ABSTRACT
This chapter will examine how the issue of democracy in Mexico interplayed in the larger matrix of U.S. policymaking during the brief period that encompassed the Mexican peso crisis. It will demonstrate that the Clinton administration tried to fend off political conditions on the emerging legislation, arguing directly in public forums and in private conversations with Congress over the need to prevent public criticism of Mexico. It was again a minority in Congress that rallied around the issue of democracy as part of their opposition to the peso rescue plan, linking their most immediate concerns in United StatesMexico relations to the undemocratic nature of the Mexican system. The political views of a minority of conservative Republican and liberal Democratic critics were so diverse that they would continue to constrain the development of any wider consensus on how the United States should treat political questions regarding Mexico. Restraining criticism of Mexican internal politics by the executive branch would have another manifestation during the peso crisis. It kept the administration from publicly acknowledging a political dimension to the crisis, specifically in assigning any responsibility to Mexico’s political leaders for fiscal mismanagement or politicized decision making around the elections. This depiction of the peso crisis as a financial one only further fueled a disconnection with how some in Congress and in academia were portraying and understanding the crisis.
