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MEXICO UPDATE

HISTORIC VETO INCREASES PRI-PAN TENSION

Tension between President Fox and the PRI party are in

the spotlight today as the PRI, which holds a majority

in both Houses of Congress, vetoed Fox's plans to

visit the US and Canada next week. It was the first

veto of its kind.

Fox had intended to make a three-day trip, leaving on

April 15 and taking in Seattle, where he planned to

meet software giant Microsoft's chairman, Bill Gates

(news - web sites), and members of the Mexican

immigrant community.

He was then due to fly on to Vancouver and Calgary, in

Canada, for meetings with businessmen and academics.

Fox made 15 trips abroad in 2001, the first full year

of his presidency. Opposition politicians, have said

he should spend more time attending to domestic

affairs and that this trip was personal, not

political.

In an indignant address to the nation, the president

accused the majority opposition Institutional

Revolutionary Party (PRI), which ruled Mexico for

seven decades before Fox came along, of using their

congressional muscle against him.

"It appears that the opposition has taken it upon

itself to make sure that my government does not

fulfill the promises of change that you all voted

for," Fox said in a televised address hours after the

Senate ruling.

POSSIBLE JOINT NORTH AMERICAN MILITARY FORCE

Mexico's defense secretary, Gen. Gerardo Vega, was

flying to Washington on Thursday to discuss military

cooperation that might link U.S., Mexican and Canadian

forces against terrorism in a way that NAFTA has

linked North America's economies.

The plan apparently is based on a U.S. Army War

College report in 1999 that suggested a North

American peacekeeping force that would be

headquartered in the United States but include command

posts that would rotate between Mexico and Canada.

"One of the programs the general will discuss in the

United States is a continental command that would use

the North American Free Trade Agreement as a basis," a

Defense Department spokesman said. Department policy

required him to speak on condition of anonymity.

Mexico has not committed to such a plan, which would

imply a historic shift in the country's military

policy. It would also face enormous domestic political

opposition, despite Fox's continuing efforts to work

closely with the U.S. on various levels.

IMPROVING CONDITIONS FOR FEMALE FACTORY WORKERS

President Vicente Fox (news - web sites) and industry

leaders agreed Monday to improve working conditions

for female factory workers who make up the majority of

laborers at the foreign-owned plants along the Mexican

border.

Accompanied by Mexican Labor Secretary Carlos Maria

Abascal, Fox and the Maquila and Export Industry

Council signed the agreement to establish day-care

centers at as many assembly-for-export plants, or

maquilas, as possible.

The agreement - signed in Matamoros, across from

Brownsville, Texas - calls for the enforcement of

federal laws that prohibit employers from asking women

to take pregnancy exams before being hired or

promoted, a common practice in Mexico's recent past.

In addition, employers are being asked to give working

mothers preference for daytime work shifts.

"We cannot be on the cutting edge, as we aim to do, if

women continue to be discriminated against, if they

are not incorporated into the productive work force

with all their rights and their skills, if we do not

establish together the conditions to overcome the

historic gaps in this area," Fox said while touring

Delphi Rimir factory in Matamoros.

Across Mexico, women on average earn 35 percent less

than men in the same positions.

Factories have taken steps in recent years to tend to

the special needs of their female employees. After a

series of gruesome rape-murders of workers in the

violent border city of Ciudad Juarez, factories came

under fire for not providing transportation to female

employees who were forced to walk through their dark

neighborhoods after getting off their shifts at 1 a.m.

Many plants now provide bus service for the women and

offer self-defense courses.

Fox promised to improve education levels, health and

job opportunities for women.

He said the Mexican economy has shown signs of

recovery in recent weeks and the border's industrial

sector, which was hit the hardest by the U.S.

recession, could still recover 100,000 lost jobs by

year's end.

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