Mexicans Welcome Clinton, Eager to Please a Friend

The New York Times February 15, 1999 Mexicans Welcome Clinton, Eager to Please a Friend

By SAM DILLON

          MERIDA, Mexico -- President Clinton traveled to Mexico on Sunday for a brief working visit
          with President Ernesto Zedillo, a trip that officials described as a friendly stopover aimed
          mainly at refreshing the two leaders' cordial relationship.

          Aides to Zedillo said that during Clinton's 23-hour trip to this palm-dotted capital of the Yucatan
          Peninsula they hoped to whittle away at a broad agenda of pending business, including disputes over
          narcotics trafficking and migration.

But the trip seemed mostly intended to please Clinton, two days after the Senate acquitted him on
charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.

"President Clinton has been a good friend to the Mexican people and our government, both in trying
times and in good times," a senior aide to Zedillo said. "We just want him to enjoy his stay."

          A joint news conference, initially planned for the close of the visit on Monday afternoon, was
          canceled after U.S. officials said Clinton wanted to take no questions from the press, a Mexican
          official said.

          "I see a visit more than anything to reinforce the idea that there's presidential attention to Mexico at a
          time some people are saying the Clinton administration has no Latin American policy," said Rafael
          Fernandez de Castro, a Mexican professor who is a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution in
          Washington. "There'll be a lot of photo opportunities, mostly good-timey stuff."

          The two presidents and their wives were to dine together in private on Sunday night in Merida. On
          Monday, the presidents are to have their formal meetings at a restored hacienda outside Merida
          before Clinton flies back to Washington.

          Juan Rebolledo Goot, Mexico's deputy foreign minister, said modest agreements might result from
          the meetings, including one that would increase cross-border airline flights and another aimed at
          reducing the deaths of Mexican migrant workers.

          Mexican officials will brief the presidents on Mexico's efforts to suppress the drug trade. The Clinton
          administration is due to deliver its annual judgment on those efforts in coming weeks. The agenda
          also includes a review of the North American Free Trade Agreement.