As I always say, it’s good to know people… Tonight proved no exception as we scored an invite to dinner with the former president of Mexico, Vicente Fox, at the Fairmont. Tables were $3000 each and we got in for free – not bad…

Here we are mingling before the big doings:

El Presidente gave a passionate and convincing speech arguing for the benefits of globalization and free trade. I was surprised by the amount of venom directed at Hugo Chavez and Lou Dobbs, but particularly his opponents in the PRI. For example, he accused the PRI leader in the Mexican Congress of participating in narcotics trafficking and stated that he was being investigated by the U.S. DEA.

Dinner was excellent.

As was dessert…

We went right up to Vicente after dinner where Omar had his picture taken with El Presidente and spoke to him briefly:

Here’s me with Omar:

And what would a political gathering be without the obligatory protesters?

Interesting Side Note: We couldn’t help noticing that the San Jose Fairmont features a number of large mirrors (if you’re into that sort of thing).