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Bush Tries to Mend Ties With Mexico
NewsMax ^

Posted on 01/12/2004 3:19:40 PM PST by Happy2BMe

MONTERREY, Mexico – President Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox, their relationship strained by tensions over immigration and Iraq, met privately for talks on a range of issues Monday as a prelude to an international summit meeting of 34 Western Hemisphere nations.

The Bush White House saw the face-to-face meeting not only as a chance to mend ties between the two countries, but also to earn political capital for a president who wants a second term.

Bush arrived in this industrial city at midday at an airport where gun-toting troops in green fatigues and security officers roamed the grounds. He and his wife, Laura, walked down into a phalanx of Mexican officials, all men wearing dark suits.

The couple were followed in the procession of greeting by Secretary of State Colin Powell, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and White House chief of staff Andy Card. Once in his motorcade, Bush passed large expanses of brush and cactus- covered land. Men digging ditches alongside the road stopped and leaned on their tools to watch him pass by.

On a 90-minute flight here from Texas, Bush got a briefing from Rice and Powell on the summit, said his press secretary, Scott McClellan.

In his meeting with Fox, the spokesman said, the president was expected to discuss his new, more open immigration policy, strengthening border security and free trade. McCellan dismissed talk of the meeting as an opportunity to air grievances.

"We have a good relationship with Mexico, and President Fox is a good friend of the president's", McClellan said. "Whatever differences we had in the past, we have a lot of common challenges that we are working closely together on."

Sorry, Castro

Bush annoyed Fox when he put changes in immigration on the back burner after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. Their relationship further soured when Mexico failed to back the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. But the two were expected to be smiling, at least for the cameras, at the summit of freely elected leaders. Cuba was not invited.

"Fox has an opportunity to hail the Bush immigration proposal as a political victory, given that he has been asking for an immigration agreement since day one," said Armand Peschard-Sverdrup, director of the Mexico project at Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "I think to some extent, Bush will use it as a photo op for reaching out to the Hispanic voters."

Amid the congenial handshakes will be disagreements. Latin American nations butted heads with the United States until nearly dawn Sunday in failing to agree on several points of a draft document to be debated at the two-day summit.

Bigger Than NAFTA

The United States wants the draft to call for re-emphasizing a 2005 deadline for finishing negotiations on a Free Trade Area of the Americas, a hemisphere-wide trade zone that is one of Bush's top policy goals for Latin America. Brazil and Venezuela say the summit is not the place to discuss it.

The United States also wants to kick corrupt governments out of the Organization of American States, a move opposed by several Latin American nations.

Other discussion topics at the summit, held in Mexico's third-largest city, 150 miles south of the Texas border city of Laredo, include strengthening free republics, ending poverty, security and helping small businesses with low-interest loans.

Argentina's President Nestor Kirchner is upset about recent U.S. criticism over its warming relations with Cuba. U.S. officials privately worry that President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, who warned U.S. officials on Saturday not to "stick their noses" in his nation's affairs, is working with Cuba to oppose pro-American republics in the region.

200 Million More on the U.S. Taxpayers' Dole?!

Some Latin American leaders accuse America of being heavy-handed. They argue that the United States has neglected social issues, such as raising the standard of living for 200 million people, nearly one-half the region's population, who live in poverty.

Between bilateral meetings Monday with President Ricardo Lagos of Chile and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil, Bush's schedule called for his speech at the summit's opening ceremonies. He planned to promote free trade, open markets, clean elections and anti-corruption steps to help strengthen freedom in the hemisphere.

An administration official said the United States also planned to announce it would return to Peru $20 million allegedly stolen by Vladimiro Montesinos, a former Peruvian intelligence chief, and stashed in American bank accounts.

© 2003 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


TOPICS: Extended News; Mexico
KEYWORDS: aliens; bush; fox; immigration; mexico; olivebranch; trade; vicentefox
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To: My2Cents
It's British for "go pound sand."


Tsk... Tsk... Thats nice.




So you think Bush runs a corrupt goverment?


To answer that question. Yes.

Sod off.......
61 posted on 01/12/2004 5:09:50 PM PST by Peace will be here soon (Beware, there are some crazy people around here !!! And I could be one of them !!)
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To: Happy2BMe
Yepper! The Democrat liberals are so seething with anger over Bush on NPR, one of them admitted that Fox resides in Seattle. It's kind of neat that they can't check their loose tounges when it comes to Bush. They are so full of death-ray dreams and hopes that it blinds them to their own words. Much like the Sharpton/Dean friccas!
62 posted on 01/12/2004 5:10:20 PM PST by blackdog (I'm hooked on phonics but smoking it is not so easy.)
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To: Peace will be here soon
May this thread bitterness morph into some Python material forth with.
63 posted on 01/12/2004 5:12:43 PM PST by blackdog (I'm hooked on phonics but smoking it is not so easy.)
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To: blackdog
Wish we could get a link on that, cap'n!
64 posted on 01/12/2004 5:13:18 PM PST by Happy2BMe (Liberty does not tolerate lawlessness and a borderless nation will not prevail.)
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To: Major_Risktaker
"Mexico is the second-largest supplier of crude oil to the United States, behind Saudi Arabia."

