Posted on 12/29/2003 9:37:40 PM PST by Dubya
It is in Spanish so I went to Bablefish and had it translated, here is the text: (sorry it is long)
Madrid, Spain, 16 of May of 2002.
Estenográfica version of the words that on the subject "Foreign policy of Mexico in Century XXI", pronounced President Vicente Fox Quesada before the members of the "Club Century XXI" in the Hall Conferences of the Eurobuilding Hotel of this city.
- Mr. Ramos Perera, Vice-president of the Club Century XXI: Sir President; Sir Minister; gentlemen Ambassadors; ladies and gentlemen:
The Club Century XXI is honored with the presence of the President of the United States of Mexico not only by the country that also represents, with that we have so many historical, cultural and economic bows of entailment, but by its personality and the enormous work that is doing in the brief time that takes in the Presidency.
Without a doubt some, that great challenge -- of that we spoke a little ago -- of which we were fighting Spain and Mexico by the tenth position, I I believe that the best thing would be than we were both always the tenth position in the world and that we indeed help one to other to be what we are.
Sir President:
Thank you very much to honor with its presence and its words to us.
- President Vicente Fox: Ladies and gentlemen:
I thank for its gentile invitation to share with you in this important forum some reflections on the political alternancia in Mexico and its effect in our foreign policy.
The present Mexican foreign policy is the external reflection of the mandate of change expressed in the ballot boxes of the 2 of July of year 2000 and, simultaneously, a powerful instrument to anchor the democratic transition in the country.
The new course which we have given to the relations of Mexico in the world is, without a doubt, which explains for the first time in many years and of as unexpected way as welcome, the alive interest of the Mexican society in the foreign policy. What it confirms to us that we have chosen the good way is the fact that feeling of most of the Mexicans, of the Mexicans, it demonstrates that not only they are conscious of this new course of our foreign policy, but that supports it decidedly.
Of course, as it is possible to hope, in a democracy these new priorities do not have been free of critics. All they welcomes, in the measurement in which they help us to fortify the presence of Mexico in the outside.
When assuming the Government we found, as it happens in all process of alternancia, after a long monopoly of being able, a complex legacy of advances and rezagos, as well as a challenge difficult of continuity and change.
In the matter of foreign policy the diplomacy practiced during the 70 years of unipartidista government deserves a clarified judgment. In spite of the pretensions that an unalterable doctrine existed that the old regime wanted to assure, the point to shape in our Constitution the principles of United Nations, its diplomacy knew ruptures.
In effect, the international activity of previous governments showed deep differences of strategies. Compárense, for example, the policies of presidents Luis the Saline Echeverrias and Carlos, or those of Jose Lopez Opening with those of Ernesto Zedillo.
Periods of passivity existed, but, simultaneously, active and shining moments, like the maintenance of diplomatic relations with the Spanish Republic, the rejection to the isolation of Cuba, the rupture of relations with the regime of Pinochet in Chile and the sentence of the Apartheid in South Africa.
Also vanguardistas gestures occurred, like the role played in the conflict of El Salvador and later in the process of Accountant.
Nevertheless, also we must recognize that all these efforts were gradually becoming paralyzed, like turn out of the incapacity of that regime to recognize that the world had changed.
First, bipolar defrosting was to him adverse in the measurement in which the new priorities of the international agenda were centered indeed in weak flanks of the lack of democracy, transparency and human rights in my country. It caused an overcast sky and loss of leadership.
Second, the route selected in that new international context, the construction of a scaffolding in agreements of free commerce, extended the economic relations of Mexico, but it still more made the limitations of the democracy and the State of Right in the country evident.
Today the changes in Mexico and the world indicate what there is to conserve and what there is to reject of that foreign policy and, mainly, which is to create to construct our future.
