President Ernesto Zedillo says he was never a friend of his discredited predecessor, Carlos Salinas de Gortari, and denies that he negotiated the terms of the former president's self-imposed exile.
According to the transcript of an interview released Thursday, Ze-dil-lo also revealed for the first time that he received unspecified threats during his presidential campaign.In a far-ranging interview with the Spanish-language television network Univision, the soft-spoken president heatedly denied reports that he offered Salinas immunity for crimes allegedly committed during his administration in exchange for leaving the country.
"It is absolutely false," Zedillo said in the 52-minute interview broadcast Wednesday night. "Whoever wrote that is lying."
The Yale-trained economist said that the two last spoke when Ze-dil-lo took office on Dec. 1, 1994.
Salinas left Mexico in March 1995, blamed by many for a severe economic crisis that began with a sudden devaluation of the peso just weeks after he handed over power to Zedillo.
Since then, Salinas has lived in Canada, Cuba and Ireland. Once considered the president who would usher Mexico from the Third World to the First, Salinas has since become scapegoat for almost all the nation's ills.
Zedillo said he had a "courteous" professional relationship with Salinas, but never considered him a friend.
"I was an employee of Carlos Salinas de Gortari in his capacity as president of the republic," said Zedillo, who was budget and later education secretary under Salinas.
"But I don't think that I had, neither before nor during his administration, a relationship that could be characterized as friendship."
Zedillo rejected the view that he owes his office to Salinas, who nominated him to the governing Institutional Revolutionary Party as a candidate for president.
"I was elected president of Mexico not by the will of one, but more than 17 million votes," he said.
Zedillo, known for his bland personality, replaced the party's original candidate, Luis Donaldo Colosio, after Colosio was gunned down in March 1994. At the time, Zedillo was Colosio's campaign manager.
Zedillo said that as candidate, he too received threats "having to do with the tragic death of Luis Donaldo Colosio."
He said he reported the incidents to the federal attorney general's office, which is still investigating the murder.
The confessed gunman in the case is behind bars, but many believe a larger political conspiracy was involved.