of the information technology revolution in the region." These efforts appear to be ongoing. Centrist Democratic International On 20 September 2007, Fox was elected co-president of the Centrist Democratic International (along with the re-elected Pier Ferdinando Casini) at its leaders' meeting in Rome. The CDI is the international organization of political parties that counts Fox's party, the National Action Party, as a member. Statue controversy In October 2007, an announcement was made in the municipality of Boca del Río, Veracruz, that a 3-meter (10 ft) statue of Vicente Fox was to be erected to honor the former president. This aroused criticism from the opposition Party of the Democratic Revolution towards Boca del Río's mayor, who was affiliated with the same political party (PAN) as Fox. The statue was put in place amidst protests on the dawn of 13 October 2007. The inauguration was to have been held on 14 October. Some hours after the statue was erected, a crowd of about 100 people (many of whom were members of the PRI, the political party opposed to Fox and which Fox had defeated in the 2000 election) brought the statue down by putting a rope around the statue's neck and pulling it down, damaging it. The statue was put back in place for the inauguration, then taken away for repairs. PAN members accused Veracruz's governor, Fidel Herrera Beltrán, of "ordering the attack on the statue," and Fox called the governor intolerant. Others in the media argued that the installation of the statue was inappropriate, since former President Fox was facing allegations relating to an illicit enrichment scandal at the time. Health On 7 August 2021, it was reported and confirmed that Vicente Fox and his wife Martha Sahagún were preventively admitted to a hospital in León, Guanajuato after being infected with COVID-19 during the pandemic in Mexico, but without serious symptoms. Honors Collar of the Order of the Liberator General San Martín (Argentina) Grand Star of the Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria (Austria, 2005) Grand Cross of the Order of Vytautas the Great (Lithuania, 14 January 2002) Honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (United Kingdom) Collar of the Order of Isabella the Catholic (Spain, 8 November 2002) Knight of the Royal Order of the Seraphim (Sweden, 22 October 2002) See also History of Mexico List of presidents of Mexico