A New Era In Mexico

Keeping his campaign promises of rooting out years of corruption and conquering chronic poverty will be a tall order, even for Mexico's new reformist president, Vicente Fox.

In an interview with CBS News Correspondent Morley Safer, Fox talked about U.S responsibility for drug smuggling and the demand from the United States that fuels the illegal drug trade. "We Mexicans are smart, but not that smart to be able to smuggle all those drugs by ourselves," Fox, who will be inaugurated Dec. 1, said in the interview on CBS News' 60 Minutes. "So there must be some corruption within the United States."

Fox said corruption had become "a culture and a behavior. And so we have to change that culture."

Fox, a rancher and a businessman, led his conservative National Action Party to victory July 2 over the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which ruled for 71 years.

"The billions and billions of dollars generated by drug consumption comes from the United States," Fox said. "And those billions of dollars are used to bribe Mexican officials or Mexican policemen. Let's face that we have a problem, that each one of us has it, and let's meet it together."

Fox said Latin America had "a new attitude" at the beginning of the 21st century. "The 20th century was the century of North America, of Asia, of Europe. Now's the time for Latin America. We have a new attitude.

"We have democracies now. We know that we either educate or we won't have development and growth," Fox said. "And Mexico will be the winner of the 21st century. You will notice that when you come back six years from now. You will see that."