First lady’s next step

Mexico City

Mexico’s first lady, Marta Sahagun, declared this week that she would not run for president after rumors of her ambitions began eroding support for her husband, President Vicente Fox. Sahagun had been described as a budding Mexican version of Evita Peron, who with her husband once dominated Argentine politics. Fox can’t legally seek re-election in 2006, but Sahagun had hinted she might run. The idea angered even Fox’s allies, who viewed his election as the end of seven decades of corrupt one-party rule. Fox’s top aide, Alfonso Durazo, recently quit in protest, saying the country was ready for its first woman president, it just wasn’t “ready for the president to leave the presidency to his wife.”

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