[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 6 (Wednesday, January 11, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S812]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                REGARDING THE ECONOMIC CRISIS IN MEXICO

 Mr. D'AMATO. Mr. President, while American diplomats and 
foreign policy pundits hand-wring over various crises in Eurasia and 
the American military is hand-holding the doomed in a number of Third 
World quagmires, an economic crisis of alarming proportions is 
threatening to engulf our nearest neighbor to the south. Could there be 
a better example of the failure of our foreign policy than the 
potential collapse of Mexico?
  I believe that charity begins at home. Mexico and Canada are part of 
the American family. Yes, we bicker. We snipe. We engage in the kind of 
heated battles only family members could get away with, but, in the 
end, it is the family ties that bind.
  We can no longer take our good neighbors for granted. Our national 
security and our economic well-being are inextricably linked to the 
health and stability of Mexican society and the Mexican economy. We 
face a far greater threat from instability in Mexico than we will ever 
face from open conflict or economic chaos in most of the places 
American diplomatic attention and foreign aid are currently focused.
  We must help the Mexicans stabilize the peso, to renegotiate their 
debt, and to develop an economic strategy of long-term investment and 
growth that will improve the quality of life of all Mexicans, and, by 
extension, the quality of life of all Americans.
  To do as we have been doing, to focus on the problems of other 
continents while ignoring our own, is asking to worrying over a distant 
storm as wolves gather in our backyard.


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