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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | March 2006 
Diplomacy, Sightseeing Top Bush's Mexico Trip
 S. Lynne Walker & George E. Condon Jr. - Copley News
| | A Mexican federal policeman checks the identification of a young man on a public bus near the hotel zone of Cancun, Mexico. Beginning Wednesday, Mexico's President Vicente Fox will host a two day meeting in the restort city with U.S. President George W. Bush and Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper. (AP) |
Cancun, Mexico – President Bush arrived in Cancun yesterday evening for two days of diplomacy and some rare sightseeing, finding the beaches, roads and waterways of a city best known for spring breakers now bustling with security forces bracing for protesters.
As helicopters flew over Cancun's posh tourist zone and Navy ships patrolled the pristine coastline, roadblocks slowed traffic to a crawl in front of Le Blanc Spa and Resort, where Bush will stay during his meetings with Mexican President Vicente Fox and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Despite the fears of Mexican authorities, though, few protesters had come to Cancun before Air Force One arrived with the U.S. president.
For one of the few times in his presidency, Bush even agreed to do a little sightseeing. After being criticized for bypassing the Taj Mahal during his recent trip to India, Bush set aside time in his schedule today to see the Mayan ruins of Chichén Itzá and the Pyramid of Kukulkan about 100 miles from here.
But even while he will don his tourist cap, he promised to leave his swimsuit behind. Declaring to an audience in Washington that he had to depart for Cancun, Bush jokingly said, “No Speedo suit here.” He added, “Thankfully.”
With his stay less than 48 hours and several rounds of talks scheduled, the president will have little time for swimming anyway. Instead, he will be tackling long-standing issues of trade, migration and border security with Fox and Harper.
Fox provided further evidence that the leaders view the problems – particularly immigration – as resistant to quick fixes.
The Mexican president was asked by Reuters how long it will take before Mexicans do not feel the need to illegally cross the U.S. border in search of work. After a long pause, Fox responded, “Generations.”
Fox May Seek to Prod Bush on Migration
Wire services/El Universal
Cancún - U.S. President George W. Bush won´t have any break from the heated immigration debate as he attends a Cancún summit with the leaders of Mexico and Canada this week.
Mexican pundits are urging President Vicente Fox to prod Bush into more active campaigning for an immigration accord. And Fox´s own government says it will take every opportunity to press for a bill Mexico can live with.
Mexico´s hopes were bolstered by the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee´s passage Monday of measures that would legalize some undocumented workers, establish temporary guest-worker programs and permit illegal migrants currently in the country to apply for citizenship without first returning home.
The plan still must be discussed in the full Senate, where a rival plan offered by Majority Leader Bill Frist has more support and is much closer to the measure approved by the U.S. House of Representatives in December that would punish migrants and extend security fences along parts of the border.
Mexico´s deputy secretary for North America, Gerónimo Gutiérrez, praised the Judiciary Committee´s bill and said Fox´s government has "moderate and cautious optimism" for a favorable outcome in Congress.
A migration accord is Mexico´s "most pressing goal and the greatest opportunity that exists in the bilateral relationship" with Washington, and so Mexico will use "all the forums and chances that we have to encourage them to establish new migration mechanisms," Gutiérrez said.
Fox and Bush meet face to face on Thursday, the first day of the summit.
Mexican analysts say Fox should urge the U.S. leader to do his best to win over Republican conservatives who oppose the Senate committee´s proposal.
Fox "should tell Bush that it is time to go out and demand that his party approve a positive, all-encompassing migration accord," said Rafael Fernández de Castro, the director of international studies for the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico.
"Bush has to recognize that the ones who are holding up the most favorable initiative are those in his party, in the conservative wing of his party ... and it´s time that he picks up the telephone and speaks to his colleagues so that they modify their positions," added Jorge Santibañez, president of El Colegio de Frontera Norte in Tijuana.
Although Bush and a minority of Republicans in Congress support temporary guest-worker programs as part of any immigration reform, numerous Republicans consider them amnesty for lawbreakers.
As Mexican, U.S. and Canadian officials prepared Wednesday for their meetings, dozens of police patrolled Cancún´s hotel zone and erected fences to keep out hundreds of anticipated protesters.
At least seven Mexican Navy ships were guarding Cancún´s coast.
Authorities planned to close access to the zone later Wednesday, when Bush and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper were scheduled to arrive.
Several Mexican and foreign groups planned to demonstrate Thursday outside the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City and at U.S. Consulates throughout Mexico, said Héctor de La Cueva, a spokesman for the Mexican Action Network Against Free Trade, which includes about 70 organizations.
De la Cueva said they would show solidarity with the hundreds of thousands of people who demonstrated in the United States against the toughening of immigration laws, and also march against the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America.
That pact, signed by Bush, Fox and former Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin a year ago, is designed to make trade more efficient and borders more secure without obstructing business and traffic.
Protests in Cancún have turned violent in the past. During a 2003 World Trade Organization meeting, demonstrators threw sewage and a South Korean farmer climbed atop a fence and fatally stabbed himself in the chest. |
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