Word: madrid
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...City, which affords a view of outgoing President José López Portillo's unfinished family estate. Reporter Laura López headed south to Chiapas and Taxco. She also visited some of Mexico's most remote areas during the presidential campaign of Miguel de la Madrid and watched his helicopter fleet land, "no different in the eyes of the isolated villagers from seeing an Aztec god descend from the heavens." After a one-hour interview with the new President, Willwerth and López are optimistic that the recent mood of frankness will continue...
With unusual candor, the new President told his countrymen that "Mexico is undergoing a grave crisis." He noted that unemployment was high (between 10% and 15%) and that inflation would reach almost 100% this year. De la Madrid expressed concern about the "mistrust and pessimism" engulfing the country. "We are not a defeated or bankrupt nation," he said. "I will not allow our homeland to crumble away through our fingers...
...minute inaugural speech, De la Madrid outlined a ten-point austerity program for "reordering the economy." It included deep cuts in government spending and higher prices for public sector goods. (The next day gasoline prices were doubled.) He promised to peg the peso at a more "realistic" rate of exchange and announced plans to restructure the federal bureaucracy and eliminate waste...
Mexico's new chief executive also pledged to move forcefully against the public graft and featherbedding that had flourished under Lopez Portillo. Said De la Madrid: "Mexicans are a deeply moral people and they demand that I pursue all forms of corruption. I will govern by example...
There was one small but telling sign last week that Mexico's new President intends to take that promise seriously. When De la Madrid set off from his home for the inauguration ceremony, he instructed his chauffeur to heed all the stop signs...