Mexican Appointee May Be Combative

November 22, 2000

The New York Times
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 3:58 p.m. ET MEXICO CITY (AP) --

Mexico's next foreign secretary is a New York University professor and left-wing gadfly who has irritated both U.S. conservatives and Cuban communists. Jorge Castaneda was appointed to the post Wednesday by President-elect Vicente Fox, who takes office Dec. 1. The choice signaled that Fox's government may forge a more combative path in relations with the United States, Mexico's most important ally, and cool historically close relations with Cuba.

Castaneda, 47, served as a top adviser to Fox during his three-year campaign for president and is widely credited with advising him to push the United States harder for immigration preferences and monetary aid.

``Mexico's foreign policy ... should become a powerful lever to promote Mexico's social and economic development,'' Castaneda said in a speech accepting the appointment. Castaneda's notoriously prickly personality could be valuable to Fox, a former Coca-Cola executive who may need to distance himself from the perception that he is more conservative and pro-American than the Mexican public as a whole.

Himself the son of a former foreign secretary, Castaneda has taught at U.S. universities including Princeton, the University of California-Berkeley and Dartmouth. He writes columns for the Mexico City newspaper Reforma, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and Newsweek as well as for newspapers in Spain, Colombia, Argentina and Venezuela. His appointment may signal a real change in the tone of Mexico's sometimes cool but always formal relations with the United States.

Fox noted in a recent interview that, with Castaneda as his adviser, discussions with the United States could include ``issues we never talk about, where we could touch some sore spots.'' Since he began meeting with Fox in the mid-1990s, Castaneda is credited with helping the president-elect draw up proposals such as expanding the North American Free Trade Agreement. Fox's proposals include requests for thousands of extra U.S. work visas for Mexicans and millions of dollars in U.S. development aid.

Fox has said Castaneda will describe the ``dark scenario of immigration, poverty and drug trafficking'' if U.S. officials do not cooperate and a ``positive scenario of a peaceful, secure Mexico with development'' if they do. Castaneda has encouraged left-wing movements throughout Latin America to abandon romantic visions of guerrilla struggle, and Cuban officials were irked by the tone of his biography of revolutionary hero Ernesto ``Che'' Guevara. Fox himself has indicated that while Mexico will maintain productive relations with Cuba, it may be more vocal in commenting on the political situation on the communist island. Castaneda holds an undergraduate degree from Princeton and a doctorate in political science from the University of Paris.

Mexican Appointee Raises Concerns

November 23, 2000

The New York Times
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 1:48 a.m. ET WASHINGTON (AP) --

In 1988, Robert Pastor published a book with Mexico's future foreign secretary, Jorge Castaneda, the very title of which captured the divide between their nations: ``Limits to Friendship: The United States and Mexico.''

Pastor said both men have moderated their views in the 12 years since they debated -- in alternating chapters -- political, economic and social issues separating their countries. Castaneda's nationalistic, some say anti-American stance, has changed, he said. But many U.S. conservatives aren't sure. Castaneda's appointment Wednesday to become top Mexico's top diplomat has dimmed the hope of some that the election of Vicente Fox as president would greatly improve historically tense U.S.-Mexican relations.

``Castaneda's attitude and writings have been fairly anti-U.S.,'' said Roger Noriega, a senior staffer on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. ``Inasmuch that Mexico's relations with the United States are so important, we were hoping for someone in the foreign ministry who could play a constructive role in that relationship. That may still happen, but it remains to be seen whether Castaneda can put aside his anti-U.S. prejudices and work with us.'' But Pastor, an Emory University professor and a Latin American policy adviser to Democratic presidential hopeful Al Gore, said Castaneda's appointment was ``a bold decision.''

``Jorge is controversial because he is a man of ideas, but he is also a modern Mexican who wants to work and help Fox with a new agenda, in not only U.S-Mexican relations, but in Mexico's relations with the rest of the world,'' he said. Fox will be inaugurated Dec. 1, ending the Institutional Revolutionary Party's 71-year hold on the presidency. The election of Fox, a former Coca-Cola executive and an advocate of free trade, raised hopes in the United States of improved relations with Mexico, which long has been suspicious of its powerful northern neighbor. Castaneda, 47, became a close adviser to Fox during his three-year campaign. One of Mexico's main intellectuals, Castaneda is frequently published in the worlds' leading newspapers and magazines. He has taught at several universities in the United States and currently is a professor at New York University.

``Jorge has a lot of experience in the United States, lecturing writing, teaching. He certainly has tended in his past writings to point out the shortcomings in U.S. policy,'' said George Grayson, a Mexico specialist at the College of William Mary. ``But he also knows as well as anyone in Mexico the many strengths of the United States.'' Castaneda's nationalist credentials may provide Fox with a strong defense against rivals at home who frequently warn that Fox will sell out Mexican interests to the United States. And even if Castaneda's rhetoric is seen as anti-American in the United States, the impact may be may not be severe. Mexican government contacts with the United States often bypass the State Department, with Treasury, Justice and law enforcement officials working directly with their Mexican counterparts.

Other Fox appointments -- such as telecommunications executive Francisco Gil Diaz as treasury secretary and World Bank economist Luis Ernesto Derbez as economy secretary -- are likely to reassure U.S. policy makers and business executives. ``Oftentimes, at a time when Mexico is moving closer to the United States in economic terms, it will move further away from the United States in diplomatic terms,'' said Delal Baer, a Mexico analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. The choice of left-wing New York University professor Jorge Castaneda as Mexico's foreign secretary could indicate both a more combative stance in U.S. relations and a chill in Mexico's historically warm relations with Cuba, whose human rights record Castaneda has criticized.

``Castaneda's attitude and writings have been fairly anti-U.S.,'' said Roger Noriega, a senior staffer on the U.S. Foreign Relation Committee. ``Inasmuch that Mexico's relations with the United States are so important, we were hoping for someone in the foreign ministry who could play a constructive role in that relationship. That may still happen, but it remains to be seen whether Castaneda can put aside his anti-U.S. prejudices and work with us.'' Castaneda, whose father held the same job from 1979-82, is a 47-year-old who has taught at U.S. universities and served as a columnist for U.S. newspapers and magazines. He is widely credited with advising the conservative Fox to push the United States harder for immigration preferences and monetary aid for Mexico. Castaneda's nationalist credentials may help Fox with a strong defense against rivals at home who frequently warn that the former Coca Cola executive will sell out Mexican interests to the United States.