WASHINGTON — Business officials representing U.S. companies with investments in Mexico said Wednesday’s assassination of Mexican presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta won’t dampen the long-term investment climate south of the border.
Investment in the short term, though, may be stymied, they say.
Meanwhile, the Mexican government moved to calm financial markets and international investors by ordering that the stock market and banks be closed Thursday and today.
“A lot in Mexico is still up in the air. From a personal standpoint, [the assassination] does give you a feeling of uncertainty,” said Robert Kennedy, regional manager for finished goods sales at Thomaston Mills, Los Angeles, which is starting to sell to Mexican apparel manufacturers. “I think the key in Mexico is deciding whether you want to be there for the long term.”
“I don’t think this will affect the plans of companies that have been there for a long time. Those who have been in Mexico only a short time might be skittish,” said Patrick Brewer, deputy director of the U.S. council of Mexico-U.S. Business Committee, which represents U.S. interests in Mexico. “But I think you will find this settling down.”
Colosio’s slaying is considered a tremendous blow to Mexico’s leadership and the country’s image as it struggles to calm economic discontent among peasants in the south following the January implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
With five months until the election, President Carlos Salinas must now find a successor for his ruling party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party.
“This is an otherwise stable country,” said Jose Nino, president of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, which seven weeks ago opened an office in Mexico City to represent U.S. members doing business in the country. “You have to remember that a lot of positive things have come out of Mexico in the last five to six years under the Salinas administration.”