REACHING ACROSS THE RIO GRANDE

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 that nation. Though 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 this hemisphere.

As governor of Texas, Mr. Bush routinely met with governors of northern
Mexican states and spoke of America's 2,000-mile border with Mexico as a
source of opportunity. Mr. Bush has often expressed his affection for Mr.
Fox, another plain-spoken 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. Mexico's 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. President Fox would like to see unfettered
labor movement across an open border with the United States. Though 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. Though Mexicans once viewed the drug trade
primarily as an American problem, 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 American 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.

President 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.