[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 35 (Thursday, March 24, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: March 24, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]


                              {time}  2120
 
                  ASSASSINATION OF LUIS DONALD COLOSIO

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Laughlin). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from California [Mr. Dreier] is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, it was said most eloquently in a report on 
one of the network newscasts this evening, when an elderly woman, 
drying, walked through the streets of Tijuana and said, ``This is very 
painful.''
  I rise to note with great sadness the assassination of Luis Donald 
Colosio, the leading presidential candidate in Mexico. As with any 
killing, this is first and foremost a personal tragedy. He was a young 
man, 44 years of age, when he was killed.
  He leaves behind a wife and 2 young children, a 7-year-old son and a 
newborn daughter.
  As President Clinton noted earlier, his discussion of this tragedy 
with President Salinas was entirely regarding the personal nature of 
this loss.
  I had the pleasure of meeting and working with Mr. Colosio, as have a 
number of our colleagues, on many different occasions. He was a fine 
man, well-educated, intelligent and incredibly dedicated to making 
Mexico a better place.
  He rose from poverty, earned scholarships through hard work that led 
to degrees in economics from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and 
the University of Pennsylvania.
  He dedicated his political career to bringing the fruits of free 
market economic growth to all the Mexican people, especially the poor. 
And it should be noted, Mr. Speaker, that when he was assassinated 
yesterday, he was campaigning in a very poor neighborhood in the 
outskirts of Tijuana.
  Mr. Colosio was dedicated to building upon the remarkable economic 
success story of the Salinas administration in Mexico. By moving away 
from socialism and protectionism to competition and freer markets, 
Mexico has made great economic progress. Mexico today stands as one of 
the world's fastest growing economies.
  As the Secretary of Social Development, Colosio was the director of 
grassroots infrastructure and social welfare projects that were 
designed to bring the benefits of economic development to all of 
Mexico.
  He was also at the very head of the Mexican effort to expend greater 
resources on environmental improvements. These programs earned him 
widespread respect and support from the Mexican people. And I will 
never forget when President Salinas told me that the overwhelming 
number of letters that came to him on a daily basis have come from 
young children talking about environmental concerns. And these were the 
things that Mr. Colosio was working.
  However, as in all developing countries, there is much to be done. As 
a presidential candidate, Secretary Colosio promised to focus even more 
of the benefits on market reforms for the poor. He was undoubtedly a 
threat to those on the left who hoped to use the lack of immediate 
prosperity throughout Mexico as the wedge to turn Mexico away from 
market reforms.
  Mr. Speaker, the Colosio assassination is first and foremost a 
personal tragedy for his family and friends. However, it also has dark 
implications regarding the NAFTA political battle that was undertaken 
last year right here in the United States Congress. Earlier today, I 
was deeply disappointed when one of our colleagues, one of the leading 
opponents of the North American Free Trade Agreement essentially blamed 
the NAFTA for the killing of Mr. Colosio.
  In the remarks she excused the inexcusable murder of a political 
figure by claiming that the assassin was pushed into this brutal act by 
the Trade Agreement. It is this type of faceless vitriolic anti-Mexican 
rhetoric that has contributed to a new level of violence in Mexico.
  The life and death anti-Mexico rhetoric surrounding NATFA was 
uncalled for. NAFTA is nothing more than a trade agreement that phases 
out tariffs and establishes rules for investment. It will not change 
the world or serve as a panacea for problems in any country. However, 
it is also not the economic or political disaster described by those 
who demonized the agreement all of last year.
  How soon we forget that in the battle to stop free trade, NAFTA 
opponents used such inflamed rhetoric that NAFTA was portrayed as a 
life or death struggle. Members of Congress here had their lives 
threatened, literally threatened with death if they voted for the 
NAFTA. We can only consider ourselves lucky that the level of anxiety 
and anger over NAFTA quickly dissipated when the bill was passed and 
the agreement was implemented. That is because all of the sucking-sound 
rhetoric was so obviously wrong.
  Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, the very same political rhetoric appears 
to have bred life-and-death consequences in Mexico. We thought that the 
rebels in Chiapas, who took up arms against the Mexican government, 
blamed NAFTA, an agreement that had nothing to do with any of their 
grievances, proved nothing more than that they had good media 
consultant.
  Now a responsible Member of Congress blames the killing of a foreign 
political figure on the enactment of the trade agreement. Our rhetoric 
has gone too far.
  Mr. Speaker, the murder of Luis Colosio is a dark moment, a horrible 
victory of violence over deliberation, the gun over the ballot box and 
hatred over reconciliation.
  And I would like to add that late this afternoon I met in my office 
with former Ambassador John Gavin who joins me in extending his 
condolences to the Mexican people. Ambassador Gavin is convinced that 
the solidarity for which Mr. Colosio stood will continue to grow.
  The Mexican people will move on. The American people should hope that 
they continue on the path to freedom, democracy and open markets that 
Luis Donaldo Colosio advocated. Over time, the prosperity that those 
forces will bring will bring the rewards that every Mexican and every 
American deserves.

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