[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book I)]
[May 6, 1997]
[Page 546]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Exchange With Reporters Prior to Discussions With President 
Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico in Mexico City
May 6, 1997

Mexico-U.S. Antidrug Efforts

    Q. President Zedillo, could you----
    President Zedillo. The press conference will be later on, and I'll 
be delighted to answer there any questions.
    Q. Well, while we've got this opportunity, let me just clarify what 
the Mexican Government's position is on DEA agents being allowed----
    President Zedillo. No, we'll talk about that in the press 
conference. Now we have to have our private conservation, and I have 
spoken about that before.
    Thank you.
    Q. Do you want DEA agents to stay here----
    President Zedillo. We'll speak about all of those issues later.

President's Visit

    Q. Mr. President, are you sorry you waited until the 5th year of 
your Presidency to come to Mexico?
    President Clinton. I'm just glad to be here now. You know, we've 
had--I'm coming to Latin America 3 times in less than a year, and in the 
first term I did a lot of work on it. You know, we had the Summit of the 
Americas, and we had a lot of involvement with Mexico with NAFTA and the 
difficulty with the peso, so I think we've had a lot of very close 
contact. And I'm glad to be here. I like it here.

Mexico-U.S. Antidrug Efforts

    Q. Mr. President, can you assure DEA agents that they'll be safe 
here?
    President Clinton. We're going to have a press conference later. 
We'll answer all--on all of the decisions and stuff.

Stock Market

    Q. What do you think of the stock market soaring past 7,000?
    President Clinton. Americans are happy. They ought to be. The 
country's doing well. We're going to do better.
    Q. Do you think your budget deal is responsible?
    President Clinton. It didn't hurt. [Laughter]

Note: The President spoke at approximately 10:10 a.m. on the Veranda of 
the Residence at Los Pinos Presidential Palace. A tape was not available 
for verification of the content of this exchange.