Robert Torricelli: “what began in Chiapas, Mexico, as a small disturbance has now captured the imagination of the Mexican people. All of the…”

“what began in Chiapas, Mexico, as a small disturbance has now captured the imagination of the Mexican people. All of the years of frustration, of an electoral process that does not do justice to Mexican democracy, the discrimination, the failure of economic opportunity now across Mexico are being heard and debated for the first time in a generation. Within Mexico some can claim that it is foreign education; others can object that those of us in the United States can find sympathy with those who want democracy in their own land. But what they cannot deny is that this is a new and different time when all peoples around the globe believe that in the cause of human rights and basic justice and opportunity that we are all one people, all having the right to address injustice everywhere. We address the concerns of Mexico not because we care about Mexico less but because we care about her people more. Because we are now in an economic alliance with Mexico, we have certain rights, indeed, responsibilities to ensure her people, as she has a right in looking at our people, have basic opportunities and simple justice. In this, to the people of Mexico, we find common cause.”