PREMIUM SEARCH Search by job title, geography and build a list of executive contacts
IDENTITY PROBLEMS. Instead, he says the "fallout" may be felt in Washington. "Big-ticket items may be more difficult to get through the U.S. Congress," Garza says. That includes expansion of a guest-worker program that would benefit Mexican immigrants, which he says has little chance of being discussed this year.
Some Capitol Hill lawmakers have raised the issue of reining in the 1.35 million identity cards issued by Mexican consulates to their expatriate citizens in the U.S. since the end of 2001. Designed to provide illegal immigrants with some valid proof of identity after September 11, they're now accepted by a few U.S. banks for opening savings accounts. And several states have agreed to issue driver's licenses to Mexicans who present the consular I.D. as proof of identity. But congressional critics complain that the policy has been too loose, heightening homeland-security concerns.
Clearly, Bush and Fox both raised expectations of a superclose U.S.-Mexican relationship way too high from the get-go. But who could have envisioned that an event as dramatic as September 11 would so quickly derail the American President's embrace of a next-door neighbor that had been held at arm's length since the U.S. was founded? "I don't know if we'll get back to where we were on September 6, 2001," Garza says now. "Expectations may have been a little unrealistic."
FENCE MENDING. A Texas native and the grandson of Mexicans who migrated to the U.S. during the 1910-20 Mexican Revolution, Garza says Bush intuitively understands the importance of improved ties with Mexico, having governed a border state with a large Hispanic population. Of the 33 million Hispanic Americans, 21 million trace their heritage to Mexico. Bush went to Washington with "a Texas-size appreciation for U.S.-Mexican relations" but ran smack into more modest "D.C. expectations," Garza explains, adding: "I think we can get back to the Washington-realistic, pre-September 11 expectations, but it will take some work."
Once the war in Iraq ends, the U.S. and Mexico have plenty of fence mending to do. Mexico can do several things to show it's interested in restoring close bilateral relations, says Garza. For one, it could make greater efforts to stem the flow of illegal immigrants across its ill-guarded southern border with Guatemala.
Mexico should also continue the unprecedented cooperation between the two countries' drug-enforcement agencies. Under Fox, Mexico has arrested 14 drug-trafficking kingpins and more than 300 cartel underlings. "President Fox has a very heartfelt commitment on drugs," Garza says.
GRASS-ROOTS EFFORT. And Mexico could score points with some in Congress by supporting an upcoming U.N. resolution on Cuba's human-rights abuses. For years, Mexico refused to criticize Cuba, citing Mexico's tradition of nonintervention in other countries' affairs. But last year, Mexican officials met with Cuban dissidents, greatly irritating Fidel Castro's regime. "If they are consistent regarding human rights and Castro, there is a constituency in Congress that would appreciate their sponsoring a resolution condemning the Castro regime," says Garza.
Mending the U.S.-Mexico relationship will take time, Garza believes. And it will most likely start at the grass roots, aligned with social and economic priorities: Along the 2,066-mile-long U.S.-Mexico border, governors and mayors will lobby Congress for better infrastructure and greater cross-border cooperation.
Multinationals have a stake in making sure their goods flow back and forth with few bureaucratic delays. Energy executives will forge ahead with plans to create a North American energy grid, linking the NAFTA partners' electricity and natural-gas flows. Improved, closer relations will have to be achieved "issue by issue, member of Congress by member of Congress," Garza says. And it won't happen just because it's the "right thing" to do. Ultimately, he concludes, closer relations will happen because it's in the best economic interest of both nations.
Copyright 2003, Bloomberg L.P.
Printer-Friendly Version
