Former Mexico president uninvited by PLNU

Point Loma Nazarene University rescinded an invitation to former Mexican President Vicente Fox to speak on campus this spring after officials became concerned about Fox’s support for drug legalization in Mexico, according to two organizers of the event.

“It was set. The invitation was accepted, and we were ready to go. It was supposed to be April 6 and 7,” said Dean Nelson, a professor of journalism at the school. “Then somebody, and it’s unclear to me exactly who, started to be concerned when Fox started giving interviews and talking about legalizing drugs.”

About a month ago, Nelson said, he got a phone call from Joe Watkins, the university’s vice president of external relations, who told him: “We have decided that the risks of having him here were greater than the benefits.”

Watkins and other university officials were not available for comment Tuesday, a spokeswoman said. She issued a written statement: “Point Loma Nazarene University considered hosting an event on campus featuring former president of Mexico Vicente Fox. However, we decided not to host the event before any contract was signed ... While Fox’s stance on drug legalization did factor into our eventual decision to not host this event, it was not the sole deciding factor.”

Nelson called the decision embarrassing to the university and insulting to Fox and the two PLNU alumni who arranged Fox’s appearance.

“I am dumbfounded by how irrational this is,” he said.

The former president could not be reached for comment.

Fox, who was president of Mexico from 2000 to 2006, has only recently been speaking publicly about legalization.

“We should consider legalizing the production, distribution and sale of drugs,” he wrote on his blog in August. “Radical prohibition strategies have never worked. Legalizing in this sense does not mean drugs are good and don’t harm those who consume them. Rather we should look at it as a strategy to strike at and break the economic structure that allows gangs to generate huge profits in their trade, which feeds corruption and increases their areas of power.”

Fox’s appearance was arranged by Marshela Salgado and her father, Jonathan Salgado, both of whom are PLNU graduates. Jonathan Salgado and his wife live in Mexico and have long-standing ties to Fox.

“I think it’s ridiculous that they say they just ‘considered’ the event,” Marshela Salgado said. “We started planning it in the fall of last year. It was all planned. Then Point Loma stated that they would no longer be able to host the event.”

E-mails between Watkins and Fox’s assistant, reviewed by the Union-Tribune, support Salgado’s and Nelson’s assertion that a firm invitation had been extended.

“Our invitation includes a radio interview, a taped television interview, as well as newspaper and television news coverage in San Diego and Tijuana. Finally, it would be a highlight for our students to hear President Fox speak in our chapel service,” reads one sent by Watkins on Sept. 25. The same e-mail also offers a $20,000 honorarium.

When the university canceled the event, Marshela Salgado said, “I was just left scrounging. I was just knocking on doors until the (University of San Diego) Trans-Border Institute agreed to host his speech and we picked up the pieces.”

Fox is now scheduled to speak at 4 p.m. April 7 in the Joan B. Kroc theatre on the USD campus.

“We were approached by Marshela and we just determined that we would be happy to provide a venue for his perspective on U.S.-Mexico relations,” said Charles Pope, assistant director of the Trans-Border Institute at USD.

A Feb. 10 letter from PLNU President Bob Brower to Fox also indicates a formal agreement. The letter does not explicitly say that the university decided against having him on campus and is vague about the reasons for the shift to USD.

“There has been a slight change to the visit that we hope is agreeable to you,” it reads. “Complications at our university have made it necessary to move your appearance to the University of San Diego, which is just a few miles from our campus.”

Marshela Salgado, vice president of communications for Reality Changers, a San Diego nonprofit that helps inner-city youth to be the first in their families to attend college, said any suggestion that PLNU was involved in finding the new venue is false.

Still, she is not vindictive toward her alma mater.

“Even though my father and I are incredibly disappointed with Point Loma, to say the least,” she said, “we don’t want to hurt Point Loma.”

USD, meanwhile, is glad to have landed the former president.

“If he wants to talk about legalization and drug violence, then that’s something we’re open to,” said Pope. “We’re happy to have the opportunity to host Fox, regardless of what happened with our colleagues at Point Loma.”