THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Wednesday, August 24, 1994             TAG: 9408240012
SECTION: FRONT                    PAGE: A14  EDITION: FINAL 
TYPE: Editorial 
                                             LENGTH: Short :   45 lines

REFORM STILL ON TRACK MEXICO WINS

Mexican voters chose to stay on the path to economic reform in Sunday's elections. According to preliminary results, they gave just under 50 percent of their ballots to Ernesto Zedillo, the hand-picked successor of outgoing President Carlos Salinas de Gortari of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which has ruled Mexico without interruption for 65 years.

Even more interesting, however, was the second-place finisher, Diego Fernandez de Cevallos of the National Action Party (PAN), who received 30 percent of the vote. The PAN has for years been the main advocate of the kind of free enterprise, free trade and clean government platform that the PRI has latterly embraced under Salinas.

The third-place finisher, with just 15 percent of the vote, was the representative of what is now thought of as the old guard, Cuauhtemoc Cardenas. An advocate of the traditional mariachi Marxism that has kept Mexico mired in stagnation and xenophobia for decades, many believe Cardenas would have won the 1988 election if the PRI had not resorted to its traditional ballot-box stuffing. Cardenas is claiming vote fraud again. But given the heavy international supervision of this election - an incredible 82,000 foreign observers - fraud on a massive scale seems highly unlikely.

The heavy turnout and the reasonably clean outcome are a tribute to Mexico, which has seen more than its share of convulsions recently: the crypto-communist uprising in the province of Chiapas; the assassination of Luis Donaldo Colosio, whom Zedillo replaced as the PRI's presidential candidate; the assassination of a Roman Catholic cardinal and several kidnappings of prominent businessmen.

Through it all, President Salinas has steered a steady course toward free markets and free enterprise, pushing through the North American Free Trade Agreement. He has tamed inflation, greatly expanded trade and presided over a near doubling of the per-capita income in just six years. Zedillo has promised to build on this legacy. For the sake of Mexico, and the United States as well, it is to be hoped he will keep his promise. by CNB