Mexico’s new President: ‘It’s a time of change’

Mexico’s newly elected President Vicente Fox is in the midst of a whirlwind transition from an unpopular administration to a more conservative one, with the country’s top court ruling on Monday that the countrys current laws governing how it deals with sex workers are unconstitutional.

Fox, the first Mexican president since 1994 to take office in the middle of a corruption scandal, has also said he intends to seek a third term in office, and his party has won a majority of seats in the Senate, with most of them in his home state of Michoacan.

While the court said in its ruling that the current law banning prostitution and forced marriages was unconstitutional, it did not rule on the constitutionality of existing legislation banning the brothels.

Fox’s office said in a statement that the new law, which goes into effect in the second half of the year, is aimed at preventing sex workers from being subjected to harassment, violence and exploitation by their employers and to help protect their rights to safety, dignity and respect.