In Los Angeles, a Mexican Battle Royal

Boxing is a big spectator sport in Mexico, so folks there are well aware of the old ring maxim that to beat the champ it’s not good enough to fight him to a draw; you have to knock him out. Mexico’s two biggest heavyweights--President Carlos Salinas de Gortari and former state Gov. Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, leader of the main opposition party--went a few rounds in Los Angeles Monday. Nobody scored a knockout, so the champ--Salinas--is still ahead on points.

Salinas was in town for a speech to the American Newspaper Publishers’ Assn. Though Cardenas’ aides emphasized that his visit was planned some time ago, the timing was more than a coincidence. Salinas defeated Cardenas in Mexico’s 1988 presidential election by the narrowest margin in recent Mexican history. Ever since then Cardenas has dogged Salinas. In Los Angeles both men took their political messages to receptive audiences. President Salinas’ speech to ANPA was well-received, particularly his prescription for what ails the Mexican economy: free trade and open markets on both sides of the border. Salinas doesn’t like being called the Mexican Margaret Thatcher, but what else do you call someone who sells off state-owned companies, imposes austerity to reduce foreign debt and insists Mexican business learn to compete in the world?

Cardenas spoke before the liberal Americans for Democratic Action, telling them that he has grave doubts about Salinas’ latest plan for modernizing the Mexican economy--a free trade pact with the U.S. Like many other traditional Mexican politicos, Cardenas worries that his country is so underdeveloped compared to its powerful northern neighbor that it would end up a weak sister, exploited solely for its cheap labor and natural resources. Such criticism may not play well here, but it might in Mexico, where Cardenas hopes to run for president again in 1994. (Salinas is limited to one 6-year term.)

Of course, the great debate over Mexico’s political and economic future was not resolved here, but it did make for great spectator sport. And it was a useful reminder for all of us in Los Angeles that, with almost 3 million people of Mexican descent living around here, not only is Mexico very important to this city, but this city is very important to Mexico.