Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 42 Issue 13 (Monday, April 3, 2006)

[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 42, Number 13 (Monday, April 3, 2006)]
[Pages 611-619]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
The President's News Conference With President Vicente Fox of Mexico and
Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada in Cancun

March 31, 2006

President Fox. Good morning. Welcome for your interest and your
presence and attendance. We have come to an end in this productive
meeting, as you well know, with bilateral meetings yesterday and today a
trilateral meeting, a very productive one, followed by an enlarged
meeting, trilateral-wise, with the attendance of the entrepreneurial
community, business, and investment of our three countries.
Consequently, we will give you full information.
I would like to ask the Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, to
make some comments.
Prime Minister Harper. Thank you. Thank you, President Fox, and
ladies and gentlemen. I'd like to thank President Fox first of all. It
was a pleasure to meet President Fox and President Bush to discuss
issues of importance to our countries and our common will to work
together.
In North America, we have an economy that is integrated; it is not
necessary to differentiate our products. And we have discussed the
progress accomplished in the Security and Prosperity Partnership of
North America, and we are committed to considering the private sector.
First of all, we believe that it is an engine of competitiveness, made
up of members of the private sector, that will allow us to make our
economies even more competitive.
Our ministers will be working on this. They will be identifying our
priorities, and they will make sure that they are followed up. We will
be cooperating on issues of importance--on border security, management
of urgent situations, as well as energy security. We will prepare a
coordinated and exhaustive way to approach the issues of the bird flu,
and we will be guided by common principles. Over the course of the next
few months, we will be doing everything possible to ensure the security
along our borders and to be able to move our merchandise back and forth.
We will be working in the area of energy, the area of research and
innovation, to be able to deal with clean technologies.
We are happy with the discussions of our trade ministers on
cooperation and of the negotiation of our countries, and we encourage
them to follow up with this work.
This meeting has been extremely productive. And Presidents Bush and
Fox have accepted my invitation for the next summit

[[Page 612]]

meeting, which will take place in Canada in 2007.

[At this point, Prime Minister Harper continued in English.]

----grateful for our host, President Fox, and to the workers here at
the hotel and the Mexican people for their warm hospitality.
Over the past 2 days, I've had the pleasure of meeting with
President Fox and President Bush to discuss issues that jointly affect
our three nations. I've been encouraged by the common will of our three
nations. We are living today in an integrated economy. We cannot afford
the politics of isolation.
During my meetings with Presidents Bush and Fox, we reviewed the
progress of our Security and Prosperity Partnership, which provides a
framework to advance the common interests in areas of security,
prosperity, and quality of life.
We committed to further engage the private sector. We've agreed to
set up a North American Competitiveness Council, made up of business
leaders from all three countries, to advise us on ways to improve the
competitiveness of our economies. They will meet with our ministers,
identify priorities, and make sure we follow up and implement them.
We agreed to expand our existing cooperation on key issues such as
border security, emergency management, and energy security. As an
immediate priority, we'll develop a coordinated and comprehensive
approach to preparing for a possible avian or pandemic influenza
outbreak in North America. Our action will be guided by shared
principles. We'll take concrete steps in the coming 24 months to improve
the security at our borders and to ensure the smooth and efficient flow
of goods and people, particularly--particular discussions with President
Bush on the Windsor-Detroit Corridor.
We'll collaborate on energy, especially with respect to innovation
and science and technology, with the focus on clean technologies. We
also welcome the discussions--the recent discussions by our trade
ministers on NAFTA collaboration on trade negotiations with third
countries. And we urge that this work be given priority.
These talks were productive. And I'm, of course, very pleased that
President Bush and President Fox have accepted my invitation to have the
next leaders' meeting in Canada in 2007.
Thank you.
President Fox. President Bush.
President Bush. Thank you for your hospitality. It's a really good
choice to pick Cancun--as my press corps will tell you. They're looking
forward to staying by the pool after I leave. [Laughter] It's a
beautiful--beautiful part of the country.
I want to thank you for your friendship as well. It's been a joy
discussing very important issues with you over the course of my
Presidency. And this is probably one of the most productive meetings
we've had. It's been a pleasure to meet with Prime Minister Harper in
his official capacity as the Prime Minister of Canada. I find him to be
a very open, straightforward fellow. If he's got a problem, he's willing
to express it in a way that's clear for all to understand. And that's
the way I like to deal with people.
We've got big goals for this very important relationship. One goal
is prosperity. You can't achieve a standard of living increase for your
people unless you have a prosperous neighborhood, and it's this
prosperity that has been much of a focus on NAFTA. And one of my vows,
and I know the other leaders share this goal, is to make sure that
people are able to connect the NAFTA relationship with improvement of
their own quality of life.
I know there's deep concern about social justice throughout the
neighborhood, and social justice can be achieved more likely if people
are able to realize their dreams and if there's a prosperous society.
And prosperity has been increased as a result of the trade between our
nations. And we want to make sure that trade continues in a way that's
fair and free but also in a way that enables our countries to be able to
compete with the great challenges we face.
And we face prosperity challenges from abroad like never before--the
challenge of a growing Chinese economy or the challenge of an Indian
economy. And my attitude is, we shouldn't fear these challenges; we
ought to welcome them and position ourselves so that we can compete. And
I think the leaders

