.

``We have democracies now. We know that we either educate or we won't
have development and growth,'' Fox said. ``And Mexico will be the
winner of the 21st century. You will notice that when you come back
six years from now. You will see that.''