U.S.-MEXICO LINKS EXIST ON MANY LEVELS

The relations between the United States and Mexico don't all involve
crime. It just seems that way lately.

One of the biggest international stories at the moment is the
discovery of graves on ranches near Juarez of people who were likely
killed in the drug war. That will remain a big story for some time to
come as more bodies are found, including, it is suspected, some Americans.

Leaders of drug cartels have warred for several years for control of
the drug trade in Juarez, described by the Associated Press as the
world's most lucrative drug corridor into the United States. Tourism
from the U.S. into Juarez has been hurt by news of shootings and
killings in downtown bars and restaurants and on the streets of the
Mexican city. Juarez has all the more reason to worry about declining
tourism now that the digging for bodies of drug war victims is under
way with the FBI and Mexican agents cooperating in the search.

The dangerous reputation of Juarez is only added to by the fact that
Investigations are still ongoing into rapes and murders of as many as
a couple of hundred young Mexican women, often those who work for the
factories known as maquiladores along the international border between
Juarez and El Paso, Texas.

As if that were not enough, the Mexican government itself is harming
tourism with a new law that went into effect at the border on
Wednesday. Now car owners headed from the U.S. into Mexico must
provide a vehicle deposit of $400 to $800. Cash or credit cards can be
used for the deposit, which already is a highly unpopular imposition
on Americans driving into Mexico.

U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, R-Texas, who is a resident of El Paso, is
asking President Clinton to bring up the deposit issue when he meets
next week with the Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo, according to a
Los Angeles Times report.

But, relations with Mexico exist on different levels, and away from
the problems with crime and poor decisions on tourist policies by the
Mexican government, people in both countries still get along and work
on joint ports of entry and economic development such as Santa Teresa,
N.M., and San Jeronimo, Chihuahua, Mexico; on livestock imports and
exports; at New Mexico's trade offices in Chihuahua and in Mexico
City; and on excellent official sister city relationships such as
those between Las Cruces and Lerdo, Mexico, and a new one between
Mesilla and Ascencion, Mexico.

Far after the stories fade about bodies and drug wars and unpopular
new tourist fees, it will be the foundations laid by the citizens of
the United States with their neighboring citizens in Mexico that will
do the most to improve relations between the two countries.

After all, the vast majority of the residents along both sides of the
U.S.-Mexico border are hard-working, decent citizens who get along
just great together. Let's keep it that way.