Spanish/Nat A day after Mexico's President Ernesto Zedillo sacked Treasury Secretary Jaime Serra Puche, the country is still reeling from the news. Inside the economically troubled country, there is a general feeling of lack of confidence with Zedillo's month-old government. On the poverty stricken streets of Mexico City, there was a general feeling that in the hands of new President Ernesto Zedillo, the country is living from hand to mouth. Yesterday, Zedillo sacked Treasury Secretary Jaime Serra Puche as part of an effort to address the country's currency crisis. Zedillo replaced Serra Puche with Guillermo Ortiz, a US educated economist. The move came as the country suffers from an increasingly weakening economic situation as well as political instability. Mexico's currency, the peso, has plunged by 30 percent and guerrilla insurgency continues in the southern state of Chiapas. Government officials said Ortiz would be examining ways to cut government expenditures, including a reduction in private spending by public sector banks. Meanwhile, Zedillo is still negotiating an international assistance package with American and Swiss banks and Canadian lending sources that should give the country between ten and 13 (b) billion US dollars. But word on the street, from Mexico's people and politicians, is that Zedillo's move will do little to improve the country's precarious situation. Some newspapers were soft on Zedillo's move, calling it a fast and effective solution. But one of Mexico City's top titles, La Journada, declared it as an "Emergencia" or, an emergency situation. Confidence with the government, say the people of Mexico City, has reached a nadir. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) "It's fatal, fatal. I don't have any confidence in the government. Who knows what will happen. What I think we need is a miracle". SUPER CAPTION: Mexican citizen SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) "Well, I'm really angry because people didn't vote for a change. I did. I voted for the PRD, (major opposition party.) I think this is a simply a logical consequence of the lie that we have been living for the past several administrations". SUPER CAPTION: Mexican citizen But Zedillo's political opponents were not shocked by the sudden shift of power. Some said that they could see it coming. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) "This is a crisis that all of us could see coming. In our party platform we announced in our campaign that the economic policy of the pre-administration ran contrary to the economic realities of the country. And that it bolstered a national deficit that was unsustainable. When our party proposed that the economic policy in terms of the exchange rate be changed they made fun of our candidate. Now the Mexican people are paying for the government's stubbornness". SUPER CAPTION: Felipe Calderon - Secretary General of leading opposition party National Action Party Government officials say that they hope to cut the 30 (b) billion US dollars gap between exports and imports by half over the coming year, making investment in Mexico more attractive to overseas investors. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/ae56577caabe50747d4006f19119ae76 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork

• published: 23 Jul 2015
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