The foreign policy of Mexico must continue protecting the interests medulares of our nation, its national security, the international preservation of its international maneuverability, stability and the cooperation, the advantage of our natural resources according to the necessities and priorities of the country, the impulse to the national development integral sustainable sharp and, and the sovereign capacity to assume without restrictions decisions in benefit of interests.
But it must do it in the new conditions that the present System raises the International.
For that reason it is that we decided, from the beginning of my mandate, in December of the year 2000, which the change by that and the Mexicans they had voted had to be translated in which it concerns to our foreign policy -- in a new international strategy, taking advantage of so much the traditional diplomatic instruments to our reach, like those attributes of which today it is denominated to be able smooth and with that counts our country, like result of the democratic change.
This sense, the intense promotion of the culture and the image of my country have become one of the central objectives of our activity abroad.
For that reason we have created the Institute of Mexico -- inspired by the Cervantes Institute of Spain and other similars in Europe -- to spread in the world the rich Mexican cultural legacy, the vigorous artistic and mediáticas expressions of contemporary Mexico, like the products and the cultural industry of my country.
One of the questions medulares that we have had to take care of is the way in which the principles of foreign policy contained in our Constitution and that are derived from the original principles of Liga of the Nations, of the Letter of the United Nations, but also of Mexican postulates like Doctrina Carranza. This can be applied to the new international realities.
We have avoided the temptation to make table strickles on the contrary of our diplomatic tradition or, to limit to us to only repeat it. For that reason we decided that the foreign policy of Mexico had to combine the best thing of the past with the necessities of the present.
For those reasons, we have articulated it around two main axes: first it has consisted of unfolding one more a more intense activity in the multilateral forums and the second, it has looked for to deepen strategically our relation with the United States and Canada in North America -- and wanted to refer to me to each one of them briefly.
In recent years one has come developing to a new System the International oriented towards the establishment from norms and principles of universal jurisdiction, over the national sovereignty, in scopes of the call New Agenda like the human rights and the democracy, the questions of sort and discrimination, the protection of the medio.ambiente or the combat to the organized crime and the corruption.
Mexico always has fought by a System the International based on the right and its rules and norms. What today it has changed is the nature of these last ones, not the interest of Mexico by a codified international order. And it is indeed in the codification of that new Global Agenda which Mexico can and must affect.
The construction of new rules of international coexistence will have to continue, or with our participation or without her. I do not have doubt that to Mexico it agrees to him to play an active role in its definition, as much by our position as country bridge between cultures and regions, like by its diplomatic tradition and the democratic legitimacy of the present Government. For that reason we are participating actively in diverse forums in the construction of this international architecture.
This new Mexican activism already has begun to give its fruits. Of entrance, we obtained the support of the Community of Nations, so that our country entered like member, nonpermanent to the Security Council of United Nations.
With the same decision we have advanced in the fulfillment of ours renewed commitment with the human rights. On the one hand, we are harmonizing the Mexican Legislation with Normative Marco the International. By the other, Mexico is using its voice and its vote to promote those fundamental rights anywhere in the world.
As it credits it our participation in the Conference of Durban against Racism and the Discrimination, in which we promoted the incorporation of the total recognition of all the rights of the indigenous towns and the positive economic and cultural contribution from and the migrantes to the destiny countries.
The voting on Cuba in the last Commission of Human rights of the UN, is a clear example of our congruencia in this subject, but also they are it the votes emitted around the situation of the human rights in Palestine and Chechenia, to the resolution promoted by Mexico, to guarantee the respect to the human rights in the fight against the terrorism and that, unfortunately, did not prosper in this occasion.
Mexico is had it jeopardize actively in the fight that today is opened against the international terrorism, we do it because we think that it is a fundamental challenge to the security and the well-being of the community of nations, but also because letter against the most fundamental values of our societies.
But this fight will have to be intelligent, patient and integral. He would be paradoxical which in our efforts to cut the comunicantes glasses, that they feed the terrorism, we ended up harming our principles and our norms of international coexistence and that are, ultimately, the target of attack of these groups.
