FOX'S SHIP OF STATE 'JUST FLOATING' 2 YEARS AFTER MEXICAN ELECTION UPSET

MEXICO CITY - Nearly two years after his historic election, President
Vicente Fox is presiding over a paralyzed and bickering administration that
has failed to deliver on a cascade of promises to make Mexico richer,
safer, better educated and less corrupt.

The charismatic Fox ended the 71-year rule of the Institutional
Revolutionary Party, or PRI, on July 2, 2000, with a promise to overhaul a
corrupt government that had lost the people's faith. But as Fox has proved
unable to advance his goals, the euphoria of his election has dissipated.
In its place is increasing concern that history may remember Fox as the man
who ended the PRI's reign but accomplished little as president.

"Fox is not captain of the ship. We are just floating," said historian
Lorenzo Meyer. "I worry that the rest of his term is going to be
characterized by just surviving."

Fox has scored victories: He's made government spending more transparent
and allowed international human rights observers into Mexico for the first
time. He appointed a prosecutor to review disappearances of anti-government
activists in the 1970s and '80s; in the past week, he gave the public
access to the government's secret files on those cases. Several long-sought
drug kingpins have been arrested during his tenure, and previously strained
relations with U.S. law enforcement agencies have improved markedly.

But almost 19 months since he took office, his reform agenda is frozen by
hostile relations with Congress and lack of coordination and unity in his
Cabinet. He's made little progress on pledges to modernize key parts of the
economy: an outdated tax code that allows widespread cheating, energy
problems that are leading to California-style power outages, and antiquated
labor laws that hinder business investment.

Having lost the initial momentum of his celebrated victory, Fox now faces
at least another year of stalemate because of the increasingly bitter
political climate ahead of congressional elections next summer. Many
analysts here say Fox's agenda will remain bogged down in partisan feuding,
including potentially damaging allegations by his opponents that Fox's
campaign accepted illegal foreign contributions.

Rodolfo Elizondo, Fox's chief spokesman, said: "President Fox is very aware
that the circumstances aren't allowing him to advance as quickly as
everyone wanted. But he knows it's a marathon, not a sprint."

Even some of Fox's strongest allies, particularly business leaders, say
such arguments are beginning to sound like excuses and that Fox's
government is stuck. "Yes, there is very strong inertia and resistance, but
by now we had hoped for at least some clear indications of where he is
going," said Pedro Javier Gonzalez of Dialogo Mexico, an organization of
business leaders that recently issued a report criticizing what it called
Fox's lack of leadership.

Fox's relations with the United States were to be the crown jewel of his
administration, but they're stalled, largely because of Washington's new
security-first approach to border issues since Sept. 11. Rather than the
European Union-style open border Fox initially envisioned, the U.S. border
will probably be even more tightly guarded under President Bush's proposed
Department of Homeland Security.