About 150 people filled a Royce lecture hall Tuesday as three
governors from Mexico visited UCLA to discuss what they see as the
present and future of Mexico.
Manuel Andrade of the state of Tabasco, Lázaro
Cárdenas of the state of Michoacán and Juan Carlos Romero
of the state of Guanajuato presented an optimistic future for
Mexico but one they said will take a lot of work to achieve.
Powerful political figures in Mexico, the three drew a sizeable
crowd in the United States. Over 50 people were turned away from
the forum as the room was already filled to capacity. Since each of
the governors spoke Spanish, headsets were provided through which a
translator interpreted the speech in English.
Though the governors each represent different political parties,
they agreed on a number of issues, which some see as a sign of
progress for Mexico.
“In the past it would have been impossible to get three
governors together because each one would have wanted to be the
star,” said James Wilkie, a UCLA history professor who helped
arrange the event. “(These governors) want to work with each
other.”
“By working together, they’re able to negotiate with
a central government,” he said. “Previously, the
central government had all the money and all the power and they
distributed it however they wanted.”
Cárdenas, a former presidential candidate in Mexico and
likely presidential candidate in 2006, said the number of political
parties in Mexico has created difficulties but is necessary for a
true democracy.
“Right now we have a big responsibility to show that
plurality (of political parties) does not mean the government does
not go forward,” he said.
Romero said though the three main parties represent 90 percent
of the Mexican people, no one party typically gets more than 40
percent of the vote in each election. But he emphasized that this
should not get in the way of improving the political culture of
Mexico.
“What we have to do is work in a national agenda,”
he said.
In a jab at the 2000 U.S. presidential election that generated a
round of laughs from the crowd, Romero said, “In Mexico, when
we have elections, we know who wins.”
Discussion then shifted from the state of politics in Mexico to
the structural reforms the governors believe are needed, which
include labor reforms and social security.
In order to achieve necessary structural reforms the governors
said Mexico needs a strong economy.
In reference to his country’s current structural problems,
Andrade said, “We are going through a time of uncertainty
(and) I believe the economy is the important part.”
“In order to resolve the structural reforms, we should
have a Congress in 2012″ that addresses and attempts to fix
the country’s broader problems, Andrade said. Currently, he
added, Congress takes on even smaller issues that should be dealt
with on a more local level.
Creating a strong economy requires an investment in technology,
education and infrastructure, Cárdenas said, as well as an
embracement of globalization.
“Any investment (from foreign countries) that comes to
generate jobs has to be welcomed,” he said.
“We thought the closeness … with the United States would
be enough,” Cárdenas said, but Mexico “failed with
integration of its productive chain links.”
He said the infrastructure of Mexico has not allowed for the
easy transportation of goods and has thus contributed to a stagnant
economy.
But the governors were hopeful when they talked about
Mexico’s future.
“Mexico has a more modern financial system” than it
had in the past, Romero said. He added that the three factors most
directly influencing the future of Mexico’s economy are
“uncertainty, change and competition.”
Andrade said by removing impediments to free trade, countries
can help one another to strengthen their own economies. He
emphasized the necessity of increased cooperation between the
United States and Mexico.
“We have to make the United States understand we are
stronger if we understand each other,” Andrade said.
“We agree that we like U.S. investment, but not that they
take us as a sweatshop only,” he said.
Romero backed up this point by advocating what he called
“North American citizens” ““ that is, people
categorized not by the country they are from, but as a citizen of a
coalition of cooperative nations.