Also we have reaffirmed our will to impel the democratic values in the world.
A fundamental antecedent for our work, was the Democratic Clause negotiated by the previous regime in the Global Agreement between our country and the European Union.
In September of the last year, Mexico promoted the subscription of the Inter-American Democratic Letter, by means of which the nations of the hemisphere expressed their commitment with the democracy, as form of Government.
The recent institutional rupture in Venezuela, on approval put the firmness of our convictions. And the leadership of Mexico in this scope, was a decisive factor for the reestablishment of the constitutional order in that country.
The new activism of Mexico, also was credited in the Conference on Financing for the Development, celebrated yet success in the city of Monterrey, in Mexico, in which our country assumed a role of leadership in the conformation of a more equitable international system, than less offers new opportunities to the developed nations.
Along with the Conference of Johannesburg, the Ministerial Meeting of the World-wide Organization of Commerce that will take place the incoming year in Mexico, will allow us to continue the important work initiated in the Ministerial Meeting of the World-wide Organization of Commerce, in Doha, in please a righter development, the elimination of the subsidies, particularly in nourishing agricultural products and.
The active participation of Mexico in the multilateral scope, also contributes to fortify our relations with other countries and regions. For that reason, one of the priorities of our Chancellery throughout the last months has been the construction of which for want of a better name we have called multilateral bilateralismo; that is to say, the search of convergences, mainly with nations of Europe and Latin America, in the subjects of the new agenda.
We have started up east approach, particularly with Great Britain, with Spain, France and Chile. We will continue doing it with other nations because we are convinced that this one is the best way to give greater political weight to the bilateral relations of Mexico with European and Latin American nations.
In this work we will continue extending and deepening the so important bilateral relation that we maintain with Spain, same that it began to be constructed from the Spanish democratic transition.
Today Spain is for Mexico the indispensable partner in the transatlantic dialogue that we maintain Latin America and Europe, and is that our relation with Europe is a high-priority subject.
Mexico is tie closely with the European nations for historical reasons and of cultural affinity.
With base in this sense of transatlantic community, my Government has looked for to identify and to forge common interests and perceptions with the European Union with respect to different subjects from the international agenda. It explains the increasing convergence between our positions in subjects like the promotion of the democracy, the protection and use of the human rights in the multilateral forums.
In these subjects it is logical that Mexico approaches Europe. We even counted on an identity of values that unite to us with the European nations, more than with our neighbors of North America. It credits our performance to it in the recent Period of Sessions of the Commission of Human rights of the United Nations, where our affinities took to us to frequently vote in the same sense and to even cosponsor a resolution in the matter of human rights in the combat to the terrorism.
But that convergence also has been evident in many other scopes, like the Protocol of Kioto, the establishment of the Penal Court the International or the recent Summit of the Childhood.
In Latin America this new direction has been expressed of a clear way through an initiative that we have sent with Central America to promote the regional development, the maintained and sustainable economic development, by means of the initiative Puebla-Panama Plan, which responds to a new integral perspective of socioeconomic development of this region that is with important rezagos.
The second axis of the foreign policy of Mexico has been the construction of a strategic association for the prosperity with the United States and with Canada, starting off of a relation already it narrows that it rests in the Free Trade Agreement of North America and that is articulated around an integral of long term and conceptually novel vision.
The density and complexity of the subjects of our bilateral agenda with the United States, so and as are normal that it happens between two neighbors and so asymmetric partners, has a particular dimension by the presence of ample seated Mexican communities in that country, more than 20 million countrymen.
In the last months we have managed to be improving the situation of many Mexicans in that country, independently of its migratory situation, through schemes that have I allow to them to accede to the educative systems and of health, as well as to identity cards, like total respect to its labor rights and their human rights.
All this has meant in the last year extraordinary a conceptual advance in the relations between our two countries, particularly in the migratory subject and the importance of walking gradually towards the regularización of the migratory situation of our connacionales in the United States, a number that is considered between three and four million of Mexican.
