President Bush, President Fox Discuss Migration, Trade, World Affairs
Remarks by the President and Mexican President Vicente Fox in Photo Opportunity
Los Cabos, Mexico

      Policy In Focus International Trade

11:00 A.M. (L)

PRESIDENT FOX: (Speaking Spanish.)

PRESIDENT BUSH: Vicente, thank you for inviting us here. This is a very beautiful part of the world, and we're so honored you're hosting this convention.

We did have a very good discussion, but I'm not surprised, after all, we're close friends. We discussed trade, we discussed commerce. We did discuss migration. Ever since I have been the President and Vicente has been the President, we have had a mutual desire to deal with the migration issue in a way that recognizes reality, and in a way that treats the Mexican citizens who are in the United States with respect. And we will continue to work on this issue.

And we did talk about world peace, and Iraq. Mexico is a member of the Security Council. We discussed how to keep the world peaceful, how to hold people to account, how to make sure the United Nations is effective. And I appreciate so very much the President and the Foreign Minister's desire to consult closely with the United States as we move forward to making the world more peaceful.

So we're -- it's an honor to be here. It's going to be a very important conference, being held in a beautiful spot and hosted by a good friend. Mr. President.

We'll take a couple of questions.

Q President Bush, we know that -- we understand President Fox was going to talk to you about the impact that your subsidies would eventually have on Mexican illegal migration to the U.S. Did you have an answer for him?

PRESIDENT BUSH: Ask the question again -- agricultural subsidies?

Q Migration --

PRESIDENT BUSH: Oh, yes. Well, here's the answer. The answer is, the long-term answer for the migration issue is to work a way that encourages commerce on both sides of the border, so people can find jobs here in Mexico, for starters. That's the long-term solution.

And the short-term solution, we've got to recognize that wage differentials are going to cause people to want to come to the United States. And when they come to the United States, we've got to work to make sure they're treated with respect. And the issue is how do we recognize the reality of two societies with a wage differential the way they are. Here on the border, the wage differential is narrowing -- or on the border, wage differential is narrowing, so the migration pressure tends to come from interior of Mexico and the south of Mexico.

And one of the things that the President and I have discussed in the past is how best to develop industry together in the midst of Mexico, in the south of Mexico, so that people are more likely to find work at home.

Heidi. Oh, sorry.

Q A senior administration official told us this morning that the goal with North Korea is to isolate them. What is your strategy for doing that without winding up in the same position that we were in, in 1994, with a failed agreement?

PRESIDENT BUSH: Well, I'm glad you asked a senior administrative official. Our goal is to work with our friends in the region to convince Kim Chong-il to disarm. I made a positive step yesterday in Crawford when the President of China made a public declaration that he said, like the United States, we share the desire to make sure the Korean Peninsula is nuclear weapons free.

Right after this meeting with President Fox, I'll be meeting with the leaders of Japan and South Korea, where we'll continue this dialogue. So the strategy is to make sure that our close friends and our allies and people with whom we've got relations work in concert to convince Mr. Kim Chong-il that a nuclear weapons free peninsula is in his interests, it's in South Korea's interests and it is in the world's interests.

Q (Asked in Spanish.)

PRESIDENT FOX: (Answered in Spanish.)

PRESIDENT BUSH: (Speaking Spanish.)

Q For President Fox -- it's the same question, basically. For President Fox, are you prepared to support the U.S. position at the U.N. and vote for a resolution authorizing force?

And for President Bush, are there any consequences for nations that don't support our position at the U.N.?

PRESIDENT BUSH: The only consequence, of course, is with Saddam Hussein. And if the U.N. does not pass a resolution which holds him to account, and that has consequences, then as I have said in speech after speech after speech, if the U.N. won't act, if Saddam Hussein won't disarm, we will lead a coalition to disarm him.

Q President Fox?

PRESIDENT FOX: (Answered in Spanish.)

END 11:18 A.M. (L)

Link Follows

Calderon offered an impassioned and personal defense of the more than 10 million Mexicans working north of the border, including some of his extended family.

Responding to a question during a joint news conference, Calderon confirmed that he had relatives working in vegetable fields in the United States, adding, ``They probably handle what you eat.'' But he said he didn't know their legal status.

``What I can tell you is that they work and pay their taxes to the government'' of the United States, Calderon said. ``These are people who respect the United States. These are people who have children, who want these children to be educated with respect for the land where they live and for Mexico.''

http://www.registerguard.co...

Gee why don't we make Mexico a state???? WOOF!  And i am so KIDDING!  We haven't acquired land since 1959......Who wants to be govenor of Mexico????  I'll take some land by ocean, ok?.

