Lawmakers Reject Presidential Trips

In an unprecedented show of strength, Mexican lawmakers rejected a routine request from President Ernesto Zedillo to attend a summit in Canada. The opposition majority in the lower house of Congress, the Chamber of Deputies, told Zedillo he had failed to provide sufficient justification to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vancouver, Canada, on Nov. 22-25 and asked him to resubmit the request with more information. The lower house also barred Zedillo from a planned Dec. 18-19 state visit to Nicaragua for the same reason. Both requests were rejected by a vote of 232 to 216.