We may have a winner here . .

65 posted on 01/12/2004 5:15:12 PM PST by Happy2BMe (Liberty does not tolerate lawlessness and a borderless nation will not prevail.)
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To: Happy2BMe
I wish so too. In the meantime I've got an FBO friend in Washington State looking into it. If he jets around and buys fuel in this country I'll find out. He is most likely using corporate planes as most politicians do in order to provide cover. Give me a week, and I'll know 100% one way or the other in absolute terms.

The red carpet treatment leaves witnesses.

66 posted on 01/12/2004 5:19:29 PM PST by blackdog (I'm hooked on phonics but smoking it is not so easy.)
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To: Happy2BMe
Did you catch my comment that the greater amount of two values in capital is derived from Mexico by the money sent from illegal immigrants in America than that of all oil sales of Mexico. Immigrant Western Union money orders exceed the Mexican oil output each month.

That also was a message from NPR talking heads today.

67 posted on 01/12/2004 5:22:44 PM PST by blackdog (I'm hooked on phonics but smoking it is not so easy.)
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KEEP ILLEGALS

ILLEGAL


68 posted on 01/12/2004 5:24:38 PM PST by Luke FReeman (screw fox)
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To: blackdog
May this thread bitterness morph into some Python material forth with.

LOL !! Forked tongues are aplenty around here !!! I can`t even imagine what it will be like in October !! I am starting to fill my sandbags right now !! INCOMING !!!!!!!!
69 posted on 01/12/2004 5:30:14 PM PST by Peace will be here soon (Beware, there are some crazy people around here !!! And I could be one of them !!)
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To: blackdog
"Immigrant Western Union money orders exceed the Mexican oil output each month. That also was a message from NPR talking heads today."

Talk to as US Postal window clerk . . ask what every third transaction at the window is.

Answer: International money orders to Mexico.

It goes out by the Billion$ every two weeks, just like clockwork.

70 posted on 01/12/2004 5:31:21 PM PST by Happy2BMe (Liberty does not tolerate lawlessness and a borderless nation will not prevail.)
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To: blackdog
Please ping me if you get lucky.

"The red carpet treatment leaves witnesses."

It also requires flight authorization and in the case of foreign government heads, a notice to our state department along with a travel plan.

71 posted on 01/12/2004 5:34:16 PM PST by Happy2BMe (Liberty does not tolerate lawlessness and a borderless nation will not prevail.)
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To: Happy2BMe
You've got that right! Imagine if that money remained in the U.S.
72 posted on 01/12/2004 5:37:28 PM PST by WHATNEXT?
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To: hadaclueonce
Poop fertilized green onions from Mexico, killed a couple PA residents last summer, do we really need more open trade border?

And American beef with e coli killed a couple of American children a few years ago, what's your point?

73 posted on 01/12/2004 5:41:49 PM PST by Dane
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To: WHATNEXT?
"Imagine if that money remained in the U.S."

Jobs Americans Won't Do: Voodoo Economics from the White House.


74 posted on 01/12/2004 5:43:05 PM PST by Happy2BMe (Liberty does not tolerate lawlessness and a borderless nation will not prevail.)
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To: Happy2BMe
Why doesn't Mexico try to mend ties with America?
75 posted on 01/12/2004 5:43:08 PM PST by RightWhale (How many technological objections will be raised?)
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To: blackdog
Did you catch my comment that the greater amount of two values in capital is derived from Mexico by the money sent from illegal immigrants in America than that of all oil sales of Mexico

And you I am surmising you would have castigated people 100 years ago sending money back to Dublin or Warsaw?

76 posted on 01/12/2004 5:45:25 PM PST by Dane
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To: My2Cents
...those on the right whose practical solution to illegal immigration seems to be to machine-gun anyone who dares to step across the border

That straw man's sure getting a good work-out these days.

77 posted on 01/12/2004 5:45:45 PM PST by dagnabbit (Tell Bush what to do with his Amnesty & Global Labor Pool - Write in Tancredo in the Primary)
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To: Happy2BMe
It goes out by the Billion$ every two weeks, just like clockwork

Huh I guess you would have rioted in the streets a hundred years ago if Mrs. O'Brian or Mr. Vincenzo sent money back to Cork or Naples.

78 posted on 01/12/2004 5:47:33 PM PST by Dane
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To: RightWhale
"Why doesn't Mexico try to mend ties with America?"

Mexico President to Mexico: MORE – WE’RE GOING FOR MORE!!


79 posted on 01/12/2004 5:48:28 PM PST by Happy2BMe (Liberty does not tolerate lawlessness and a borderless nation will not prevail.)
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To: Dane
Immigrants from Dublin or Warsaw or Italy or Germany were legal immigrants.

And to set the record straight, I castigated nobody. I merely stated a presented economic finding from a credible source. I mean we went to war with Iraq for oil right? Too bad immigration is costing us more than all Mexico's oil output.......

If you want to castigate, do it to Fox for refusing Americans the right to own real property in Mexico as he demands Mexicans have that right here, even if they are illegally here.

Go figure that too!

80 posted on 01/12/2004 5:56:02 PM PST by blackdog (I'm hooked on phonics but smoking it is not so easy.)
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