Ultimately our objective of long term is to establish with the United States, but also with Canada, our other regional partner, a set of bonds and institutions similar to the created ones by the European Union, with the purpose of taking care of so important subjects for the future prosperity of North America, like the freedom of movement of capitals, goods, services and people.
Although this one is an objective that feels like difficult, is to visionarily seat the bases of our relation with a horizon of 25 years.
The new frame that we want to construct is inspired by the example of the European Union, but it is not about a copy, but a bring up to date of that process.
It is not the same integration between sovereign nations in 1958 that in 2002; it is not the same to form a community with countries with a degree of relatively homogenous development that between nations with enormous asymmetries; it is not the same to establish communitarian institutions during the Cold War that under the exigencies imposed by the facts of the 11 of September of the last year.
And we must face, also, which would dare to me to call the Anglo-Saxon prejudice against the establishment of supranational institutions. Despite I believe that we will be able to surpass with realism the obstacles and to construct one more a more prosperous and safe community for our towns.
Friends and friends:
Today the foreign policy of Mexico recognizes that the interests, values and fundamental principles of Mexico must be translated in concrete strategies to the light, on the one hand, of the international context; and by the other, of the will of change of the Mexican town.
For that reason, the commitments that we established in campaign, the dialogue with the society and other political forces and the analysis of the international conjuncture, are elements that contribute to the definition of the present priorities of our foreign policy.
My Government sees in the foreign policy an instrument to impel and to anchor the democratic change in Mexico.
Where before the external glance was blocked, today the welcome occurs him; where before the interaction with the external world was seen with distrust, today it is fomented.
We want -- as Spain did it already, at its moment of political transition -- for looking for in the outside an institutional scaffolding that consolidates to the interior of my country the total observance of the human rights, the deepening of the democratic practice and the transparency in the public life.
It is logical that the democratic change and the political alternancia imply --a the time -- permanence and renovation. Both factors are indissoluble part of all political reality.
However, the precise dose of continuity and change in the public life of a nation, do not only have results of the will of a Government.
We must find the flexibility necessary to respond to the changing internal and external circumstances, but also the indispensable firmness that comes from the fundamental values of the nation.
And in this task, all the political actors of Mexico we have a paper who to carry out, if there are to respond with effectiveness and imagination to the challenges that the contemporary world raises to us.
Thus, as much the Mexico that today impels its initiatives in the multilateral forums, like which it undertakes a length and fertile way of regional integration, is the Mexico of the Mexican alternancia that they wanted and more and more want a majority of and Mexican.
That is the Mexico of the change that has the ambition to do of its foreign policy, one of the keys for the future successful of our country, one of the keys to put to Mexico to the day and the vanguard.
Thank you very much by its attention. Tuesday 30 of December of 2003 Sitios www Comunicaci��ocial It arrives
SYSTEM INTERNET OF THE PRESIDENCY OF THE REPUBLIC COMPONENTS # 161, 7° FLOOR, SAN MIGUEL CHAPULTEPEC, 11850, MEXICO D.F.
Contamos con una identidad de valores que nos unen con las naciones europeas, incluso más que con nuestros vecinos de América del Norte.
Mexico's values are more closely aligned with those of Europe, than they are with the U.S. I'd have to agree. And how has Old Europe been treating the U.S. lately?
And it has been proven to not be difficult. allow me to reiterate from a previous post ....
Let us visualize a real live controlled border. That would require a fairly large construction project to build semi-sunken border stations at one mile intervals from end to end across the southern border with Mexico. By placing them at one mile intervals no point on the border is more than 30 seconds from a border station. By sinking them into the ground, one level is completely protected against almost all man-portable weapons and the second level (ground level) can be bermed on three sides except for the horizontal observation and firing ports along the east, south and west sides. the north side would extend out to include a 3 sided, covered bay where the interceptors will sit at the ready.
