John Chafee: “the world was shaken and shocked in the past 24 hours to hear first of the shooting, and then of the death, of Luis…”

“the world was shaken and shocked in the past 24 hours to hear first of the shooting, and then of the death, of Luis Donaldo Colosio, the Mexican Presidential candidate for the Institutional Revolutionary Party. Although little is known of the incident at this point, it appears that Mr. Colosio was assassinated. I met Mr. Colosio, then Secretary of Social Development, in February of 1993, during a brief trip I made to Mexico, prior to Senate consideration of the North American Free-Trade Agreement [NAFTA]. I found Mr. Colosio to be a most impressive individual: personable, dynamic, and clearly committed to making those changes and advances he believed would improve the situation of Mexico and its citizens. Mexico is a country struggling to improve both the short- and long- term well-being of its populace, and create the foundation for a prosperous and stable future. In the past few years, the people of Mexico have taken some remarkable steps: The unprecedented opening of the Mexican economy and the Nation's successful bid to join the GATT; the very public, lengthy fight to win United States approval of the NAFTA and thereby create a partnership designed to lead to developed nation status. Mexico has also faced some extraordinary challenges: the recent armed peasant uprising in Chiapas and the reverberations both political and economic--that followed; and now this--the assassination of the nation's leading political candidate.”