No Need to Fear Crdenas Senior or Junior

The Opinion page article "NAFTA and Mexico," June 3, is excellent. The author mentions the fear that a presidency by Cuauthmoc Crdenas Solranzo, the son of a president who nationalized the oil industry, could lead to a return of state intervention in the economy. He then writes, accurately, that such fears are exaggerated. In 1938 President Lazaro Crdenas had no intention of nationalizing. International oil barons rejected a ruling of Mexico's Supreme Court and threatened to "bring Mexico's economy to a grinding halt." My wife's uncle, then secretary of the Treasury, was with the president at the time. The oilmen provoked the oil industry's nationalization. The real threat to the US, Mexico, and their treaties is Mexico's lack of democracy. Indeed, "Why fear Mexican democracy?" Jorge Prieto, Chicago

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