[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 14165]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                        FAIR ELECTIONS IN MEXICO

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Dreier) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, I have taken this 5-minute special order 
this evening to talk about an event which has been likened to the 
crumbling of the Berlin Wall that took place a week ago this past 
Sunday.
  I had the privilege of serving with a team from the International 
Republican Institute, co-leading, along with former Secretary of State 
James Baker and the mayor of San Diego, California, Susan Golding, a 
delegation of 44 people, very qualified, former ambassadors and other 
leaders in this country, observing the election that took place in 
Mexico on Sunday, July 2.
  It was an extraordinary experience. I will say that because there 
were many people who assumed that after 71 years of one-party control 
by the Institutional Revolutionary Party that the election would once 
again see the PRI Party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party, prevail 
and win.
  It is no secret that there have been problems with past elections in 
Mexico. In fact, corruption has been reported very, very widely in past 
elections. But I am happy to say, having observed what are known as 
Casias, election voting spots in urban areas in Mexico City, as well as 
moving into the rural areas, that this was an extraordinarily fair 
election.
  In fact, an organization that was established earlier in the last 
decade known as the Federal Electoral Institute, the IFE, was a 
structure which did play a big role in ensuring the fairness of the 
election.
  This also is a great testimonial to a couple of things. One of the 
individuals is the present president of Mexico, President Ernesto 
Zedillo, with whom Secretary Baker and Mayor Golding and I met on 
Saturday morning, the day before the election. In that meeting I 
conveyed to him what I will share with our colleagues here, and that is 
the fact that when he was elected president in 1995, having observed 
the tremendous economic reforms which had taken place in Mexico, he 
said that his goal was to ensure self-determination and free and fair 
elections for the people of Mexico.
  That is exactly what happened on July 2. I want to extend my very 
hearty congratulations, as I already have, to president-elect Vicente 
Fox, who is a representative of the National Action Party, the PAN 
party, which for years has argued for economic policies which we hold 
near and dear, and which I am happy to say were embraced in large part 
by the Institutional Revolutionary Party.
  The embrace of those economic policies by the National Action Party 
played a big role in bringing about free and fair elections. Let me 
explain that, Mr. Speaker. Back in 1988 when President Carlos Salinas 
was elected, he made a decision that he was going to pursue broad 
economic liberalization in Mexico.
  What did that consist of? It consisted of privatization, 
decentralization, closing down State-run enterprises. He took the very 
bold step in Mexico City of closing down the largest oil refinery 
because of environmental concerns that existed there.
  We saw the economic reforms put into place in the latter part of the 
1980s and the early part of the 1990s, and one of the greatest examples 
of those economic reforms came when we here in this Congress and the 
Bush and Clinton administrations put together the North American Free 
Trade Agreement.
  Now, we know that the North American Free Trade Agreement is a much 
maligned entity, a structure which people criticize often. But I happen 
to believe that the NAFTA has been a resounding success, and the most 
recent example of its success was what took place on July 2.
  Why? Because as I and many of my colleagues have argued time and time 
again, whether it is in Mexico or the People's Republic of China, or 
South Korea or Taiwan or Argentina or Chile, the interdependence of 
economic and political freedom is key. We saw in the early part of the 
1990s major economic reforms take place in Mexico, and we saw on July 
2, a week ago this past Sunday, the ultimate in political reform.
  I have to say that during those years of economic reform we also saw 
political reform take place in that for the first time we saw the 
election of opposition party candidates in local elections, mayors. 
Fifteen of the 16 largest cities in Mexico have opposition party 
mayors. We have also seen it in gubernatorial elections.
  Mr. Speaker, I believe that we have a tremendous, tremendous 
opportunity to encourage this transition. We have to be very vigilant. 
We need to strengthen the already strong relationship that exists with 
Mexico.
  I would like to congratulate all of the nearly 800 people who were on 
the International Observer team, the International Republican 
Institute, which again put together a very, very strong operation, and 
the people of Mexico. They were so enthused about the prospect of being 
able to vote and have their votes count.
  I will never forget the 18-year-old girl whom I saw in a little tiny 
town called Metapec, above Atlisco. She said her family for years had 
worked on behalf of the PAN party, and finally, as we stood over the 
counting at this little casia and saw 210 votes cast for Mr. Fox and 
106 votes for the PRI candidate, Mr. Labastida, we saw by a two to one 
margin the election of a new party and a new president.
  So I wish the people of Mexico extraordinarily well, and I wish the 
leadership that we have here in the United States God speed in our 
attempt to do everything that we can to help in this very important 
transition as we face the many serious challenges that exist on the 
border and in the relationship between our two important countries.

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