From Mexico's President Luis Echeverr

As part of our Bicentennial observance, TIME asked leaders of nations round the world to address the American people through the pages of TlME on how they view the U.S. and what they hope -- and expect -- from the nation in the years ahead. This message from President Luis Echeverria Alvarez of Mexico is the sixth in the series.

The birth of the U.S. marked the first step in the decolonization of this continent, as well as the formation of a new society. The Declaration of Independence proclaimed in 1776 was a harvesting of the most important fruits of the Enlightenment, a synthesis of centuries of Old World experience serving a young society, one that had shed the age-old burden of stratification into social estates.

The first democratic social contract of the New World was drawn up in Philadelphia. Equality before the law, political democracy, federalism -- in short, the example set by a society organized on a basis of respect for the dignity of men and of limitation of government powers established by law -- inspired independence movements and the formation of new nations throughout the Americas.

Nevertheless, even while the memory of the epic struggle to shed the bonds of colonialism was still fresh, there appeared a new project -- that of territorial expansion. Mexico experienced at first hand the development of that first dichotomy in the spirit of the American nation. In 1821 much of our country's territory was left almost ungarrisoned, just when the U.S. was beginning to put into practice what its ruling class would soon come to call Manifest Destiny.

Today, with the false ideology of expansion disproved, the American people are fully aware of the fact that what was called the Mexican War of 1846 was an unjust action taken to extend the expansion begun in 1836, when, with the support of their government, Texas unilaterally declared its independence from Mexico in order to enter the Union. This led to the acquisition of not only the territory of that state but also of that now occupied by the states of Arizona, New Mexico, California, Utah, Nevada and parts of others.

The evolution of so complex and heterogeneous a reality as American society cannot be simplified. The Industrial Revolution and technological development, occurring in a country endowed with vast natural resources and an energetic labor force, created a prosperity that had never before been known. World War I confirmed the nation's status as a great power, and in World War II the United States played a decisive role in the defeat of fascism, while at the same time it consolidated its economic and military predominance.

By then, its role as a great power had paradoxically placed the country in the position of opposing its own historic origins and libertarian roots. In addition, the impressive progress of its economy had led to the creation of formidable nuclei of economic power, not subject to the constitutional controls imposed by the system on the civil Government, that endanger the workings of democracy at its very foundations.

Today U.S. society is going through a period of reflection and selfcriticism, of recognizing the existence of errors and distortions in its domestic life and in its foreign policy. That is one of the fundamental virtues of the American people, and this is a decisive moment for all men everywhere who hope that the vigor of the U.S. will be directed, as it was at its birth, not to the frustration but to the encouragement of historical progress.

The moral issues at stake for this great country are the material waste and moral decay brought about by the arms race, open or clandestine intervention in the domestic life of other countries, support for unpopular and authoritarian governments, and the establishment, together with other powerful nations, of an unjust international structure -- in short, the formulation and implementation of a foreign policy subservient to the dictates of the economic interests of large consortiums, instead of to the moral imperatives that have always distinguished the people of the U.S.

Today the most important issue is extreme international inequality. According to World Bank statistics, in industrialized countries the annual gross national product per capita is $4,550, while a billion of the world's poorest people in some areas of Southeast Asia and Africa have an annual income of little more than $100. In the era of space travel, electronics and cybernetics, 73% of the population of Africa, 46% of the Asians and 27% of the Latin Americans do not know the alphabet.

Despite the terrible eloquence of these figures and what they imply for the thinking man, a still more serious fact is that this situation will grow worse if basic measures are not taken to establish a new international economic order.

About 18 months ago, in a historic session of the United Nations, 120 countries, representing more than three-fourths of the world's population, voted to adopt a Charter of Economic Rights and Duties of States. It establishes the right of every nation to determine its own economic and political organization and to use its natural resources without foreign interference. It sets down the basis for authentic trade, financial and technological cooperation among all peoples, free from any attempt at domination.

We hope that the U.S. will soon join the vast majority of nations in signing the Charter of Economic Rights and Duties of States, and resolve to use its enormous strength to root out the poverty of millions of people. The future of this great nation is tied to the future of humanity within a framework of interdependence. The alternative is to let economic forces follow their course toward the concentration of the world's wealth in a few industrial centers, while the vast majority of peoples, far from following a path toward development, begin a process of involution.

The true greatness of the U.S. lies in those moments when it has given concrete form to ideals for building a new world, when it has promoted a spirit of renewal and given impetus to the progress of humanity.

The American people's true friends will always want to see them at the forefront of historic transformations, and not as the defender of an old world in decline.

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