
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 18, 1991                   TAG: 9104180559
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: JUSTINE ELIAS CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

MEXICAN URGES `MUTUAL RESPECT' IN RELATIONS

An ideal relationship between the United States and Latin America would be based on "mutual respect and negotiation," said Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes, who spoke Wednesday at Virginia Tech.

Fuentes, a former Mexican ambassador to France and current member of Mexico's National Commission on Human Rights, visited Tech's Donaldson Brown Center as part of the university's Distinguished Speakers Series.

The author of "The Old Gringo" and other novels, Fuentes is a major political participant in the quest for peace and economic stability in Latin America.

Because of war in the Middle East and radical changes in Eastern Europe, Americans are paying less attention to political and economic issues in Latin America, Fuentes said.

U.S. policy-makers have long seen Latin America as a hotbed of communism and a potential victim of Soviet expansion, Fuentes said. The result has been military and economic domination of the region by the United States, which uses "condescension and scare tactics" to protect its interests, he said.

That type of relationship is doomed to failure, he said.

"You either put too much attention on an imaginary trouble spot while ignoring everything else, or you pay no attention at all," he said.

Fuentes said he favors a free trade agreement between the United States and Mexico, a measure under consideration by the U.S. Congress.

Free trade would benefit the United States by opening commerce with Mexico, one its largest trading partners, in a time when European nations are signing similar agreements, he said.

The United States and its neighbor to the south share problems with budget deficits, drugs and urbanization. Mexico "went very quickly from being an agrarian country to being an industrial country," Fuentes said. "We have neglected the problems of feeding ourselves and education."

But increased cooperation does not mean that United States and Latin America should become more alike.

"Central America shouldn't have to accept U.S. values as universal or superior," he said.

The son of a diplomat, Fuentes was born in Panama and grew up in Latin America. He was educated in Washington, D.C., and later studied international law in Switzerland.

Fuentes' best-known book is "The Old Gringo," the first novel by a Mexican author to become a best-seller in the United States. Other works include "The Hydra Head," "TerraNostra," "Aura" and "The Death of Artemio Cruz."

by CNB