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share that sense of unity when it comes to being a competitive part of
the world in the future.
We talked about security. Look, we got long borders, and we got to
make sure we work hard to secure the borders. We also have got to make
sure we got smart borders. And so the whole vision of our borders has
got to be to enhance trade and tourism but to prevent smugglers and
terrorists and dope runners from polluting our countries. And I'm
confident, with the use of technology and by close collaboration, we'll
be able to achieve those objectives.
I want to thank the CEOs and the business leaders from the three
countries who are here. I thought we had a very constructive discussion
about ways to make sure that there is harmonization between our
industries so that the people benefit. And they brought some really good
ideas.
We talked about, of course, bird flu, avian flu, and the need to be
prepared in case there is an outbreak. We spend a lot of time in my own
country preparing for an avian flu outbreak, strategizing as how to
coordinate efforts between the Federal, State, and local governments;
working to wisely spend money to come up with, hopefully, a vaccine that
would then be available for sharing around the world. And I do want to
thank Canada for having taken the lead early in this issue and preparing
the world for what is possible so that there's good information sharing
if the bird flu were to break out in Southeast Asia, for example. But my
point is, it's very important for us to share information and data and
strategies amongst our three countries so that if this were to happen,
there is a focused, coordinated, intelligent response.
We talked about energy. My view of the energy initiative is that
we've got to be wise about the resources we have and be smart about the
investment for research and development so we can change our energy
habits. The truth of the matter is, we'll all be better off if we use
alternative sources of energy like ethanol or explore how to use hybrid
batteries in a better way. I mean, there's some really interesting
things coming down the pike, and I look forward to not only leading my
own nation to spend money to be on the leading edge of technological
change when it comes to energy but also sharing those technologies and
ideas with our counterparts. Because we want to make sure that we've got
national security concerns addressed when it comes to energy; we also
want to be good stewards of the environment--and we can do both by the
use of proper technologies.
It's been a good meeting. I want to thank you for your leadership. I
like coming to meetings where people put things on the table and we try
to come up with solutions. And this has been such a meeting, Mr.
President. Good job. Es todo.
President Fox. Thank you. Thank you so much. Undoubtedly, these two
days have brought about spaces for meeting of both friends and partners,
and undoubtedly, we have made a very good use of time.
The visit to Chichen-Itza was excellent, as well as yesterday
evening's dinner, in a relaxed atmosphere but, likewise, creating this
association and making a very productive association. Equally important
were the different working meetings.
We took advantage of time, we were not working isolated. We touched
upon fundamental items in that meeting. First of all, we carried out an
evaluation meeting. Then we got information about the development of
programs. And then we gave the necessary instructions for the works that
should be carried out in the next period of work.
This is a most important thing and this association has become a
dynamic and professional process, a constructive process, a short-term
action process, and great vision and perspective in a long term.
Consequently, we have concluded that institutionalizing all these
mechanisms is of utmost importance so that they will have continuity, so
that there will be a followup--a necessary followup, so that they will
be fruitful both at a short, middle, and long term.
So we have established the next meeting. The Prime Minister of
Canada has suggested and has invited us to Canada. Next June, we shall
have, let's say, an information, evaluation, and results study of the
work of this association, this Security and Prosperity Partnership. And
we have carried out a series

