[speaker001:] Well, what do you know about Latin American policies?
[speaker002:] [Breathing] Well, I think they're kind of ambivalent, really. Uh, I just have a feeling that we've kind of talked out of both sides of mouths down there like we do in some other situations
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] you know.
[speaker001:] Huh.
[speaker002:] We, we don't know, half the time we don't know who to support.
[speaker001:] Are you, uh, relating this, uh, to the, uh, affair we've got going on in Haiti right now?
[speaker002:] That, and, you know, maybe it's, maybe it's tough for a big powerful nation to deal with, with, uh, countries like that that depend on us so much
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] without, you know, just telling them, running their country for them but,
[speaker001:] That, that's just it.
[speaker002:] It's got to be tough, but, I mean, uh, uh, you sure, you still have to, you know, let them know how you feel.
[speaker001:] Right, I guess my concern, [child talking] you know, no matter which, no matter which side we take [child talking], we're going to have supporters and we're going to have, uh, antisupporters, I guess, for lack of better term, and, uh, like you said, they're such small countries, that we're bound to upset somebody, but we seem to be lacking the ability to take a stance.
[speaker002:] Yeah, it worries me that, uh, the economy of so many countries in, in South America and Central America depend on something that damages people, like the, you know, like cocaine
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] from Columbia, and
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] uh, [breathing], you know, of course I, I'm sure we have some enemies down there who wouldn't care what happened to us, but
[speaker001:] That's true.
[speaker002:] but that is, that's a tough deal, and it, I don't think that, maybe I, maybe it's, you know, I'm reflecting how I feel about it, but I have a feeling that we, that we really don't understand basically the, the, the competing factions [LAUGHTER] in lot of those countries and
[speaker001:] Sure.
[speaker002:] I mean, they've been hammering, for the last, you know, ten centuries, and it's still going on, and, uh, we, we dabble in it just enough to make both sides angry at us some how,
[speaker001:] [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] some times,
[speaker001:] Yep, that's about the lump sum of it. Well, um, I was speaking with a, a woman from, I believe she was from the Honduras or Guatemala, or somewhere in there, no, she was from El Salvador
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] and, uh, she was from a relatively wealthy family, and when, uh, the Contras came into power, of course with, uh, oh, gosh darn, what's his face, he's in, in Florida jail now, Marcos
[speaker002:] Yeah, yeah.
[speaker001:] uh, no, he's, Marcos is Philippines,
[speaker002:] Yeah, um, well, I'm blank [LAUGHTER] on it.
[speaker001:] Well, you know who I'm talking about.
[speaker002:] I can see his face forget his name [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] Yeah, I, I know it, uh, anyway, when he came into power, he basically just took everybody's property, you know, just assigned it to himself.
[speaker002:] Yeah, kind of nationalized it
[speaker001:] Right
[speaker002:] for himself,
[speaker001:] right, and, uh, so she's been a real strong supporter of the Sandinistas and has been trying to back the U S government in that respect, and in that respect I have to agree that I think we're taking the right stance
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] uh, because they were a democracy turned, uh
[speaker002:] Dictator,
[speaker001:] yeah, right
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] basically a dictator fascist.
[speaker002:] And it seems like those countries are so easily susceptible to that kind of thing, it just
[speaker001:] Sure.
[speaker002:] you know, unstable.
[speaker001:] Well, what do you think of, uh, this, uh, U S free trade agreement we're working on with Mexico?
[speaker002:] Well, I think it's long overdue
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] uh, I just, you know, there's so much difference in, in the economies of the two countries, I'm not, you know, I have a problem, uh, with whether it's going to work or not, you know, there's, uh, it seems like there's, and I, this may be unfair to Mexico, but it seems like there's a lack of honesty in, in foreign policy a lot of the times.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh, Mexico, they're, I know they're trying, they're really trying, the Mexican government is trying, and a lot of the larger Mexican businesses are trying to, [breathing] oh, make themselves Americanized, I guess
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] and, uh, which is great because that's what they basically need to do. The big problem with the United States is we have our basic nine to five schedule
[speaker002:] Yeah
[speaker001:] you know, and
[speaker002:] yeah.
[speaker001:] we don't have the Siesta, and there's, the cultural differences is what's, is what's kind of, it's what's really hurting, uh, the Mexican people, because they've had their way of life, and we've had our way of life, and, uh,
[speaker002:] I think their, their version of the good old boy network going that, uh, you know, has a lot,