TheNewsMexico
February 8, 2002
By Janet Leslie Schwartz and Armando Saliba

SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Chiapas - During the first day of a very busy two-day trip to Washington, Chiapas Gov. Pablo Salazar Menduguchia met with U.S. President George Bush and a host of top officials to discuss foreign investment and border security.

On Thursday, Salazar had breakfast with Bush before moving on to a special forum organized by the U.S. Senate and attended by presidential cabinet members and representatives from 145 nations.

Later, he discussed investment with Commerce Secretary Donald Evans, who offered to help Chiapas monitor U.S. companies that do business there to make sure they are abiding by U.S. standards and are not engaging in activities that adversely affect the state economy or its residents.

During the meeting, Salazar spoke of the significant political changes taking place in the state since his defeat of the long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party. President Vicente Fox, of the conservative National Action Party, accomplished the same feat in 2000.

Salazar also affirmed the need to work bilaterally to secure Chiapas' porous border with Guatemala, of which organized crime takes advantage, to bring migrants and ship drugs to the United States.

Evans, on the other hand, expressed his interest in the state's productive capacity and promised to keep the U.S. market open to Chiapas exports and promote investment because "wealth and prosperity should reach friendly governments."

Heavily indigenous Chiapas is Mexico's poorest state but has a wealth of oil reserves that remain largely untapped because of a lack of federal government funds to conduct exploration activities and the potential for conflict with important armed rebel groups in the region.

A Senate envoy, led by Democrat Andrew Crenshaw, plans to make a reciprocal visit to the country's southernmost state within the next several days.