Blunt Words from Mexico

President Richard Nixon first invited Luis Echeverria, the President of Mexico, to visit Washington back in 1970, but not until this spring was the trip firmly scheduled. Echeverria's countrymen interpreted the delay as just one more sign that Latin America ranks disgracefully low on Washington's scale of priorities. The Mexicans were doubly miffed last December when Nixon described Brazil, a military dictatorship but economically booming, as a model for Latin America. When the White House let it be known that Nixon would give Echeverria some moon rocks on his visit to the U.S. last week, Mexico City's Excelsior sniffed that a few rocks were hardly a substitute for a discussion of "grave problems, old and new."

Last week's visit did not begin well.

The signing of a U.S.-Mexican agreement to try to eradicate the screwworm --which ravages cattle on both sides of the border--had to be delayed because U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz was out of town. More important, Washington seemed disinclined to honor its promise to halt the dumping of salt into the Colorado River, which leaves much of the soil of Mexico's Mexicali Valley cracked and covered with white cakes of salt.

Unlike most Latin American visitors, Echeverria spoke bluntly. The pollution of the Colorado, he told a joint session of Congress, was "an unacceptable form of discrimination" against his country. Mexicans, he insisted, "have had enough of champagne and banquets. We need a positive attitude." A day later, he reported one positive result: a firm commitment by Nixon that the situation in the Mexicali Valley would be "improved immediately."

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