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of actions that should be integrated in this report.
First of all, I would like to make clear what has been the results
of 12 years of joint work in the Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA. The three
nations are fully satisfied of what we have been able to achieve. We
have seen the fruits of work through this tool of cooperation, trade,
and investment. Nonetheless, we're not fully satisfied. We have to give
steps forward. We have many an opportunity and many a challenge.
I want to mention two figures in reference to the results of NAFTA.
Mexico has a commercial balance trade of $535 billion, the seventh in
size throughout the world. And these would be a direct product of both
trade and investment that has been carried out among the three partner
countries. And then we should point out that every single State, border
States with the United States had per capita income to December as of
last year that go beyond to $10,000. The per capita average income has
to do with $7,500--the highest in Latin America. Nonetheless, the
borderline States are above $10,000 per capita income, and some of them
have a per capita rate to $10,000.
We're not talking about small numbers, small figures; we're talking
about a concrete result of the efforts and work through trade. It is
achieved through investment, and likewise, it is achieved through joint
work, everybody's work. Behind all this, there's nothing else but work,
work, and work.
Now I would like to mention a couple of items in the goals. First,
strengthen and maintain, growing, the Free Trade Agreement, first of
all. Benefits are evident, but before the new reality of the 21st
century, we have decided to give steps forward and strengthen the
relationship. Now we have the alliance both for security and prosperity.
One item is as important as the other--shared responsibility an
important element--one as important as the other. And that is what the
three countries think.
We started with the constitution of the North American
Competitiveness Council, so as to consider public and private policies--
face a challenge of our region. We want to institutionalize our
mechanisms, have a clear project for the next month of June. It would
imply mechanisms by means of which we will give the necessary importance
and long-term action, something constant, and continuity should be
achieved as well. That has been fruitful, and that can give very good
results for our region. We are not renegotiating what has been
successful or open the Free Trade Agreement. It's going beyond the
agreement, both for prosperity and security.
Summarizing, we have to increase competitiveness of our economies,
of our companies, our enterprises, our structures, and likewise, our
technological and educational levels so as to face competition of other
blocs in the world. We have to homogenize normotivity standards so as to
have common standards to facilitate jobs and productivity. We have to
make borders much more modern with technology so as to guarantee
security but the good flow of commodities and products. We have invested
a good amount of time to logistics, efficiency and efficacy in customs,
topics that have to do with sharing--sharing these efficiencies.
We are totally aware that we require infrastructure studies in the
borderline areas so as to analyze needs, to facilitate both trade and
passage of people and goods. This is fundamental; security is
fundamental for our future development. It is a problem and a challenge
shared by the three countries. Migration can only be solved in that we
agree upon under the framework of a legislation that will guarantee our
legal order, safe and respectful migration, respecting the rights of
people.
We have spoken about the collaboration of the three countries to
support development and generation of opportunities for Central American
countries and the Caribbean-area countries. We have seen an excellent
level of relationships, and these are giving steps forward. They're
better and better.
We have more points of coincidence amongst the three countries. I
would like to thank the attendance, the presence, in this beautiful port
of Cancun in this area of the Riviera Maya. You can see it is dynamic, a
beautiful place, as it always has been. We receive millions of tourists
every single year, people that come over, and we're proud to receive.

[[Page 615]]

We want to thank President Bush; we want to thank Prime Minister
Harper--my acknowledgment, my thanks, and my commitment. We shall be
working together, no doubt about it, to give steps forward in the field
of prosperity and security. May you have a happy return back home. Thank
you.
For the question-and-answer period, we have two questions for the
journalists of each country.

