Date: 1985-05-15
Speaker: DE LA GARZA (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. and my colleagues. I take this time to inform the Members of the House that under the law we have established an interparliamentary exchange between the United States and Mexico wherein Parliamentarians from our country. both House and Senate. meet with our counterparts in the Mexican Congress. That occurs one year in the United States and the next year in Mexico. This exchange was initiated 25 years ago and the initial exchange or meeting was held in Guadalajara. Talisco. Mexico. 25 years ago. We have just returned from Mexico City where we arrived for this meeting. Now. although the meeting was held in the city of Queretaro. State of Queretaro. Mexico. I must say. and not because I was the leader for the House delegationand. by the way. my colleague from Texas. Senator PHIL GRAMM. led the Senate delegationI must say that I think it has been one of the most successful meetings that we have had. Although it is of short duration. only 2V days. we held three sessions of 3 to 4 hours. and one went about 5 hours. of sessions. We discussed all of the issues that impact upon our relations as two neighboring countries. as two friendly countries. I must say that I think for the first time the discussions were spontaneous. a general back and forth discussion. rather than just reading position papers on one side or the other. We were received in the inaugural session. and this is very interesting and prior to that let me go back into a bit of history of the area: The State of Queretaro and the city of Queretaro are almost the equivalent in the Mexican independence movements as what Philadelphia and Boston were to our independence movement. It was there in the city of Queretaro that the plot. if you can call it that. of the independence movement was discovered by the Spanish forces who then occupied Mexico. and a lady. Josefa Ortiz de Dominquez. was the one that gave the signal or sounded the alarm to the mexican independence forces that the plot had been discovered. and that initiated the fighting part of the independence movement. not too distant. in a village called Dolores Hidalgo. This is in effect what Paul Revere had done on our side when he came through the countryside announcing that the British were coming and the ensuing battles that were to follow. and he gave the signal. Also there in Queretaro was the culmination of the French occupation of Mexico. Not too many days ago I spoke about the battle of Puebla which is where the Mexican troops defeated the French troops and began - the final process of eliminating the French rule over Mexico. But it was at Queretaro that they finally captured Archduke Maximilian who had been declared Emperor of Mexico. He was executed at a small hill near Queretaro. This was of interest. I think. to us here because of all of the Americas we were the first to declare independence fror* a foreign sovereign. which was Great Britain. But at Queretaro. with the execution of Maximilian. that ended the reign of the European designs for any of the Americas. This was the last of the European sovereigns to reign in the Americas. Maximilian. along with two Mexicans who had supported his endeavor. were executed there. So with that background we met not too far from the city of Queretaro and we discussed narcotics traffic. its use. Its abuse. its control. in depth. We reached agreement on a resolution committing ourselves and our countries to a more forceful fight of narcotics traffic. use. abuse. and control. for its control. We discussed the Law of the Sea which to many of our areas isimportant. areas in the West with tunafishing.concerns. in the gulf with its shrimping off Mexican waters. where we have had problems not only because of the Law of the Sea but territorial expansion. both ours and theirs. We discussed. of course. border problems. We have 2.000 miles of border between the United States and Mexico. We discussed those in depth. There is always the Rio Grande which is part of the boundary. Texas. the rest of the boundary. New Mexico. Arizona. into California. We discussed environmental impact on the border. There are mines. smelting mines on either side of the border. there are problems in Mexico. more in Mexico than on our side. with respect to.discharges of waters into the area of Tijuana. or down in Texas. that impact upon the quality of the water. We discussed border crossings. that traffic that we on our side would like to have more crossings to facilitate commerce and tourism. I might add that Mexicos reply was thatand I can sympathize with that. that they have monetary problems. not only opening up a border crossing. but the staffing for customs. immigration. public health. agriculture. entails a lot of finances. and not all of that is recouped from charges that you might make for those who cross back and forth. So we discussed that in depth. and particular crossings that we would like to have in my congressional district. and in adjoining districts. My home town of Mission. the city of Pharr. the city of Donna. Harlingen. San Benito. We discussed all of those in depth. and what could we do together? How could one complement the other? We had extensive discussions related to our involvement in the Americas. both Mexico and us. in Central America. Salvador. Nicaragua in particular. We have some mutual concerns which are equal. We have some concerns that are not alike. Wehave some basic philosophy which is not similar in some areas to Mexico. but in the end. we resolved that we are all aiming for the same final conclusion. which would be peace. freedom. justice. equality. prosperity for the people of the individual nations of Central America and South America. It was a very interesting. very forceful and frank conversation because there are some valid. indepth disagreements as to our concept as to what entails internal security and what entails protection of a basic territorial security. The leader