Each such station will be staffed by five three man teams. As this is a closed border plan, there is no need for more than three per station. Allowing 5 shifts per station, the three normally needed for 24 hour staffing at 8 hour shifts, plus two ?weekend? shifts that could rotate out with a weekday shift, giving the week day workers opportunity for time off, vacation, backup for sick days, etc.
Then there is the eternal question, how much?
Ahhhhhhhh, there is the beauty. ZERO. This will not add a single dime to the budget. WHY? The money is currently being pi$$ed away for nothing and where it is going will only get worse. Allow me to rub salt here . .
""When approving the Medi care bill last month, Congress allocated $1 billion to help border hospitals cover those costs. President Bush is expected to sign the bill Monday.""
Which he did. So the money is there, it is just being spent in a reactionary mode. In a proactive mode most of the money will only be spent only in the first year, after that the cost would drop dramatically.
OK, lets do the numbers.
1330 miles from Atlantic to Pacific ='s 1330 stations.
1 station initial construction 165,000
1 electronics and weapons 40,000
3 trucks @ 40,000 each 120,000
15 staff, 5 shifts at 3 per shift 630,000
utilities (water, electricity) 12,000
Total for one station for the first year (including construction)
$967,000
Total for the 1330 stations required
$1,288,044,000
and that is including construction cost.
After the initial construction,
Back out 90% of 165,000 to = 16,500, or annual maintaining
apply the same 10% maintaining to the other front end expenses
and the total annual bill is . . . $870,352,000
Case Closed.
The only reason the border is NOT closed is the fed WANTS the criminal invaders here.
the only question is . . . WHY?
Many will argue that they are just poor "immigrants" and we should welcome them. We already welcome immigrants, NOT illegal border busters. If they are "immigrating" why are they crossing the border at night, paying other criminals thousands of dollars each to smuggle them into the u.S.
SMUGGLING IS NOT IMMIGRATING.
And as for this BS about them only committing a mistomeanor by crossing the border illegally, there is another school of thought. Lets take a look at that, shall we?
Just a thought, what if the IRS began to receive reports regarding the transfer of funds to locations outside of the united States and it became apparent that is is a nationwide trend.... therefore invoking conspiracy laws.
Say for example, an individual living in the united States ILLEGALLY had conspired with other individuals living in the united States ILLEGALLY to create a hideout from the investigative branch of INS or whatever the heck they are called these days. They have rented the hideout under a fake name and all of the conspirators chipped in to pay the rent on the hideout. Then, in order to avoid local law enforcement agents, all of the ILLEGAL Aliens live in the hideout, thereby circumventing the reporting regulations for an alien ILLEGALLY living in the u.S. That would be a crime, right?
OK, let's say those same aliens living ILLEGALLY in the u.S. all had jobs and because they are paying very little to support themselves, (they are all living in the hideout, thereby paying 1/5 to 1/10 what the average American pays in rent and lest than 1/20 what the average home owner pays in monthly mortgage payments) they are sending regular sums of money out of the county, money that was earned during the course of ILLEGAL ACTIVITY, i.e. not reporting there illegal status, hiding their address from law authorities, and falsifying federal IRS forms with fake SS numbers. This would all constitute crimes, right? Well, what kind of a crime?
STRUCTURING, IE money laundering......
