Pubdate: Fri, 26 Jan 2001 Source: International Herald-Tribune (France) Copyright: International Herald Tribune 2001 Contact: 181, Avenue Charles de Gaulle, 92521 Neuilly Cedex, France Fax: (33) 1 41 43 93 38 Website: http://www.iht.com/ Note: From The New York Times CLOSER TO MEXICO In announcing that his first foreign trip as president will be to Mexico, George W. Bush is living up to his campaign pledge to forge a "special relationship" with it. Although that phrase is usually reserved for America's traditional friendship with Britain, Mr. Bush is right to set ambitious goals for strengthening relations with Mexico. Thanks to President Vicente Fox's electoral defeat of the long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party last year, a more democratic Mexico can be an important American ally in the Western Hemisphere. As governor of Texas, Mr. Bush routinely met with governors of northern Mexican states and spoke of America's 3,200-kilometer border with Mexico as a source of opportunity. He has often expressed his affection for Mr. Fox, another plainspoken former businessman who feels most at home on his ranch - - in Guanajuato State, where the two leaders will meet in mid-February. Bill Clinton recognized Mexico's economic significance when he offered that country more than $20 billion in emergency loans in 1995 after the collapse of the peso. The two economies have since become more closely linked. Mexico, a nation of 100 million people, is America's second largest trading partner and an important source of oil. Its economic growth in recent years has been fueled by exports, some 85 percent of which come to the United States. A closer partnership with Mexico will require reducing tensions over immigration and illicit drugs. Mr. Fox would like to see unfettered labor movement across an open border with the United States. Although that is not realistic anytime soon, given the disparity between the two nations' living standards, a new guest worker program is being considered that would allow more of the 350,000 Mexicans who cross the border each year to do so legally. The idea has merit, particularly if Mr. Fox agrees to help curtail illegal immigration. Mexico must show concrete signs of progress in stemming the flow of illegal drugs across the border. Mexicans once viewed the drug trade primarily as a U.S. problem, but Mr. Fox has acknowledged that the growing power of the drug cartels in Mexico is undermining the rule of law. He has vowed to crack down on corruption within various law enforcement agencies and to mobilize the army against the cartels. Previous Mexican presidents have made similar vows, to little effect. On other issues, cooperation between the two nations is already growing. Mexico no longer reflexively counters U.S. diplomacy as a means of asserting its own sovereignty. Its support for Fidel Castro has waned in recent years, and the Fox administration seems more willing than its PRI predecessors to take an aggressive stand for issues of democracy and human rights in the hemisphere. Mr. Bush would be wise to develop a consensus with his Mexican counterpart on a broad array of hemispheric issues. Mexico has the stature and credibility in Latin America to counter the often mischievous diplomacy of Mr. Castro and Venezuela's president, Hugo Chavez. A united front would be particularly valuable in addressing such issues as Peru's return to democracy and the intensifying struggle by Colombia's president, Andres Pastrana, against a Marxist guerrilla rebellion, drug cartels and right-wing paramilitary groups. If Mr. Bush intends to make Latin America a centerpiece of his foreign policy, reinforcing relations with Mexico is the right way to start. THE NEW YORK TIMES. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D