Border Security/Trade

Q. Good morning, Presidents and Prime Minister. President Fox, what
are the concrete measures that Mexico is implementing to guarantee this
indispensable security so as to have a legal, safe, and orderly
migration?
For President Bush and President Harper, do you consider that there
should be a continuity on the economic policy in Mexico before the
change of President in our country? Last but not least, how can the
partners of NAFTA--can be competitive before the Asian countries if
there are so many differences that are leading us to talk first about
security, then productivity? And what are the unilateral decisions on
migration matters? Thank you.
President Fox. First, security. Many actions have been implemented.
Many actions have to do with close cooperation with the security
authorities with the United States. This effort, headed by the
representative of Homeland Security, Mr. Chertoff, and Minister of the
Interior here in Mexico, Mr. Abascal, and the cooperation based upon
mutual trust, coresponsibility, and what has to do with security in the
borders.
Likewise, we're doing our own work in cases of homicides and crimes
among the different Mafias, the drug cartels. We shall continue working
on this. There's a presence of Federal forces in the main points in the
border, and then a great commitment to win the battle against organized
crime and drug trafficking, particularly in the city of Nuevo Laredo. We
have programs such as Programma OASISS, OASISS Program, so as to attack
the people that are trafficking with people, with migrants. And
fortunately, there are more than 120 in jail. And then we have a
permanent program, 24 hours a day, so as to achieve this.
We are working in the inner part and in the southern part of the
country to stop migration flows that come from Central America that are
crossing illegally the southern border of Mexico. And with all due
respect to the dignity of these people, respecting their human rights,
they are stopped; they remain on temporary bases and stations. They
offer them services with dignity, and then we send them back to their
communities of origin; 240,000 people--people that were detained, and
then they were sent back to Central America.
We are working jointly with the Central American Governments. We
have spoken about the fact that the decision of Mexico is not only
assuming our responsibilities migration-wise, but we have a firm
commitment of generating jobs and employment. We're working jointly with
Central America so as to achieve this, so each country will absorb our
commitment and our total commitment generating opportunities within our
own countries.
And so this program, like the energy initiative for Central America,
is one that has the purpose of bringing development and growth to the
Central American economies. Thus we're working on a broad spectrum on
the issue of security in all of its facets.
President Bush. I don't see how you can be prosperous if you don't
have security. I mean, it's--if people are concerned that, for example,
the towns along the border aren't secure, it's going to be difficult to
keep prosperity alive. And so I appreciate the President's commitment to
security along our border, and we've got--we share the same commitment.
It's very important to enforce laws. Robust economy depend upon the rule
of law, and therefore, when countries enforce law, it kind of creates
the conditions for continued economic growth.
When you have robust trade like we have, there are issues that come
up. One way to look at it is, if we had no trade, there would be no
issues. And the more issues there are and the more opportunities there
are to discuss them, the likelier it is these economies will continue to
grow. And so I don't--I don't worry about having to deal with problems.
As a matter of fact, I view the problems that have arisen as a result of
complex and active

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trade as positive. And the fundamental question is, can we resolve these
issues in a responsible way? And one of the reasons we meet is to put
ourselves in a position to do so.
You mentioned something about the elections. I'm not going to talk
about them. The only thing I am going to talk about is, I love to have a
strong, vibrant democracy on our southern border. And I want to thank
the President for his strong leadership and his recognition that
democracy is a very important legacy of his administration, the previous
administration, that we certainly hope there will be a peaceful
transition of power, and I'm confident there will be one.
Prime Minister Harper. Obviously, I don't want to get into the issue
of Mexican politics, but I can say the same thing that I said yesterday
with regard to the leadership of President Fox. We've had both bilateral
and multilateral relationships progressively growing and without
precedent. I trust that the President is going to leave a stronger
economy that is shared, a firm democracy, respect for human rights, and
faithfulness to the most important principles for our shared progress,
for the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, and all
the good results that come from a free market economy.
All of these things lead to more progress, which we hope the next
President will be able to build upon, which will benefit all of our
countries.

[Prime Minister Harper continued in English.]

And I'll just repeat that I, obviously, do not intend to make any
comments or get myself involved in Mexican politics, but I'll just
repeat what I said yesterday, which is that President Fox has provided
unprecedented leadership for both our bilateral and our trilateral
relations, unprecedented progressive leadership.
I believe that the legacy of that leadership will be to leave behind
not just the strong democracy that believes in liberty and human rights
but also loyalty and adherence to the principles that are--on which the
success of our integrated economy is based. And those are the principles
of NAFTA, the principles of our security and economic partnership, and,
of course, the advantages of free markets from which all of our nations
benefit.

Immigration Reform

Q. Thank you. Mr. President, would you veto an immigration bill that
did not include a guest-worker program? And how do you counter the angry
argument from conservatives on Capitol Hill who are saying that your
demand for one could hurt the Republican Party this fall?
President Bush. The migration issue has been a topic of discussion
here, as you can imagine. I told the President exactly what I told our
country, that, one, I expect the debate to bring dignity to America, in
recognition that America is a land of immigrants and people ought to be
treated with respect; and this debate ought to be a debate that does not
pit neighbor against neighbor; that focuses on three elements. One is
that we are a nation of laws and therefore must enforce our laws. And
that includes enforcing the laws of people coming into our country
illegally.
President Fox and I discussed this issue at length. I don't know if
people recognize, but his Government, all aspects of the Mexican
Government came together to send a clear message to the American people:
The Mexican Government understands it has a responsibility as well, to
protect the border. It is a nation of law. You heard the President talk
about not only enforcing the northern border but also the southern
border.
I also have said to the American people that we must enforce our
laws in the interior of the country. Employers must be held to account
if they're employing the people in our country illegally. However, part
of the problem is--that complicates the lives of our many employers who
are providing employment for people who are here illegally, is that
there has been a lot of document forgery. There's an industry that has
sprung up, and part of that industry is to provide forged documents so
that our employers don't know whether a person is in our country legally
or not.
I also believe strongly that an important part of securing the
border and enforcing our laws is to recognize there are people in our

