FOX, BUSH & HELMS

WASHINGTON — A remarkable confluence of personalities and economic forces
bids fair to break the logjam along the Rio Grande.

It began when Mexican voters stunned this continent by ending the one-party
rule that had corrupted their country for seven decades and installed
Vicente Fox — a charismatic but sensible businessman — as their leader.

That break with the past coincided with the emergence of George W. Bush on
the U.S. political scene. In his first interview on foreign affairs a
couple of years ago, the new candidate struck me as no whiz on most of the
world, but as governor of Texas showed he was deeply interested in his
neighbor to the south. Just as education was Bush's strong suit on domestic
policy, Mexico was his closest-studied area of foreign affairs.

The third player in this developing drama is Jesse Helms of North Carolina,
chairman of Senate Foreign Relations, bete noire of dovish liberals, whose
hard line on Cuban Communism and Chinese cruelty has long extended to U.N.
bureaucratic waste and the old Mexican regime's endemic corruption.

Most diplomatic observers figured that Fox and Bush would reach out to each
other. That's because it is in Mexico's interest to resolve disputes over
drug enforcement and the U.S. interdiction of migrants, and is in the U.S.
interest to encourage development of Mexico's oil and gas potential. Not
for nothing was Bush's first foray out of this country to Fox's ranch in
Mexico. But it seemed all too likely that this presidential diplomacy would
run into the implacable resistance of Helms.

The opposite is happening. Working closely with Democrat Joe Biden — who
praised Helms's "tactical genius" in wedding a much-needed U.N. reform to
U.S. dues payments — ol' Jesse is in hot support of the new North American
rapprochement, or whatever the Spanish word for that is.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee of Mexico and the group of the same
name in the United States will soon announce a mid-April gathering in
Mexico City that is unprecedented: It may just be the first joint meeting
between a committee of the U.S. Congress and a committee of a foreign
congress or parliament. (Only in America!)

"The foreign minister, Jorge Castaneda, came to see me," Senator Helms
recounts, "and I was mighty impressed with what President Fox is doing. I'm
not one to take trips, but when I asked if it would do any good to take the
committee down there for a meeting, he purt' near came out of his chair. We
shook hands on it. I think just the act of our coming down adds credibility
to our desire to deal in good faith."

Did he clear this with President Bush? After all — the Logan Act, Thomas
Jefferson, legislative diplomacy, etc. "No. I did tell Cheney about it
afterward, and he thought it was a good idea."

One of the several bones of contention between the countries is the U.S.
law requiring that our president certify to Congress before foreign aid is
dispensed that recipients are helping fight our war on drugs. Mexico takes
this as an insult to its sovereignty.

"Joe Biden asked Chris Dodd and Kay Bailey Hutchison to work on that," says
the courtly, wheelchair-bound Helms, who has no feeling in his feet but a
good feeling for what's right. In a Foreign Relations Committee meeting
tomorrow a compromise is likely to be found presuming a recipient nation's
innocence instead of guilt.

More than issues of pride will have to be tackled. Bush struck a nice
balance of blame between the supply side of drugs south of the border and
the demand side up north. Also, as migration (a word preferred to "illegal
immigration") is controlled, amnesty for three million undocumented
Mexicans now living in the U.S. should be considered.

The best way to stop illegal border-crossing is to help Mexico become
prosperous. The best way for Mexico to raise its standard of living is to
open its vast energy potential to foreign investment, helping itself even
as it turns on the lights in California.

The Vicente, George and Jesse show could founder on the old rocks of
suspicion, venality and prejudice. But now there is at least a chance, with
political stars in rare alignment and national needs dovetailing, for real
progress south of the border.