Some say plan will hurt Mexicans, erode ties
Agreement seen on broad goals
MEXICO CITY -- A spokesman for President Vicente Fox said Fox accepts President Bush's promise that he will not militarize the border by deploying the National Guard there, but others in Mexico warned that the plan could cause harm and increase hostility.
The governor of border state Chihuahua, which includes Ciudad Juarez, called it an abrupt measure that would increase the physical and emotional risk to people who seeking opportunity.
While the military may be effective in stopping the flow of drugs and other illegal goods, ''who will guarantee that the military on the other side of the border will treat the immigrants with dignity?" Governor Jose Reyes Baeza said in a radio interview yesterday morning. ''This does not only put them at risk, it puts the good binational relationship between Mexico and the United States at risk."
The plan will increase hostility between the two countries and provoke human rights violations by the United States on the Mexican border, said Jorge Bustamante, sociology professor at El Colegio de la Frontera Norte and at the University of Notre Dame.
''This is on top of deaths at the border provoked by Operation Gatekeeper," said Bustamante, referring to a 1995 federal government strategy to crack down on popular crossing points in San Diego that drove immigrants to more remote and dangerous passages.
''If Operation Gatekeeper produced deaths, this is no remedy . . . and it's something that I, as United Nations special rapporteur on the rights of migrants, have to denounce," he said.
Fox spokesman Ruben Aguilar said Fox and Bush agree that the immigration situation requires a comprehensive solution that will be ''legal, orderly, and respectful of human rights."
The two spoke for 30 minutes Sunday when Fox called Bush with concerns about the proposal, which he read about in the press. According to the Fox administration, Bush said he's only considering the use of the National Guard as a backup to the Border Patrol, not as a military force.
Aguilar described the conversation as ''very smooth, one filled with agreement and consensus between the two presidents, and President Bush told President Fox that he considers Mexico an associate and a friend."
When pressed on whether Fox was satisfied with Bush's explanation, Aguilar said, ''We can't intervene in the decisions of the United States."
