On Verge of Clinton's Visit, U.S.Mexico Relations Are Ragged

By Mollie Moore
and John Ward Anderaon
Washington Poat

Mexico City

President Clinton will arrive in Mexico City today on the first Mexican
visit of his presidency to find a neighbor that seems ambivalent if not
antagonistic toward the often overbearing giant to the north. Governmental
relations generally

are cordial and relations between Clinton and Mexican President Ernesto
Zedillo seem warm, but feelings are cooler on the streets and in the
legislatures.

As the United States and Mexico become more culturally, economically and
politically intertwined, they are simultaneously more divided over
immigration and drug trafficking, with resentment building on both sides of
the border. While their fortunes often seem nearly inseparable, there is
rarely a sense of shared problems or common future, except in academic
circles and at high levels of business and government.

Clinton stuck his political neck out to push for passage of the North
American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), stitched together a $50 billion
bailout when the Mexican peso collapsed in late 1~4 and battled
congressional efforts this year to decertify Mexico as a cooperative
partner in the campaign against drugs.

But far from receiving plaudits, the United States gets pounded daily in
the Mexican press and on the floor of the Mexican Congress.

After a stormy winter, during which Mexico arrested its antidrug czar on
narcotics charges while the U.S. Congress thrashed Mexico in the
certification debate and enacted more stringent immigration law, senior
officials in both governments are eager to emphasize their friendship.

Ten bilateral agreements will be signed during Clinton's visit, the
cornerstone of which is the scheduled release of a joint assess ment of the
drug plague.

How have relations become so ambivalent when NAFTA has boosted U.S.Mexican
trade almost 60 percent in three years, making Mexico the thirdlargest
U.S. trading partner; when the popularity of things Mexicanfrom food to
music to professional baseball playersis booming in the United States;
when record numbers of Mexicans and other Latinos are moving to the United
States and exerting more influence over U.S. politics; when Mexican workers
in the United States, both legal and not, are sending billions of dollars
back to their home country every year?

At the heart of the bumpy U.S.Mexican relationship are the issues of drugs,
immigration, and offiial corruption.

U.S. officials all but ignored the issues of drugs and corruption dur ing
the 198894 administration of former president Carlos Salinas, who was
universaIly praised in Washington for liberalizing the Mexican economy.

Today, however, with Mexican drug cartels transporting an estimated 70
percent of the cocaine and other illegal drugs consumed in the United
States, U.S. officials have been forced to confront the drug problem more
vocally.

The voterrich border states of California and Texas, which often suffer
the consequences of drug and immigration troubles drive U.S. policy. On the
other side, nationalistic Mexicans expect their president to defend their
national dignity and rebuff what they see as U.S. strongarm tactics.

The resulting clash is more often political than ideological. Officials in
both countries often have found it easy to blame their neighbor for
difficult domestic problems.

Zedillo said Friday that many of the most complex issues, including drugs,
immigration and free trade, are frequently blurred by "a lot of noise." But
the most acrimonious voices come not from the country's leaders or their
people he said, but from extremist politicians and special interest groups.

"It is inevitable that in a relationship as intense and complex as the one
we have, that voices which are not necessarily rational are heard from time
to time," he said.