What Next in Mexico?

That large segment of the Mexican public which automatically rejoices at news of a Mexican president telling off one or more eminent Norteamericanos was disappointed in the recent meeting of Miguel de la Madrid and Ronald Reagan. There weren’t any official fireworks (although there was an excess of unofficial pyrotechnics, as the Mexican press furiously denounced the Washington Post and Jack Anderson for a column “exposing” vast corruption at the top of the Mexican government). True, during his visit President de la Madrid defended his government’s financial and political support of Communist governments and guerrillas, specifically those in Central America, a policy that many highly articulate Mexicans denounce as unwise, immoral, and dangerous. But nobody in Washington made a sharp public issue of it. and the other major topics— illegal immigration, trade, and high interest rates—were explored and abandoned as currently insoluble.

Any hope the Mexican government may have had that the meeting would divert the attention of the citizens from their acute domestic problems was disappointed too. The signs of Mexican recovery cheerfully discerned by distant bankers are not visible to Juan Fulano, the Mexican John Doe. The problems of statecraft hold scant interest for people who wonder, as growing numbers of Mexicans are doing, where their next meal is coming from. Juan is both hungry and bitter.

GL

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George Byram Lake

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That large segment of the Mexican public which automatically rejoices at news of a Mexican president telling off one or more eminent Norteamericanos was disappointed in the recent meeting of Miguel de la Madrid and Ronald Reagan. There weren’t any official fireworks (although there was an excess of unofficial pyrotechnics, as the Mexican press furiously denounced the Washington Post and Jack Anderson for a column “exposing” vast corruption at the top of the Mexican government). True, during his visit President de la Madrid defended his government’s financial and political support of Communist governments and guerrillas, specifically those in Central America, a policy that many highly articulate Mexicans denounce as unwise, immoral, and dangerous. But nobody in Washington made a sharp public issue of it. and the other major topics— illegal immigration, trade, and high interest rates—were explored and abandoned as currently insoluble.

Any hope the Mexican government may have had that the meeting would divert the attention of the citizens from their acute domestic problems was disappointed too. The signs of Mexican recovery cheerfully discerned by distant bankers are not visible to Juan Fulano, the Mexican John Doe. The problems of statecraft hold scant interest for people who wonder, as growing numbers of Mexicans are doing, where their next meal is coming from. Juan is both hungry and bitter.