By Susana Hayward
Knight Ridder Newspapers
Jan. 26, 2003

MEXICO CITY - Tall, husky and mustachioed President Vicente Fox, whose speeches burst with fervor and whose arms wave wildly for emphasis, is the funniest thing going in Mexico. Comedians, imitators and giant puppets have audiences in stitches at his expense.

Before Fox was elected in 2000, satirizing a president or top official could land a humorist in jail.

Fox's victory ended 71 years of rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which controlled and censored television networks, radio stations, newspapers and magazines. When Fox assumed the presidency on Dec. 1, 2000, he promised an open society and transparent government. In July, Mexico got its first Freedom of Information Act.

Mexicans have always had a hearty and wicked sense of humor, with self-deprecating wit and puns that go back to the Maya. They have always laughed and chided leaders and authorities, but not this publicly. Now their president is lampooned on prime-time TV.

"There were no caricatures of the president in the past. It didn't exist," said Sergio Sarmiento, a political scientist, newspaper columnist and editor in chief of TV Azteca. He is also a creator of a show called Hechos de Peluche, about the doings of a plush, giant puppet.

The show airs for a minute three times a day between newscasts. It's mostly about Fox and a collection of familiar characters in his life, including his former spokeswoman and now wife, Marta Sahagun, Cabinet members and President Bush - plus Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and others.

The protagonist is a puppet called "Chente Fax," slang for "Fax Man." The acts often come straight from the headlines, using the president's direct quotes, complete with wrong dates, mispronounced names and political gaffes.

TV Azteca's comedians, puppet handlers and voice imitators had a field day when Fox was caught in a lie: He insisted to Mexicans that he never told Cuban President Fidel Castro to leave a conference in Monterrey last year before President Bush arrived. But Castro then produced a taped conversation in which Fox told the Cuban leader, essentially, to "eat and leave."

This month, Rudolph Giuliani, the former mayor of New York and now a crime consultant, spent 36 hours in Mexico City, charging $4.3 million to try to clean up the mean streets of this capital of 22 million people. He stayed at a posh hotel, was wined and dined and was protected by 400 police.

Hechos couldn't resist.

On Jan. 15, it showed Giuliani, with a strong American accent, bragging to police that crime had dropped 7 percent since he arrived. Two puppet cops bent over laughing. "That's because you have 7 percent of the police force guarding you," they said.

Fox, 60, is rolling with the punches, often making more fun of himself than the comedians do. He even appears on the shows and chats with the puppets and imitators.

In some ways, he's an unlikely target. Tall - 6 feet 5 in his cowboy boots - and striking, Fox made women swoon during his presidential campaign. But he's also a rancher who would rather ride horses than be driven in limousines. And he has a knack for mixing up words, mispronouncing names, getting historical dates wrong and repeating phrases.

"He's easy and fun to do," said Cesar Monroy, 34, the voice of Fox in Hechos.

"He's very much the rancher, with a northern accent," Monroy said. "His way of expressing himself is very colloquial."

The creators of Hechos began doing pieces on Fox when he was governor of the state of Guanajuato. Later, comedian Andres Bustamante impersonated Fox in a program called The Protagonists, which aired during the 2000 Olympics, when Fox was president-elect.

Last November, Fox met Bustamante, who also created a silly character named Ponchito. "You speak like Fox, and I will try to talk like you," Fox said during a surprise visit to the show. The president then stunned audiences with a foolish voice, making more fun of himself than Ponchito. Some laughed. Others were appalled.

During the presidency of Gustavo Diaz Ordaz (1964-1970), a newspaper switched captions on two pictures.

"There were two photographs, one of monkeys and one of the president," Sarmiento said. "Diaz Ordaz was identified as the monkeys. It was a great error, but the president didn't think it was a mistake. The newspaper was closed. Today, no president can do that."

"The progress and political opening have been done little by little. We're parting the waters," Hechos director Hilda Soriano said. "We tried bold skits at first, thinking we'd be censored and repressed, but we weren't."

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