The NAFTA debate ran about as long in Mexico's Senate as it did in the U.S. House, with one big distinction: There was never any question of the outcome.
The Senate passed the treaty easily by a vote of 56-2 late Monday after almost 12 hours of debate that dragged on because each senator was allowed to have his say.Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari, who has made the North American Free Trade Agreement the centerpiece of his sweeping economic reforms, had nothing to fear.
His Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, controls 61 of the 64 Senate seats. Six PRI senators were absent for the vote. A vote of the lower House of Deputies was not required.
Sen. Porfirio Munoz Ledo of the left-leaning Democratic Revolution Party told his fellow senators the agreement favored Mexico's powerful neighbors to the north.
He said NAFTA, which would join Mexico with the United States and Canada in the world's largest trade zone, was a "colonial-type pact" that will "turn our country over to the foreigners."
After Munoz Ledo spoke, ruling party Sen. Carlos Sales Gutierrez accused Munoz Ledo of making "false statements."
"The country you see and the country I see are very different, sir," Sales Gutierrez said.
NAFTA opponents here worry that opening the borders will give the United States greater control over their economy, politics and culture.
They also say Mexico will be unable to control the flood of American and Canadian investors setting up shop south of the border because they will receive the same treatment as Mexican companies under NAFTA.