Mexico Candidate Calls for U.S. Investment
By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press Writer
31 minutes ago

SAN JOSE DEL RINCON, Mexico - Conservative presidential candidate Felipe Calderon said Friday that the United States and Canada should help build a Mexican economy strong enough to keep people from migrating north in search of work.

Calderon said he would like to see an international development plan similar to those used by the European Union to jump-start Ireland and Spain's economies, which now are booming.

"I think it's very valid to propose that Canada, the United States and Mexico all invest in productive projects and infrastructure in areas that send the most migrants out of the country," the ruling National Action Party candidate told The Associated Press aboard his campaign bus as it left a rally in this small farming community northwest of the capital.

"It's very obvious that building one kilometer of highway here is better than 10 kilometers of wall along the border," he said.

Independent public opinion polls show Calderon about even with his main opponent, leftist former Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. The conservative candidate said his party believed he has a slight advantage after a final televised debate on Tuesday.

Calderon said that, if elected, he would aim to create as many jobs as possible, though he declined to say how many. He said the government alone could not generate the needed employment, adding that the most important factor was private investment.

Mexico, Canada and the United States are members of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which took effect in 1994.

Calderon also said he would work to restore diplomatic ties with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and work closely with communist Cuba, even though he doesn't agree with the two countries' philosophies.

"My opinion on a lot of things won't be what drives public policy," he said.

Calderon is on a whirlwind tour of Mexico, a last-ditch effort to win over as many voters as possible before the July 2 election.

"I think that we are in a very, very close race where the vote of each Mexican is going to count more than ever," he said.

He said he planned to spend the last three weeks of the campaign reaching out particularly to young voters, who make up roughly half of the electorate.

Calderon has proposed continuing President Vicente Fox's austere fiscal policy, but he competes with Lopez Obrador's big spending proposals by promising more social programs.

He appealed to young people at the rally by pledging to give scholarships, and promised to lower gas and electricity prices for poor families.

Carlos Cruz, 61, a farmer at the rally, said Calderon represented all Mexicans.

"They say he is the candidate of the rich, but here there are many humble people with family in the United States or living in poverty, and we are voting for Felipe Calderon all the same," Cruz said. "Other options are dangerous for Mexico."