LaRouche Returns To Mexico!

For the first time in 20 years, on Nov. 4, Lyndon H. LaRouche, a candidate for the 2023 Democratic Presidential nomination, arrived in Mexico. LaRouche visited our closest southern neighbor four times between 1979 and 1982, but when President Jose Lopez Portillo seized control of national credit out of the hands of Wall Street in 1982, Wall Street blamed LaRouche. LaRouche had met with Lopez Portillo that May, and in July, had outlined his famous Operation Juarez strategy for an Ibero-American debt bomb and Common Market. Henry Kissinger vowed that LaRouche would never be allowed to visit Mexico again.

The State Department was able to enforce that policy--until now. In the midst of an existential crisis far greater than that faced in 1982, Mexicans wanted to discuss what to do with LaRouche personally, and they got him there. Many made clear that they want him in the White House in 2004.

LaRouche visited Saltillo, the capital of the northern state of Coahuila, which borders Texas. During his stay, he delivered a major address at the Autonomous University of Coahuila (UAC), the state's public university, on “Alternatives in Light of the End of Globalization”; held a press conference attended by 18 media; gave an exclusive half-hour interview to the leading TV newscaster of the nearby city of Monterrey, whose show is viewed throughout the north of Mexico; and was received by the state's Governor, Enrique Martinez y Martinez.

Among his private meetings, was a meeting with 45-plus youth who came from several cities across Mexico to meet with LaRouche.

The utmost respect with which LaRouche is received around the world, was as notable in Saltillo, as it had been at the Sao Paulo City Council in Brazil last June. At the welcoming ceremony before LaRouche spoke at the UAC, the dean of the university spoke on the importance of statesman and scientist LaRouche's visit, as did a former dean. Coahuila's Secretary of Education was introduced. Dr. Rafael Arguello, Director of Graduate Studies and Research at the UAC, read a curriculum vitae of LaRouche, emphasizing his scientific, economic, and political contributions.

New U.S.-Mexico Relations

LaRouche's visit intersected a political explosion brewing in the country, caused by economic collapse. Under NAFTA, Mexico's domestic economy was abandoned, as the country turned into a big assembly plant for the United States. The collapse of the U.S. economy has now left Mexico desperate. Strapped for revenue to pay debts, the Federal government cut back payments to the states and cities, leaving them without funds for key services. The resulting brawl between the states and the Federal government is now the biggest political crisis Mexican President Vicente Fox has yet faced.

Coahuila's Governor Martinez is a member of the opposition PRI Party and active in that fight. He argues that it is nuts to cut budgets in a time of zero-growth, when Federal investment is needed to reactivate the economy.

Pressed to deliver something to his people, President Fox turned to President George Bush, asking for the help he had promised for Mexican migrants to the United States. Bush, however, has done nothing, except demand Mexico support his war on Iraq. Bush's outright rude behavior when he met with Fox Oct. 27 threw U.S.-Mexico relations into such crisis, that Fox revealed that he had told Bush that they should no longer see each other as “buddies,” and that Bush couldn't treat Mexico “as some third-rate country,” but as an equal.

LaRouche's public support for President Fox in this dispute with Bush set off waves in Mexico, as was reflected in the Mexican media coverage of his trip. El Diario de Coahuila--one of three state newspapers which ran excellent coverage--reported that LaRouche stressed that “Fox's position regarding the conflict with Iraq has been sensible, given that there has been no immigration accord, which makes it clear that the Bush family lied in promising the Mexican President what until now it has yet to fulfill.” La Vanguardia ran a front-page box reporting that LaRouche called Bush “emotionally unbalanced.”

LaRouche warned repeatedly that the IMF system is dead, and must be changed, as was covered by the state papers, Notimex (the semi-official national news service), and two television stations, at least. “A Return to Protectionism Is Urgent. Chaos Must Be Avoided,” El Diario de Coahuila headlined its story. Palabra featured its story as “Collapse of World Finances Predicted.”

In his meetings, LaRouche suggested that the urgent need for large-scale development of basic economic infrastructure--power, water and rail--in the Southwestern U.S. states and the Northern Mexican states, provides a politically practicable approach to restoring proper friendly U.S.-Mexican relations, as well as providing the employment needed.

Reaching the Youth

LaRouche's presentation at the Autonomous University of Coahuila was the center of the trip. Not only did over 450 students, researchers, faculty, invited dignitaries, and members of LaRouche's movement from the area attend the presentation; it was also broadcast simultaneously to the UAC's campuses in two other cities, and to classrooms in four other state universities (in Tamaulipas, Sonora, Guadalajara, and Zacatecas), and was broadcast live on the Internet.

In his presentation, LaRouche laid out the nature of the crisis, how it came about, and what can be done about it. He addressed, as he has done with students around the world, the question of what is real knowledge and what is real economy. What young people need to know, is what it means to live in history, what it means to be a human being, and how to make marvelous discoveries, he said. Questions were taken for over an hour from both those present and the other campuses connected to the broadcast.

In closing the event, Dr. Arguello said that, "We could not have had a better academic event to celebrate this anniversary of our university, 45 years dedicated to education.... We know that Mr. LaRouche will contend in the Presidential elections in 2004. We wish you the best of luck, and we would love to have a friend there in the White House, and here you will have your friends in Mexico."

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