MEXICAN PRESS HEAPS PRAISE ON BAY STATE GOVERNOR by By JOSEPH MALLIA
Copyright (c) 1997, Boston Herald Inc.

Gov. William F. Weld's expected nomination as U.S.
ambassador to Mexico was frontpage news yesterday in that
country, where he is a familiar face to many top
politicians.

"Weld, in any case, is no stranger to Mexico or Latin
America," said the major daily paper El Universal. Weld
speaks some Spanish, and has long championed the North
American Free Trade Agreement, the Mexican papers noted.

"As governor he participated actively in the debate
about 'el Tratado de Libre Comercio' (NAFTA), and led trade
missions to Latin American nations," El Universal said.

Weld's travels to Mexico, to drum up trade with
Massachusetts, were seen as successful.

But if he moves into the top spot at the posh U.S.
embassy on Paseo de la Reforma in Mexico City, he will face
more complex and challenging issues, observers said.

Drug trafficking, illegal immigration and political
corruption these are the hotbutton subjects that Weld
would have to master quickly, said Richard Giesser, a
former state official who traveled to Mexico with a Weld
trade delegation in 1992.

"In Mexico, he was an excellent salesman, an excellent
representative," recalled Giesser, former chairman of the
Massachusetts Port Authority. "I think there's a basic
feeling of goodwill between him and Mexico, and other Latin
American countries," said Giesser, a Waban management
consultant.

"I'm not surprised he is interested in the ambassador's
job. But this is more complex (than trade trips). This
would be completely different," Giesser said.

However, there is confidence at the White House that
Weld's law enforcement background is adequate preparation
for the war on drugs and other U.S. concerns, the
Washington Post reported yesterday.

Weld was the thirdranking official in the Reagan
administration's Justice Department, and served as U.S.
attorney in Boston.

In 1985, while Weld was U.S. attorney in Boston, he
helped gain indictments of five members of a fraudulent
adoption ring based in Mexico.

Those credentials played a part in President Clinton's
interest in Weld as ambassador, the Post reported.

Weld also has opposed Republican proposals to limit
legal immigration, a sensitive issue for the Mexican
government. On a December 1992 trade trip to Mexico, Weld
brought representatives of 32 Massachusetts companies. And
he spoke out in favor of NAFTA, which lowered export
barriers between the United States, Mexico and Canada.

"You feel more electricity in the air here than in any
other place I've visited," Weld told a Herald reporter in
Mexico City during that 1992 trip.

The former Mexican president, Carlos Salinas de Gortari
like Weld, a Harvard graduate visited Weld in Boston in
April 1991.

Weld admired the freemarket policies of Salinas.

Mexican newspapers yesterday also noted Weld may be a
candidate for the U.S. presidency in a few years.

But El Universal concluded its frontpage report on a
personal note: "From an aristocratic family, William Weld
is the youngest of four children, and likes to go to
Grateful Dead rock concerts."