Mexico Plans to Provide Aid to African National Congress

In its first such agreement with a revolutionary movement, Mexico has agreed to provide the equivalent of foreign aid to South Africa’s African National Congress, ANC President Nelson Mandela announced here Wednesday.

The move represents a shift in Mexican foreign policy, which historically has emphasized government-to-government relations and non-interference in other nations’ internal affairs.

Mexico decided to provide the aid, officially called a cooperation program, through the ANC to benefit the country’s black majority, said Andres Rozental, Mexico’s undersecretary of foreign relations.

“We are not going home empty-handed,” Mandela said at a press conference on the last day of his three-day trip to Mexico.

He arrived jubilant, with confetti in his hair from a meeting with government employees. He then caused some consternation for his hosts by describing the Mexican aid as a donation and saying that Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari had agreed to send his foreign minister to South Africa at the ANC’s invitation.

Rozental rapidly clarified both statements after the press conference.

The aid program with the ANC, as the Mexican government envisions it, will be similar to agreements with Central American countries. Under such pacts, Mexico provides clinics, schools, doctors and medical equipment to recipient nations, said Rozental, who added that cash donations are not included. He emphasized that he or another undersecretary--not the foreign minister--will accept Mandela’s invitation to visit South Africa on a fact-finding mission on a yet undetermined date.

Mandela and his wife, Winnie, have been visiting Mexico as part of a tour with stops in Venezuela, Jamaica, Cuba and Brazil to shore up support for sanctions against the South African government. Their Western Hemisphere trip comes at a time when the United States and the European Economic Community have lifted sanctions.

The South African government’s attempts to draw the ANC into talks on a new constitution have been set back by revelations that the government secretly donated money to the rival Zulu-based Inkatha organization.

Mandela, in his press conference, drew parallels between Mexico and South Africa, saying both nations have had civilizations that were colonized, leaving a legacy of discrimination against the conquered people.