4.18.1956(a)(1)(B)(ii) Money Laundering-Illegal Structuring,
18 U.S.C. § 1956(a)(1)(B)(ii) See Statute
[Defendant] is charged with violating that portion of the federal money laundering statute that prohibits structuring transactions to avoid reporting requirements. It is against federal law to engage in such conduct. For [defendant] to be convicted of this crime, you must be convinced that the government has proven each of the following things beyond a reasonable doubt:
First, that [defendant] entered into a financial transaction or transactions, on or about the date alleged, with a financial institution engaged in interstate commerce, involving the use of proceeds of unlawful activities, specifically, proceeds of the [insert crime here(illegal alien) ];
Second, that [defendant] knew that these were the proceeds of unlawful activity;
Third, that [defendant] knew that the transaction or transactions were structured or designed in whole or in part so as to avoid transaction reporting requirements under federal law. ------- The defendants are also charged with knowingly conducting and attempting to conduct financial transactions that involved the proceeds of specified unlawful activity, knowing that the transactions were designed in whole or in part to avoid a transaction reporting requirement and while conducting and attempting to conduct such financial transactions, knowing that the property involved in the financial transactions represented the proceeds of some form of unlawful activity, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1956(a)(1)(B)(ii).
The Treasury Department has published a booklet entitled, "Money Laundering: A Banker's Guide to Avoiding Problems," which contains a list of suspicious activities that the Treasury Department says fit the profile of a "money launderer." These activities include: 1) Paying off a delinquent loan all at once; 2) Changing currency from small to large denominations;3) Buying cashier's checks, money orders, or traveler's checks for less than the reporting limit (i.e., under $10,000); 4) Acting nervous while making large transactions with cash or monetary instruments; 5) Opening an account and using it as collateral for a loan; 6) Presenting a transaction that involves a large number of $50 and $100 bills; and 7) Presenting a transaction without counting the cash first. . . .
"Structuring" is defined by the IRS as any effort to avoid reporting cash or other monetary transactions over $10,000 by breaking them down into smaller "related" transactions over any 12-month period (defined by USC 31, Sec. 5322-5324-Money Laundering Control Act of 1986, as amended). A structuring violation carries with it a criminal penalty with a mandatory prison term, heavy fines, and confiscation of structured funds and money "connected" to them. (A civil penalty of a $25,000 fine with confiscation of structured funds also exists.) Monetary instruments included in structuring are cash, cashier's checks, money orders, and traveler's checks.
"Structuring" is now defined as money laundering, and is a criminal offense. You can now go to jail for dealing in cash to protect your financial privacy, if the IRS thinks you're trying to hide or structure your transactions or monetary instruments.
It seems to me that that the above is describing a nationwide conspiracy of ILLEGAL ALIENS that are defrauding the government and a guilty of a long list of federal conspiracy crimes.
It also occurred to me that the crime was committed, or rather, under the definition of conspiracy, the crime began when the illegal alien set foot on u.S. territory with the intention of getting a job "that nobody else wanted."
Well well, let us review the facts.
1. All the illegals KNOW what they are doing is against u.S. law.
2. The border an be closed for .10 cents on the dollar of what it costs PER YEAR, that would be 22 Billion, due to their presence. It would cost less than 2 Billion to close it.
They are in fact criminals and were felons by their own admission the moment they set foot on u.S. territory. What the government is thinking by allowing this to go on in the face of such universal opposition of the wishes of the Americans will be political genocide if just one of the annual two million criminal border crossers are involved in a major terrorist event. That is not pubies or dems, just politicians and gubbermnt in general.
NO reason to not close the border.
MANY reasons to close the border NOW.
Does this current government really believe all Americans are so stupid as to let this go on?
Okay --- so they get completely free health care --- even $1 billion more given in the latest Medicare bill. They get completely free education for any children they care to bring ---$10,000 per child per year. They pay no income tax, Social Security tax --- unless they're using a stolen Social Security number, no property tax, they drive without auto insurance ---- because if we won't give them drivers licenses they figure they don't need to buy insurance, and you think they should pay no sales taxes either?
Anyway I'm very glad to see something is being done about his finally. It's a little unfair when your Mexican neighbors who live and work here can buy much more because they pay no sales tax so that you must pay extra. Some of these are very wealthy --- from the elite class who are rolling in bucks and don't need this "discount".
It puzzles me why they can get away with this.
I never said I thought they should be getting away with abusing the system.
Don't put words in my mouth.
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