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country doing work that Americans will not do. And those people ought to
be given a chance to have a tamper-proof card that enables them to work
in our country legally for a period of time. That's called a guest-
worker program. One of the important issues about a guest-worker program
is, what does that mean for someone's desire to become a citizen of our
country? I believe if someone has been here in our country illegally,
they should not get at the head of the line if they want to become a
citizen. In other words, we have a line of people waiting, people who
are in our country legally, waiting to become a citizen. And people who
have been in our country illegally should not get ahead of the line who
are there legally.
A nation of laws can also be a welcoming nation, and I believe a
guest-worker program will help us rid the society and the border of
these coyotes who smuggle people in the back of 18-wheelers. I believe
it will help get rid of the document forgers. I believe it will help
people on both sides of our border respect the laws of our border and
enforce our borders. I believe it is important to bring people out of
the shadows of American society so they don't have to fear the life they
live. I believe it's important for our Nation to uphold human rights and
human dignity. And the plan I've just proposed is one that will do all
that and achieve important objectives.
And I'm looking forward to working with the Congress. We're making
the--I told the President, we're making progress. You know, there's a
legislative process. It's--some guy, some wag one time put it, it's like
watching people make sausage. It's kind of a--you know, probably appears
a little unpleasant from your perspective. [Laughter] But we're making
progress. And I want a comprehensive bill. And I've made that very clear
to the Members of the Congress, and I will continue making it clear to
Members of Congress.
Q. [Inaudible]
President Bush. So, no answer--I said I want a comprehensive bill.
You're presuming there won't be a comprehensive bill; I believe there
will be a comprehensive bill.

Canada-U.S. Relations/Border Security

Q. Mr. President, can you explain to Canadians----
President Bush. Which one?
Q. That would be you, Mr. Bush.
President Bush. Me.
Q. Could you explain to Canadians why they'll need to have a
passport or an unspecified secure document before they cross over to the
United States? And what would the impact be on both of our countries,
economically, if Canada doesn't follow through by the deadline of the
end of next year?
President Bush. I appreciate you bringing up this issue. This is an
issue, obviously, that affects not only border crossings with Canada; it
also affects border crossings with Mexico. The Congress passed the law,
and I intend to enforce the law. But the law said there ought to be a
passport or a passport-like document that I believe, if properly
implemented, will facilitate travel and facilitate trade, not hinder
travel and trade. And the reason I believe that is, I think we can be
wise about the use of technologies to--envision a card that can be
swiped across a reading device that facilitates the movement of people.
It's a--look, I understand this issue has created consternation.
Your Prime Minister made it very clear to me that he's very worried that
such a implementation of the law on the books will make it less likely
people will want to travel between our countries. I've heard from
business leaders who are concerned about the bookings for conventions.
And so what I've told the Prime Minister and told President Fox, as
well, is that we have an obligation to work very closely with our
counterparts to provide a set of standards as to what will meet the
obligations of the law.
Again, I repeat to you, I believe this can be done in such a way
that it makes future travel, future relations stronger, not weaker.
Prime Minister Harper. Maybe I could just add to that. Obviously, we
are concerned. I expressed those concerns to President Bush, and I know
they've been expressed by Canadian business leaders as well. The
President is confronted with legislation passed by Congress and has a
responsibility

[[Page 618]]

to act upon that legislation, and we understand that. We understand the
security concerns that are behind that.
At the same time, we're obviously concerned that if we don't move
quickly and properly on this, that this could have effects on trade and
movement of people, conventions, you name it, that is not helpful to our
economy or to relationships. So we've agreed that Minister Day and
Secretary Chertoff will meet as soon as possible to make this their top
priority.

