Mexico's desperate need for stability following the assassination of its president-apparent has impelled its ruling party to designate Ernesto Zedillo as its candidate in the Aug. 21 elections. As an unabashed protege of President Carlos Salinas, the 42-year-old Zedillo will be welcomed by an international investment fraternity that has rejoiced in the opening of the Mexican economy and ratification of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Whether he will be welcomed by the Mexican electorate will be the stuff of political speculation for months to come. Unlike Luis Donaldo Colosio, whose dreams of wearing the red, white and green presidential sash were shattered by an assassin's bullet last week, Mr. Zedillo lacks a born politician's flair and warmth. But like Mr. Colosio, he is dedicated to the Salinas reforms that are revolutionizing Mexico -- a fact somewhat overshadowed by the grievances of the Chiapas rebellion and the habitual complaints of the intellectual left.
First as Mr. Salinas's budget director, a post the president himself had held, and later as minister of education, Mr. Zedillo established himself as a tough administrator. He took on the National Teachers Union to instill merit differentials in salaries and to require periodic testing of teachers. His other innovations include throwing out textbooks imbued with authoritarian and anti-American sentiment, making education compulsory through junior high school and emphasizing the basics, especially mathematics, on the theory that Mexico can no longer afford current levels of illiteracy if it is to compete in the global marketplace.