Mexican First Lady Rules Out a Presidential Bid

MEXICO CITY —  Mexican first lady Marta Sahagun, whose putative political ambitions have divided her countrymen and drawn criticism from abroad in recent months, said Monday that she would not try to succeed her husband, Vicente Fox, as president of Mexico.

“I have said it and I repeat it: Mexico is ready to be governed by a woman,” Sahagun said at a news conference at Los Pinos, the presidential residence. “Nevertheless, I want to affirm that I will not be a candidate for the presidency of the republic.”

Sahagun’s announcement seemed designed to put an end to a string of events that have rattled and embarrassed the Fox administration this year and caused the president’s wife to be compared by commentators and comics to Eva Peron and Lady Macbeth.

At a hastily convened afternoon news conference, Sahagun declared that she would “continue my struggle in favor of women” and that when her husband’s term expired in 2006, the couple would “return home and enjoy our family.” Sahagun spoke for barely five minutes and left without taking questions.

But some analysts here believe it is too early to write off Sahagun as a future political player. “In politics, never say never,” said Benito Nacif, a professor at the Center for Economic Research and Teaching.

The controversy surrounding Sahagun, 51, who served as Fox’s press secretary before marrying him three years ago, has been building for some time. On July 5, presidential chief of staff Alfonso Durazo resigned, accusing Fox of trying to dictate his successor in the autocratic style of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which ruled Mexican politics for 71 years.

Sahagun’s repeated suggestions in the past that she might run for president also have angered and divided members of Fox’s center-right National Action Party, or PAN. Another member of Fox’s administration, Energy Minister Felipe Calderon, resigned in May after Fox publicly chastised him for indicating that he might run for president.

That prompted some PAN members to grumble that Fox was allowing Sahagun to float her own political trial balloons while shooting down those of potential rivals.

In addition, Mexico’s attorney general and Congress both have begun investigations into Sahagun’s charitable foundation, Let’s Go Mexico. They are looking into accusations that money from the national lottery was illegally funneled into the charity’s projects. In January, the Financial Times of London reported that the foundation was spending 34% of its income on overhead expenses. (Most Mexican charities spend 10%.) Sahagun has denied those allegations.

Despite these setbacks, Sahagun remains popular with the Mexican people. Only Mexico City’s mayor, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, consistently outdistances Sahagun in polls asking who should succeed Fox.

Pamela Starr, a professor of political science at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico, believes that Sahagun still “would very much like to be president.”

However, she continued, Sahagun’s prominence in Mexican politics has spurred criticism at home and negative commentary from newspapers in the United States and Britain.

“I think she has finally realized that this is definitely the moment not to run,” Starr said. “It would cause much more chaos in the country and in the party [PAN] than it would be worth.”

Starr said she thought Sahagun would “angle for a candidacy” for one of Mexico’s unelected Senate seats awarded based on proportional representation of political parties.

“She’s still going to be out there campaigning for Marta and for Fox,” Starr said.