Democracy in Mexico

Q. Mr. President Fox, two questions. The first is, our Senate last
night passed a law, and I'd like to know what you're going to do? Will
you veto that law, or will you leave the legislative packet to the next
President of our country? And second, you have spoken and you have
warned us Mexicans against populism and the demagogues who exist in
campaigns, in Presidential campaigns, and that we are going through a
very difficult stage. I'd like to ask if you already forgot the populist
language that you used in your own Presidential campaign when you even
talked about--[inaudible]--and things like that? What about talking
about democracy using a populist language in the past, but now you are
against candidates doing that.
President Fox. In reference to the first item, the Ministry of the
Interior will inform, on behalf of the Federal Government, our position.
And I celebrate--I'm glad that both the Congress, the lower chamber and
the upper chamber, have exercised their autonomy, their freedom. They
have discussed and approved one more of the many laws that have been
approved in our country in this last 5 years of democratic and
respectful Government--the autonomies and the independence on the other
two powers. As never before, we have lived this reality that has been
positive, fruitful, in reference to the application of our autonomy and
constitutional freedom that all the other powers have.
Now, in reference to the second item, I can only say--and I will say
it very clearly--from the second of July and since the second of July of
the year 2000, there has been absolute freedom, and that is of utmost
importance for all of us. Every single person should express according
to his own decision and convenience, by all means, respecting the rights
of third parties. But above all this, we have the freedom of both
Mexicans, ladies and gentlemen, that work in the mass media: press;
newspapers; journals; TV. We have now a freedom that we never had in the
past. Every single citizen in our country nowadays exercises this
freedom openly. This is one of the great fruits and results of democracy
won in the second of July of the year 2000.

Iran

Q. President Bush, Secretary of State Rice is finding common ground
with the British today on the view that the next step against Iran could
be sanctions. Do you agree that's the way to go if Iran fails to comply
with the Security Council's 30-day deadline on its nuclear program?
President Bush. Thanks. First, I do want to offer my country's
assistance to the people affected by the recent earthquakes in Iran. We
obviously have our differences with the Iranian Government, but we do
care about the suffering of Iranian people.
There is common agreement that the Iranians should not have a
nuclear weapon, the capacity to make a nuclear weapon, or the knowledge
as to how to make a nuclear weapon. And the reason there's common
agreement is because the Iranian Government with such as weapon, as is
now constituted, would pose a serious threat to world security.
Condoleezza Rice is in Europe today to discuss with the P-5, the
permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany, a strategy
to go forward in a unified way that says to the Iranian Government, the
world rejects your desires to have a nuclear weapon. Condi is
strategizing with those who will be making the U.N. Security Council
decisions as to that united front. In other words, we agree on a goal;
now the question is, how do we work together to achieve that goal? And
you're watching Secretary of State Rice work with our friends to remind
the Iranians on a regular and consistent basis that if they want to be--
participate in the international order of things, if they don't want to
isolate themselves, they must listen very carefully to what we are
saying with unified voice.

[[Page 619]]

Murder Investigation in Cancun

Q. My question is to President Fox, and I wonder if we could prevail
upon you, sir, to answer it in English. A few weeks ago, there was a
very bloody murder here with the Ianiero family in Cancun. Two young
Canadian mothers are very concerned, back in Canada, that Mexican
authorities have mistakenly made them suspects amidst concerns, also in
Canada, the Mexicans may have bungled this investigation. Can you tell
us where this investigation is going, and can you assure those two young
women, indeed, they are not suspects?
President Fox. Well, we are absolutely sorry, and we have our, well,
feelings that a crime has been carried out here in a hotel in Cancun.
The attorneyship office is working, both the Federal one and the local
one--they're working on the investigation. When the data is ready and
when they finally decide, we can claim which are the guilty people. As
of now, that is the only information we have at hand. We're working
closely. We are reporting to the Government and the authorities of
Canada. Investigation is being carried out. So far we cannot make any
further comments. Thank you.
Prime Minister Harper. ----say that we do appreciate the full
cooperation of the Mexican Government, Mexican police at all levels.
There has been consultation with our officials, and I've spoken to the
RCMP, and they assure me that that has been the case, particularly since
the commitments made by Secretary Derbez in Ottawa. So we are working
together in this; we're fully apprised of the situation. I can just add
one small thing, which is that we're told once again, and I think we've
been saying this repeatedly for some time, there is no extradition
pending--extradition demand pending, nor is there one anticipated in the
near future. And that's probably about all I can say.
President Fox. Muchas gracias.

Note: The news conference began at 10:45 a.m. in the Fiesta Americana
Condesa Cancun Hotel. President Fox spoke in Spanish, and his remarks
were translated by an interpreter. Portions of Prime Minister Harper's
remarks were in French, and an English translation was provided. Prime
Minister Harper referred to Minister of Public Safety Stockwell Day of
Canada; and Secretary of Foreign Affairs Luis Ernesto Derbez Bautista of
Mexico. President Fox referred to Secretary of Government Jose Carlos
Maria Abascal Carranza of Mexico.