of the Mexican delegation for the House was Lic. Humberto Lugo Gil and for the Mexican Senate was former Ambassador to Washington Hugo B. Margin. who is now a member of the senate in Mexico. .In the beginning of the inaugural session. as I stated. we were received by the President of Mexico. Miguel de la Madrid. who came to our initial opening ceremony to open the session. which to us was very important and. of course. an honor and distinction that the President of the great Republic of Mexico would come out of Mexico City to begin the sessions that we were to continue for several days after. He welcomed us. and pronounced some of the desires and intentions of Mexico. for their people. their relations to us. and to the rest of the hemisphere. It was a very impressive ceremony because with him were his Secretary of State. Bernardo Sepulveda. and they have a different Cabinet post that we do not have. it translates as Ministry of Interior. They call.it "Gobernacion." That Cabinet post is basically what we know as the upper echelon of the White House. The White House Chief of Staff. and the Executive Office of the Presidency. that is what "Governacion" or Interior Ministry would be in Mexico. He is of Cabinet rank. Also we were received by the Governor of the state of Coahuila and the mayor of the city of Queretarothe Governor of the state of Queretaro. not Coahuila. and the mayor of the city of Queretaro. and several of the mayors of the surrounding villages and small towns in that area. We also were able to visit the surrounding countryside. Let me tell you that some people say that these visits are junkets. that you go off and have a good time. Well. we managed to do both. because we would work all morning and then have a nice luncheon at a beautiful hacienda. In the evening after a late session they would honor us with a beautiful dinner. We had one of the most beautiful experiences that I have ever had in that Saturday evening. prior to the conclusion of the session. we were invited to the city of Queretaro where we were received by the populace of Queretaro in their main plaza. The whole town came out to greet us and to those of you that may not be acquainted. the Mexican towns are laid out in the old Spanish tradition. where there is a center plaza. or square with the cathedral or the church on one side. the municipal authorities on another side. the military compound on another sidethis is a traditional Spanish Colonial or Mexican center plaza. or downtown square. Well. this evening we walked right into the entire population of Queretaro almost. greeting us and wanting to touch and say hello and greet us. and then the cathedralor church. I really do not know if it is a cathedralbut the Catholic church was all lit up in one of the most beautiful sights that you would want to see or experience. Then they had a fireworks display from the ceiling of the church that looked fire was just raining down in front of that beautiful edifice. It was one of the most thrilling experiences. I assure you. any one of us have ever experienced or witnesses. Then off to one side they had this beautiful fireworks that they do in Mexicothey rig a bamboo into a beautiful structure. that you cannot see it when it is in the dark. but then it lights up with wheels that turn and fireworks that shoot out. and thenin the colors. red. white. and blue and c green. white and red. then both flags c light up and then it says "Welcome. E Parliamentarians. U.S. and Mexico." If you can* visualize that against a f dark sky. lit up in all the beautiful colors with fireworks with the twisting. making a whistling sound. wheels 1 at all of the extremesand we were there in the plaza with the people of Queretaro. looking and observing that. It sort of adds substance to your work. that you are able to visualize something like that. It was Indeed a beautiful experience. While the bells of the church were ringing. at the same time. Then thethis is an area of basic Indian population. and the leaders of the Indian tribes of that area came to do their dances and perform for us. and to each member of the delegation. of the leaders of the delegation. they presented us with one of their shields. that are made of feathers. of canary feathers and ostrich feathersI guess any kind of feathered animal or bird that they gave this beautiful shield and welcome us on behalf of the Indian population of that area. It was. to me. very exciting. And the connection that we have with our basic native Americans and to Mexico. which has probably more history before than ours. all preColombian. and there were the different tribes there that evening to do the dances with us or for us. led by the Governor of the state and the different mayors of the area. We continued with our meetings. We discussed anxieties. migrant workers. undocumented or Illegals. whichever way you would want to call them. Mexicans presented their viewpoint as to the integrity of the individual. Basically. they have a different concept than we do as to the integrity. territorial integrity. because their position is that a human creature of God has a basic Inherent right to travel. We know that in a civilized world. where you have territorial integrity. you do not just have people coming and going. The people themselves call themselves Mexican or Argentinan or French or Italian. the people themselves designate what their basic territorial group is. So we have a difference there. but we do not have a difference that the individual Is deserving of the protection of the law and should be treated as a creature of God. which we observe in this country nonetheless. Regardless of whether they are here legally or illegally. they come under the cloak of the Constitution and receive all of the protections afforded by law. But this is. to them. a very Important factor. We also discussed the monetary problems. world monetary problems. how they impact upon us here In the United States. how they impact upon Mexico. how trade and commerce