And isn't a hoot when we do hear Bush speak Spanish  

Perhaps California and the S.W. could become even more normal if the Mexicans would give it back to the Spanish, then the Spanish could make it even better by giving it back to the Indians, then the Indians could out-do everyone by giving it back to whomever they took it from.....etc. etc. ad naseum. The first Eurocentric people to settle in California in the late 18th century were Spaniards and they were not all white, a substantial portion were black or mulatto. During this time period, If you called yourself "Mexican" it was understood that you hailed from Mexico City. Those living in California called themselves "Californios" and because the province of California was so far from the seat of government and so sparsely populated the Californios tended to be highly independent to the point of appointing their own governmental leadership. The revolts against Spanish rule began throughout the four vice-regalities that comprised the Spanish Empire in America during in the early 1800's. The revolts heated up when Napoleon forced King Charles IV of Spain to abdicate and Prince Ferdinand to renounce his rights to the throne in 1807.  Napoleon then placed his own brother, Joseph, on the Spanish throne. The revolts in Spanish America spread to Mexico when a revolt led by a Creole Catholic priest, named Miguel Hidalgo, broke out in 1810 and lasted ten years. During this time, Prince Ferdinand regained his rights to the Spanish throne and became King Ferdinand VII. Mexico, however, was not created by revolution but by counter-revolution. For this, we have to delve into the marriage of Ferdinand to the Liberal minded Princess Maria Cristina of Naples who persuaded him to accept her daughter, Isabel, as successor to him as Queen, and the resulting conflict between her and Ferdinand's reactionary brother, Don Carlos, who refused to accept her as Queen of Spain when Ferdinand died.  This flared-up into a vicious civil war in Spain between the Isabelinos and the Carlists. The Isabelinos eventually won. The generals and Conservatives in Mexico who were fighting against the succession of revolutionary priests forced a coup against the Liberals representing Spanish interests in America and simply announced Mexico's independence. General Agustine de Iturbide became Emperor Agustine I of Mexico in 1820 since he was the leader of the coup. About a year later, one of his top men, General Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana conspired with the Liberals to overthrow Iturbide and when that was accomplished he then double-crossed the Liberals and became dictator. Do you want me to continue with this history lesson on how Mexico became a cesspool of corruption and how we really don't want California and the Southwest to become "normal" like Mexico again, or has everyone fallen asleep by now?

Annon 42

double-crossed the Liberals

Sorry to all,

I got a bit ahead of myself with all the drama between the Isabelinos and the Carlists which actually occurred after 1829. The Liberal government that took power in Spain in 1820 which subsequently resulted in the coup in Mexico by Iturbide was the result of a successful military coup by an army officer, Rafail del Riego Nunez, who had been converted to liberalism while he was a P.O.W. of the French during the Napoleonic Wars. As a result of this coup King Ferdinand was obliged to accept the Liberal politicians in Madrid as his government and reinstate the Constitution of 1812. King Ferdinand proclaimed, "Let us advance frankly, myself leading the way, along the constitutional path". But, the despot did not mean a word of it. As soon as the Liberals began to quarrel among themselves, as they are prone to do, their solidarity fell apart and King Ferdinand was restored to absolute monarch by the intervention of Louis XVIII of France and the Holy Alliance which was comprised of the monarchies of Russia, Austria, and Prussia. I hope this is all becoming crystal clear now!

Annon 42

Tomás de Zumalacárregui

Tomas de Zumalacarregui was a very resourceful man and he paid for his abilities with his life. It is the nature of despots such as Don Carlos to eliminate those who could possibly pose a threat to their absolutism. Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana, the Napoleon of the West, was also involved in numerous intrigues and betrayals of his own making to secure his dictatorial power and self aggrandizement.

Annon 42

Don Carlos of Spain (1545-1568) was deformed from birth; hunchbacked and pigeon-breasted with shoulders of uneven height and his right leg considerably shorter than the left. The crippled child was also retarded and slow in both his physical and mental development. He was sickly and often had fevers. He spoke in a high-pitched, girlish voice, and stuttered badly. Don Carlos may have suffered a brain dysfunction at birth, which can cause indiscriminately aggressive and impulsively violent behaviour. There also seems to have been a recurring streak of madness in the Portuguese Royal Family. Both Don Carlos' mother and grandmother were Portuguese Princesses. In addition, Don Carlos' parents were double first cousins. Due to the incestuous marriages of his immediate ancestors, Don Carlos had only 4 great-grandparents, instead of the usual 8, and two of them were sisters¹: Juana "the Mad" and Maria of Castile.

http://www.xs4all.nl/~kvenj...

TK, the Don Carlos that you speak of must be an earlier one than the one that I referenced. The one you speak of lived from 1545-1568, the one of Carlist fame lived from 1785-1855.

Annon 42