Salinas’ Visit to Baja Long on Symbolism

Animated crowds welcomed Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari on Wednesday as he began a two-day visit to Baja California--a border state on the vanguard of the changes that have swept Mexico during Salinas’ Administration.

The president’s schedule contained more symbolism than substance: he inaugurated a shelter for homeless children, presided over a ribbon-cutting for a highway construction project, and met with local leaders.

But each stop served as a reminder of the aura that surrounds the Mexican presidency, the popularity Salinas has achieved in four years as president, and the economic and political advancements making Baja California an increasingly significant state, particularly with the prospect of a North American Free Trade Agreement.

About 11:30 a.m., Salinas--dressed casually in khaki pants and a striped shirt--emerged from a Boeing 757 on the Tarmac of Tijuana International Airport and shook hands with Gov. Ernesto Ruffo Appel and Mayor Carlos Montejo Favela.

Both Ruffo and Montejo belong to the National Political Action party (PAN), the longtime opponent of Salinas’ ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Both won office in 1989, a historic year in which Ruffo became the first elected opposition governor in modern Mexican history after decades of heavy-handed PRI domination.

Salinas--himself the narrow winner of a disputed victory a year earlier--was widely credited with “allowing” Ruffo’s upset as part of an effort to open up the nation’s political system.

As a result of such political tolerance and a free-market economic program generally welcomed by the conservative PAN, Salinas maintains cordial relations with Baja’s leaders.

“We are all Salinistas by conviction,” Mayor Montejo said at a boisterous, jam-packed rally in the inner patio of Tijuana City Hall.

For his part, Salinas made references throughout the day to the importance of working together despite political differences, telling the rally: “I will continue supporting the governor of this state. We are going to provide resources without distinction to the manner of thinking or party affiliation. . . . The resources of the people belong to the people.”

Nonetheless, PRI-PAN tensions endure. This is Salinas’ first visit to Baja California in more than a year, fomenting speculation that he visits the state less than others because of differences with Gov. Ruffo over fast-growing Baja’s request for increased federal funds.

Well-organized PRI activists interrupted Mayor Montejo during his speech and greeted Salinas with thunderous cries of “Solidaridad,” (Solidarity) the name of his $3.3-billion public works program funded by the privatization of government-run industries. Although some PAN leaders resent Solidarity as a blatant political tool, Salinas has garnered widespread popularity by using the program to make commitments and keep them.

For example, he presided Wednesday in Tecate over the completed bypass of a super-highway that will eventually link Tijuana with Mexicali 120 miles to the east, providing improved infrastructure necessary for the expanded commerce of the free-trade agreement.

He also inaugurated a new “City of the Child” in Tijuana: the joint Solidarity-local government initiative that will provide a 60-bed social service center for homeless children in a city where relentless migration and enduring poverty have left thousands of children living in the streets.

Salinas’ reception by the crowds reflected socio-economic disparities and the personalistic aura of the presidency. Humbly dressed elderly women in peasant shawls strained for a look at the president over the shoulders of businessmen with three-piece suits and cellular phones.

People waved signs asking Salinas to provide electricity for squatter neighborhoods, castigate disliked public officials and even intercede in the investigation of the case of Miguel Angel Moreno Jiminez, a 16-year-old Tijuana boy who was kidnaped a month ago--part of a troubling wave of kidnapings throughout the nation.

Waiting in a crush of relatives and friends who waved signs bearing the boy’s name and photo, the boy’s uncle said the family clings to the hope that the president will help them.

“All of these problems are related to corruption,” said Efrain Jiminez, complaining that the Baja California Judicial Police have not investigated aggressively. “If the president listens to us, perhaps he could exert some pressure.”