Mexican Senate's decision to limit leader's trip to U.S. could affect ND graduation in May
By HELENA PAYNE
News Editor
The Mexican Senate has ordered President Vicente Fox not to travel to the United States or Canada on the basis that Fox's proposed trip for next week would not be an official visit, the Associated Press reported.
For the first time in history, the Congress has stopped a Mexican leader from leaving the country by a vote of 71-41. Fox would have traveled to various Canadian cities, as well as San Francisco and Seattle with the goal of strengthening economic and political ties between Mexico, Canada and the U.S, and showing support for Mexicans abroad.
Fox, slated to speak at the University of Notre Dame's commencement in May, has recently encountered resistance from Mexican legislators who are skeptical of Fox's close ties with the United States, the Associated Press reported.
"Let's not confuse things," Senator German Sierra of the Congress' majority Institutional Revolutionary Party, which is in opposition to Fox's National Action party, told the Associated Press. "It's not an official visit. It's not a state visit. It's considered a private visit."
Although there has been no sign that this recent incident will affect Fox's May 19 Commencement trip, this latest vote has presented itself as a new issue in U.S. foreign affairs while increasing the rift between Fox's administration and lawmakers.
"It sounds like a complicated political situation," said Notre Dame spokesman Dennis Moore, who said he had not yet anticipated any obstacles to Fox traveling to the University next month.
"We'll have to see what happens with all of this," said Moore.
He said he wasn't aware of any prior occasions when a scheduled Commencement speaker was not able to come.
"When someone agrees to come, we assume that that person will come," Moore said.
At this point, Moore said the University has not considered an alternative speaker.
"There's not a uniform backup plan, and that's something we would have to look at by a case-by-case basis," he said.
All News Stories for Wednesday, April 10, 2002
