Brothers' Vision Guides Fox's Approach to U.S.

By Kevin Sullivan and Mary Jordan
Washington Post Foreign Service

MEXICO CITY, Aug. 28 -- Andres Rozental, a top Mexican diplomat, could not believe what he saw in his newspaper that morning back in February 2000. The
AFL-CIO was saying the U.S. economy needed immigrant workers -- which Rozental saw as a major shift in the United States and a new opportunity for Mexico.

On the other side of Mexico City, Rozental's younger half-brother also spotted the news and had the same reaction: The time might finally be right to press the United
States for changes on immigration policy.

Now, 18 months later, the brother, Jorge G. Castaneda, is Mexico's foreign minister and Rozental is one of his key troubleshooters. Together, they have played
leading roles in engaging the United States and Mexico in their most serious negotiations in decades aimed at reforming their immigration policies.

The talks, which Presidents Bush and Vicente Fox will continue when the Mexican leader makes a state visit to Washington next week, are a rare effort by these two
nations to manage the flow of workers across their borders. "This is really one of the first times there is a negotiation of this sort on immigration between two
countries," Castaneda said in an interview.

An unusual convergence of factors led to the negotiations, including the election of a U.S. president from Texas who was familiar with the issue and new U.S. census
figures showing huge growth -- and new political clout -- among U.S. residents of Mexican origin. Sensing an opportunity, Mexico for the first time took the offensive
on an issue it had long considered a political non-starter with U.S. administrations.

"That caught people by surprise, because normally Mexico is more reactive than proactive," said Jorge Montano, former Mexican ambassador to the United States.
"When the U.S. sets the agenda, it's about drugs. This time we said let's talk about immigration."

While the talks involve many people in both nations, many here say they might never have started if not for the brothers -- Rozental, who worked quietly behind the
scenes, and Castaneda, one of Mexico's most visible emissaries -- whom Fox has described as "two for the price of one."

Castaneda, 48, and Rozental, 56, share the same mother -- a Russian immigrant to Mexico -- and deep understanding of the United States. Castaneda graduated
from Princeton in three years and earned a doctorate in political economy from the University of Paris. Rozental holds a master's in economics from the Wharton
School at the University of Pennsylvania. He has served as Mexico's ambassador to the United Nations, Britain and Sweden and has headed the Foreign Ministry's
North American division.

Both have followed U.S.-Mexico relations closely for decades, Rozental as a foreign service officer and now international business consultant, and Castaneda as a
best-selling author, journalist and professor at New York University and other American schools.

Castaneda, whose father was also foreign minister, is the intellectual author of much of Fox's thinking about the world. A one-time leftist who has moved steadily
toward the political center, Castaneda has deeply influenced Fox's policies with his writing and analysis of issues from immigration to a European Union-style North
American alliance.

Fox and Castaneda have traveled widely, promoting the image of a more democratic and globally involved Mexico. Named ambassador-at-large while continuing his
consulting business, Rozental is often on the road, too, working on such issues as relations with Colombia and Mexico's quest for a seat on the U.N. Security
Council.

Rozental's dual role has led to questions about whether his work on behalf of the government is benefiting his consulting clients. Rozental said he has kept the two
completely separate.

The brothers have markedly different personal styles. Rozental is formal and reserved. Castaneda is mercurial, famous for his self-assurance and sharp tongue. They
do not always agree, but they form a duet of complementary skills.

"The combination of the two of them is unique. There is no other person or team in any other country in the world who knows us [Americans] as well as these two
people," said Demetrios Papademetriou, an immigration specialist in Washington. "I have never been confused about how close the two half-brothers are. It's clear to
me that when I speak to one of them, I am speaking to them both."

In his private office overlooking the heart of Mexico City, Rozental agreed: "We are each other's best friend," he said. "I don't think many people know how close we
are."

A look at the origins of the immigration proposals being debated in Washington leads first to Rozental, who organized a binational panel that essentially drafted them,
and then to Castaneda, who has been promoting similar ideas for years and is now Fox's point man in negotiations with the Americans. Castaneda's frequent trips,
perfect English and forceful style are making him increasingly well-known in the United States.

