World Notes MEXICO

Talk about short honeymoons. Carlos Salinas de Gortari, Mexico's newly elected President, was about to drape the sash of office over his shoulder last week when the disruptions began. As several hundred guests looked on in Mexico City's Legislative Palace, 139 legislators who supported Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, the nationalist candidate who came in second in last July's elections, marched out. Then about 30 members of the right-wing National Action Party raised placards reading SIX YEARS OF FRAUD.

In his speech before such dignitaries as Secretary of State George Shultz and Cuba's Fidel Castro, Salinas tried to spell out his vision for modernizing and uniting Mexico. Said he: "There won't be miracles. But I assure you there is hope." Some of Salinas' early actions, though, are leading skeptics to wonder how serious he is about restoring faith in the country's discredited government: a fifth of his Cabinet are holdovers from the outgoing administration.