One Reporter's Opinion - Castaneda: Would-be Mexican President
George Putnam
Friday, Oct. 21, 2005

It is this reporter's opinion that with our immigration problems with Mexico, all we need is a further complication in the person of a looming candidate for president - Jorge Castaneda. In a ruling that could have far reaching implications for a future election, an international tribunal recently ruled that Mexico's government cannot prevent Castaneda, the controversial writer and former foreign minister, from mounting an independent campaign for president.


Earlier this year the Mexican supreme court denied Castaneda's petition to change Mexican election laws - that he could run as an independent. The high court said only political parties could file an appeal.


Castaneda took his case to the Washington-based Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (Castaneda's father just happens to be an influential part of that body). So, ipso facto, Jorge, Jr. took the issue to that body, which ruled six to one in his favor - that it would allow Castaneda's name to appear on the ballot in next year's vote.


Who is Jorge Castaneda? In 2001, he joined the Fox administration for a turbulent two-year tenure as Fox's foreign minister. Mr. Castaneda, educated in America, had been a member of the Communist Party. He later became a leftist professor and political commentator who wrote a biography of guerilla leftist Ernesto "Che" Guerrera. Castaneda, the opportunist, then moved to the political center.


As Mexican foreign minister, Castaneda, in Phoenix at a meeting of Latino journalists, dictated his own non-negotiable program, that the Mexican government expects the Bush administration to follow his lead. His exact words: "Mexico will brook no compromise. IT'S THE WHOLE ENCHILADA OR NOTHING. WE CAN'T SLICE IT ONE PIECE AT A TIME."

Here is Castaneda's list of demands (basically, complete surrender of U.S. sovereignty over immigration policy):


America must legalize all Mexican illegal aliens;

loosen our border enforcement;

establish a guest worker program;

exempt Mexican immigrants from U.S. visa quotas;

provide health care for Mexicans living in the U.S. (at American taxpayer expense);

offer in-state college tuition;

and we, citizens of the U.S., must obtain the greatest number of rights for the greatest number of Mexicans in the shortest time possible.

Castaneda sees all this as "an important step forward for Mexican democracy." Call it madness, but Castaneda appeals to the poor, impoverished, disenfranchised Mexican peasants and they listen.


Unbelievable as it may seem, Vicente Fox refers to illegal aliens as "heroes." After all, the Mexican government supports the illegal invasion by distributing thousands of survival packets to Mexicans making the trek north. Among other vital necessities, the packets include a list of California hospitals where illegals could obtain medical care. This, of course, has resulted in the closure of many hospitals in California.


For nearly two decades, Castaneda was one of the most influential analysts of power in Mexico. As foreign minister, he attempted to exercise that power. As one political scientist puts it: "Castaneda's Achilles heel is his arrogance, his vanity, his ego..." But this is just the latest chapter in a colorful career that has seen Castaneda travel across the spectrum of Mexican politics.


Even if he doesn't make the ballot, Castaneda says his "'citizen's campaign' against the established parties will be a potent force against those who have kidnapped Mexican democracy."


This is what we're dealing with in a man who now strives to be president of Mexico demanding "the whole enchilada or nothing." And you ain't seen nothin' yet!

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