Following the AFL-CIO's change of position last year, as well as a speech by Chairman Alan Greenspan of the Federal Reserve that cited the economic importance
of immigrant labor, Castaneda said, "it began to be less impossible" to think about negotiating with Washington on immigration. Both countries were about to elect
new presidents and Castaneda and Rozental agreed it was important for a bilateral panel to develop a new plan for the new leaders.

As Castaneda mulled over the issue with Fox, then a presidential candidate, Rozental began organizing a commission involving academic, church and labor leaders in
both countries. Rozental first approached Rafael Fernandez de Castro, a prominent international relations specialist at the Autonomous Technological Institute of
Mexico, or ITAM, who signed on immediately, arranged for ITAM to co-sponsor the work and secured funding from the Ford Foundation.

Rozental then buttonholed Thomas F. "Mack" McLarty, President Bill Clinton's former chief of staff, at a black-tie dinner at Tavern on the Green in New York and
persuaded him to co-chair the U.S. side of the commission. And he got Papademetriou, then at the Carnegie Foundation for International Peace in Washington, to
join the group. Carnegie became the U.S. co-sponsor.

In mid-October, Castaneda, a close aide to Fox, brought in the president-elect for a two-hour briefing with the entire 22-member panel. A former governor of
Guanajuato state, the origin of large numbers of immigrants to the United States, Fox was already familiar with many of the issues. "But it was extremely important
that he learn the American position and learn what was politically feasible there," Rozental said.

The panel issued its report in February, weeks after Bush took office and just before a first summit between Bush and Fox at Fox's ranch in Guanajuato.

The document recommended more conciliatory language on the volatile immigration issue, terming it a "shared responsibility." It called for Washington to legalize
some of the undocumented Mexican workers paying taxes in the United States, create more temporary guest-worker visas and improve border safety. It said that
Mexico, for its part, should crack down on human smuggling rings and improve living conditions in the poor areas where most migrants come from.

Four days before the summit, Fox received the report over a dinner of steak and tequila at Castaneda's home in the cobblestoned Mexico City neighborhood of San
Angel. The report essentially turned into Fox's immigration policy. Castaneda and others present said the meeting that night became a strategy session about how
hard to press Bush on the issue. As Fox and others in the room puffed Cuban cigars that President Fidel Castro had presented Fox at his inauguration in December,
Castaneda argued that the time was right for Mexico to press hard. Fox agreed.

About the same time in Washington, McLarty went to the White House and handed a copy of the report to Andrew H. Card Jr., Bush's chief of staff, and John F.
Maisto, senior director for Western Hemisphere affairs on the National Security Council. McLarty said he handed over the report in his old office -- it was the first
time he had been back.

In their one-on-one meetings in Guanajuato, Fox told Bush the two new presidents had a "historic opportunity" to expand on successes in trade to create a new
mechanism for safe and orderly immigration. Castaneda said Bush was "enormously" receptive. The two presidents appointed a team led by cabinet officials to
continue the negotiations: Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and Attorney General John D. Ashcroft for the United States, Castaneda and Interior Secretary
Santiago Creel for Mexico.

Castaneda said Bush deserves credit for moving the immigration debate forward. He said that last year, when Fox, then president-elect, met with Bush and his
Democratic rival, Vice President Al Gore, Bush was "much more forthcoming and much less negative than Gore" about Fox's vision for border issues and
immigration reform.

Although news of the Guanajuato agreement was largely overshadowed by a U.S. military airstrike on Iraq that day, with a single handshake the two new leaders
agreed to attack an issue that most of their predecessors had largely ignored.

"There's clearly a change now," Castaneda said. "Up to a point it's a new era, so for once the overdone cliche may have something to it. If Fox and Bush can get this
done, it would be an enormous achievement."

The political realities of achieving those goals are starting to set in, and any real change may be months -- or longer -- away. There is no strong consensus in the U.S.
Congress for fast action on immigration reform. And Bush's allies have signaled recently that the process may have to be slow and piecemeal, with no wide-ranging
changes until after the 2002 midterm elections.

Although there were hopes that Fox and Bush might be able to announce a breakthrough next week, both sides now say a more modest reaffirmation of intentions is
likely.

"We would like some sort of conceptual announcement," Castaneda said. "If we have numbers, we would like it even more. But we are perfectly willing not to rush
things. This is too important for both countries."

                                               © 2001