between us and third countries impact n one or the other and the areas of concern. the areas of agreement. the areas of possible cooperation. and I ssure you that this was a very fruitul. constructive discussion.. For many of us who live on the border and who know the situation. we ive with it. But for some of our coleagues not from the border. it is very helpful to know that what we could do here. even without thinking. could have a very negative impact on Mexico economically or monetarywise. So it is for us to be concerned. which we are. as to the stability of the economy of Mexico. and they are. after Japan. our next best customer and we of them. We buy a tremendous amount of Mexican oil and gas. and a lot of the other things that Mexico has to sell in foreign commerce with us. and this is a very critical area both for our side and their side because we have a tremendous deficit. we have a horrendous debt. Just paying interest on the debt takes a large share of our budget and impacts on our deficit every year. They have an external debt. which is very critical. of some $80 billion. and it. is very critical because they need foreign earnings. they need dollars to come into Mexico to pay out in dollars to the banks. to Europe and here. and to our Government or the Monetary Fund. whomever they owe the money. both the public debt and the private debt. They need the foreign earnings. otherwise to pay in pesos would be devastating. They have had a very difficult time. In my inaugural talk In the inaugural session I commended the President of Mexico and my Mexican colleagues and the people because they have. to the best of their ability. grasped the situation and they are making headway by an austerity program where they are reducing expenditures and then increasing Income by increasing revenues either through higher prices for items or taxes and a combination. and this would be very interesting to us and those who deal in that area that they said. "You cant balance your budget or reduce your inflation or reduce your debts solely by decreases. but you have to combine some with decreasing and some with increasing revenue. if necessary taxes." And I would commend that to those. who work with the budget on our side of the border. But they have basically been successful in slowly reducing inflation and reducing their deficit. They have been more successful In reducing their deficit than we have been. And for this we commend them. and we are trying to do on our side. of course. our share. But this was a very interesting and. for me. a very productive area of discussion. We went into areas of cultural exchange. of how we can better work. universities. groups. scientists. and it is very interesting to know that some of the things we are doing now we can verify. For example.. not too long ago we started a dairy goat research center at Prairie View A&M in the State of Texas. and some of the Mexican colleagues knew about that and some universities from Mexico have now worked with Prairie View A&M in doing research and promoting dairy goat expansion and upgrading* the dairy goat breeds. for the dairy goat is very important because you not only get milk and cheese. it can also be used for meat. you can use the hide. and you can raise maybe 20 or 30 dairy goats where you could have only one cow. So it is very important for developing countries. And those are the things we discussed. On the border from Brownsville to Tijuana either the Mexican holiday or the American U.S. holiday is celebrated jointly. so on the border we have no problem. but it is going out that we were discussing exchanges. and so on. because on the border I guess we celebrate every chance we get. but it is jointly. Washingtons birthday celebration in Laredo and Nuevo Laredo is a joint celebration. In BrownsvilleMatamoros. we celebrate Washington. Lincoln. something called Charro Days. and they have a Mr. Amigo.celebration during which the American side of the river honors a distinguished Mexican for his contribution to better relations as Mr. Amigo. And of course we know "amigo" means friend. Mr. Friend.-And we have honored people from former Presidents of Mexico to movie actors to singers. distinguished ladies. In our area. in McAllen where we live. Mission and McAllen. we have joint celebrations. The Mexican Independence Day. September 15. is celebrated on both sides of the border in many of our communities along the border. So we discussed that. nuclear disarmament. and what it means to both sides. Mexico does not have the capability for atomicpower or hydrogen power or nuclear power. but yet they were the leaders in the treaty of Thatelolco where the Americans initiated the concept of nuclear free area and began there in Mexico. This is a very important step. We agreed that this was not only a major concern for both our two countries but for the world. and they sometimes feel that we do not go fast enough. that we do not put a sufficient emphasis on disarmament and nuclear nonproliferation. But we are. It is just that the other side has not been as cooperative. And we explained that. I told them that as one American. and I thought that I spoke for every American. that I did not want our country or any other country to disappear from this planet in a ball of flame. and our ashes in the cloud that would fertilize a planet with no humans. That is the interest. I am satisfied. of every American. I would prefer that we take every cannon and every ship and every tank and melt them into plows and hammers and picks and shovels to build up our two countries. and to help build up the world. Later I will have another special order and invite members of the delegation who accompanied me so that we might have a broader discussion. I give this as a preliminary discussion so that they might be apprised of my report. and then. with the other members. we will have a much broader report. With that. Mr. Speaker. I thank the Members for their attention and yield back the balance of my time.