Thread: Leftist Mexican front-runner wants good US ties

Leftist Mexican front-runner wants good US ties
Staff and agencies
22 March, 2006


By Alistair Bell

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico - The leftist front-runner in Mexico‘s presidential race said on Tuesday he wanted to get along well with Washington, sending a message of conciliation as concern in the United States grows that Latin America is turning against it.

In a speech he had advertised as a major presentation of his foreign policy, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told supporters he would avoid diplomatic friction if elected in July.

"The relationship with the U.S. government should be one of mutual respect and cooperation," he said at a campaign rally in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, next door to El Paso, Texas.

Lopez Obrador, the former mayor of Mexico City, leads his two main rivals by around eight points in opinion polls.

He promises to give priority to Mexico‘s poor if elected but denies he is a populist like left-wing Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the main U.S. foe in Latin America.

Speaking in a square just south of the Rio Grande, Lopez Obrador promised "a measured foreign policy" and said Mexico and the United States had much in common.

"Not only are we united by 3,000 kilometers (1,900 miles) of border but also by ties of history, culture, economy, trade and friendship," he said.

The Bush administration and U.S.-backed economic policies have come under increasing fire from leftist governments in Latin American countries, notably Venezuela and Bolivia. Even regional giant Brazil is often at odds with Washington over free trade.

But Mexico is too just too close to the United States to be able to afford bad blood, Lopez Obrador‘s aides say.

Tens of millions of Americans claim Mexican descent and almost everyone in Mexico has a friend or relative working north of the border.

Mexico sends almost 90 percent of its exports to its larger neighbor, which relies heavily on cheap Mexican labor in industries ranging from agriculture to hospitality. Disputes between the two countries rarely spin out of control.

"It can‘t get to that extreme for the plain and simple reason that they need us and we need them. It‘s common sense," said electronic goods salesman Pedro Flores, 53. Like many in Ciudad Juarez, he has dozens of relatives in Texas and California.

Despite their close trade ties, the two countries have been at odds for more than a year over drug gang violence in Mexican border cities and illegal immigration.

But a U.S. Senate panel last week neared agreement on a proposal that would give some of the 12 million illegal aliens living in the country, most of them Mexicans, an opportunity to earn citizenship.

Lopez Obrador criticized a plan passed last year by the U.S. House of Representatives to build a high-security fence along a third of the Mexican border to stop illegal immigrants.

"We are going to convince the U.S. authorities that the best policy between a strong economy and a weak one isn‘t to build walls but to cooperate on development," he said.

http://www.localnewsleader.com/kindred/ ... &id=162359

Lopez Obrador criticized a plan passed last year by the U.S. House of Representatives to build a high-security fence along a third of the Mexican border to stop illegal immigrants.

"We are going to convince the U.S. authorities that the best policy between a strong economy and a weak one isn‘t to build walls but to cooperate on development," he said.


Is it any wonder why he doesn't want us to build a wall

Mexico's last president did an ethnic cleansing of the lower class. I'm curious to see if the new President will be a good enough leader to draw HIS people back to their country or will they leave in droves to escape