Zedillo Implores Mexicans To Back Austerity Measures

A toughtalking President Ernesto Zedillo implored Mexicans on Sunday to support his unpopular austerity measures, saying they were necessary to prevent economic collapse.

“There is no easy or pleasant way to resolve the difficulties facing our economy,” Zedillo said in a prerecorded speech aired late Sunday.

“If we don’t stop and turn around the deterioration and loss of control of the last weeks, we risk suffering a financial and production collapse … that would mean the loss of millions of jobs,” the president said.

“It could wipe out the prospect of development for an entire generation of Mexicans,” he added.

Zedillo acknowledged that the plan, announced Thursday night by Treasury Secretary Guillermo Ortiz, “contains measures that will be very difficult for everyone.”

A proposed sales tax increase will prove especially painful, he acknowledged.

But with strict adherence to the plan, “in a few months we will have completely wiped out the threat of a financial and production collapse,” Zedillo said.

The plan has proven highly unpopular with ordinary Mexicans, and one politician had warned that the proposals could cause social turmoil.

“I think that one of the risks of the measures announced by the government is social unrest,” said Carlos Castillo Peraza, president of the opposition National Action Party.

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Unpopular plan Zedillo is calling for a 35 percent hike in gasoline prices, a 20 percent increase in electricity rates and raising the sales tax from 10 percent to 15 percent.