Mexican Senate rejects Fox's travel plans to U.S. and Canada

MEXICO CITY -- Angry over several U.S. policies, senators denied President Vicente Fox permission on Tuesday to travel to the United States and Canada -- the first time Congress has stopped a Mexican leader from leaving the country.

Lawmakers voted 71-41 against Fox's request to travel next week to the western United States and Canada, saying the trip didn't appear to be worth it.

"Let's not confuse things," Sen. German Sierra of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party said. "It's not an official visit. It's not a state visit. It's considered a private visit."

Others criticized Fox's cozy ties with the United States. They cited Mexico's cooperation to secure its northern border against terrorists, and Fox's "passivity" in regard to a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that immigrants working illegally in the United States do not have the same rights to restitution as Americans who are mistreated on the job.

"President Fox made the decision to construct a new relationship with the United States that many consider inconvenient and unfruitful," said Raymundo Cardenas of the Democratic Revolution Party.

The action appeared to leave Fox little option but to try to persuade senators to change their mind or cancel his visit north. Under Mexican law, the Senate must authorize any presidential trips outside of Mexico.

In a television address late Tuesday, Fox called the move "disrespectful" to Canadian and U.S. officials, but said he was open to negotiations.

"The cancellation of this trip has negative effects for the promotion of Mexico's interests and those of Mexicans living in both countries," he said.

Since taking office in December 2000, the Mexican president has traveled frequently abroad to meet with world leaders and attend international summits.

Opposition lawmakers have complained that he spends too much time traveling -- and not enough time dealing with the internal problems of the country.

Fox has argued that he is seeking greater economic opportunities for his country, and improving Mexico's image on the world scene.

He was scheduled to travel next week to Calgary and Vancouver in Canada, as well as San Francisco and Seattle in a trip designed to strengthen economic and political ties between the three North American countries.

During the visit, he planned to meet with political leaders and Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, as well as reach out to Mexicans living overseas.

Sen. Gloria Lavara, of Mexico's Ecological Green Party, said the money that was to be used for the trip should be invested in Mexico. She also criticized Fox for not having secured promises from the United States to grant more work visas to Mexican migrants.

"The Mexicans that live and work outside of the country don't need visits," she said. "They need concrete and solid actions with short-, medium- and long-term results."

The vote pitting opposition lawmakers against members of Fox's National Action Party, which does not hold a majority in Congress, signaled a growing divide between legislators and Fox's administration.

Lawmakers also said the action was due to the Fox administration's "confusing" policy regarding Cuba.

Opposition lawmakers have accused Foreign Secretary Jorge Castaneda of pressuring Cuban President Fidel Castro to leave a U.N. conference last month in Monterrey, Mexico. Castaneda has repeatedly denied the allegation.

Lawmakers ordered the foreign secretary to appear before Congress to explain his actions, but he instead met with key lawmakers at his office in the Foreign Relations Department on Tuesday.

Wed Apr 10, 1:23 PM ET Struggle with Mexican Congress blocks US-Canada visit by president - By JOHN RICE, Associated Press Writer

[Full Text] MEXICO CITY - The struggle for power under Mexico's new political system has spilled into international politics with a vote by Mexico's opposition-dominated Senate to block President Vicente Fox from visiting Canada and the United States.

Four opposition parties joined in a 71-41 vote Tuesday against Fox's request to make the trip. He had planned to visit Calgary and Vancouver, Canada, on Monday and Tuesday, then head to Seattle and San Francisco for talks with business leaders and the Mexican-American community.

It was the first time Congress has blocked a presidential trip abroad and it is part of a growing confrontation between a newly assertive Congress and Fox, the first opposition candidate to win Mexico's presidency.

"I think Mexico's foreign policy is getting caught up in its domestic partisan politics," said M. Delal Baer, an expert on Mexico at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.

"Partly this is a partisan problem, but partly it is an indication that the executive and the congress are still feeling their way about what their responsibilities are to one another," she added.

Fox's victory in 2000 ended 71 years of rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, during which Congress nearly always accepted presidential wishes.

It is the first time that the president's party does not have a majority, not even a plurality, in either house of Congress. Fox won about 43 percent of the vote against two other major candidates, but the PRI won the largest bloc in Congress.

Congress has repeatedly modified or rejected Fox's proposals. It also has accused Fox of overriding congressional wishes - such as by suspending a new tax on U.S. sweetener - and of failing to consult on key issues.

Several congressmen have threatened to file a constitutional challenge to Fox's decision to send Mexican warships to multinational maneuvers without consulting lawmakers.

Many dislike Foreign Secretary Jorge Castaneda. Scores of congressmen immediately embraced Cuba's version of a recent diplomatic dispute with Castaneda rather than that of their own government even though neither side had presented evidence.

"This is a manifestation of a lack of communication and a bad relationship between the Senate and the executive power," Sen. Raymundo Cardenas of the left-leaning Democratic Revolution Party said in a televised interview on Wednesday.

"We have to establish a new relationship," Cardenas said. "We believe that the foreign policy of Mexico should not be of one group or party, even that of the government. It has to be of all parties."

Relations also are tense because Fox's attorney general's office is studying possible criminal charges against leading PRI members accused of diverting funds from the state oil company into the 2000 presidential campaign.

During Tuesday's debate, senators complained that Fox had been timid in protesting a U.S. Supreme Court decision that allegedly undermined the human rights of undocumented workers in the United States.

Fox went on television late Tuesday to accuse the senators of making "partisan decisions contrary to the interests of the nation." He said his trip would have brought in foreign investment and helped protect the rights of Mexican citizens in the United States.

"That will not be possible because of the opposition led by the PRI," he said.

Baer said, "The Mexican Senate is testing the outer limits of its constitutional prerogatives."

But by "dropping an atomic bomb on its relations with the executive branch," the move could lead to "a descending spiral" of disputes that block major legislation, she added.

"For those in the U.S. business community who are hoping to see a renewed impulse for economic reform coming out of the Mexican Congress, this is not a heartening signal," Baer said. [End]

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