Vicente Fox, with 7 months to go, may be "grounded"

too funny... i posted last week on argentine president néstor kirchner's curt dismissal of mexican president vicente fox's rebuke wherein he chided kirchner for not supporting bush on the free trade agreement of the americas at the summit of the americas held november 4 and 5 in mar del plata, argentina... kirchner's response:

"Let President Fox mind about Mexico. I was voted into office by the Argentine people and I will engage in defending Argentines in the due way."

and he didn't let it rest there either...

Kirchner, popular at home for standing up to the International Monetary Fund and multinationals, even insinuated Fox was a puppet of the US. "For some, good diplomacy is to engage in pleasantries and bow down to the big ones," he said.

now, members of the opposing party in the mexican congress are thinking about keeping fox at home...

Opposition lawmakers in Mexico threatened not to approve any more of President Vicente Fox's trips abroad because they say he has been causing trouble on the diplomatic front, like the run-ins with the United States and Cuba in the past and with Argentina and Venezuela this week.

[...]

[L]ate Wednesday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez said Fox had played the role of a "puppy of the empire (the United States)" and accused him of kneeling down before Washington.

The criticism of Mexico's alleged submission to Washington came two weeks after the Mexican Congress ratified adherence to the International Criminal Court (ICC), despite U.S. threats to cut off financial aid if it did so.

The United States has used similar threats against a number of countries, as it is opposed to the ICC because of fears that members of the U.S. armed forces could be brought before the global court, which was set up to hear cases of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The conservative Fox's relations with U.S. President George W. Bush, which were initially close, cooled considerably after Mexico opposed the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, from its seat as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.

Fox also had several diplomatic spats with Cuba. In 2004, the Mexican government accused the Caribbean island nation of meddling in Mexico's internal affairs and reduced the two countries' diplomatic relations to a minimum, after decades in which Mexico was Cuba's staunchest ally in the region.

oooooooo... ratifying adherence to the international criminal court... bad, BAD vicente... now george is REALLY pissed at you... and so is hugo... and fidel... and néstor... plus you have amlo (andrés manuel lópez obrador) breathing down your neck at home... i'll bet you'll be glad to see the election roll around... it's been a tough six years...

López Obrador is widely seen as the PRD's obvious candidate for the 2006 presidential election . . . Some of López Obrador's supporters for the presidency consider him to be Mexico's equivalent to the other new left-populist presidents in Latin America, such as Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Brazil), Néstor Kirchner (Argentina), Tabaré Vázquez (Uruguay), and Hugo Chávez (Venezuela).

it all happens this coming july 2...

A general election is to be held in Mexico on Sunday, 2 July 2006. Voters will go the polls to elect, on the federal level:

• A new President of the Republic, to serve a six-year term, replacing current incumbent President Vicente Fox.

• 500 deputies (300 by the first-past-the-post system and 200 by proportional representation) to serve for a three-year term in the Chamber of Deputies.

• 128 senators (three per state and 32 from national party lists) to serve six-year terms in the Senate.

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