Media Contacts: Dolores Davies, (619) 534-5994, or Anne Middleton, (619) 534-2777

Supporting Photos:
Clinton and Zedillo
Clinton and Zedillo
Zedillo with California Flag

University of California, San Diego experts on U.S.-Mexico relations, Mexican politics, drug policy, and border-related economic and environmental issues, are available to provide commentary to the news media on Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo's three-day visit to California.

President Zedillo is scheduled to arrive today in Sacramento, where he is expected to deliver an address to the State Legislature (a first by a Mexican president). Subsequently, he will visit San Jose, San Francisco, Oxnard, Los Angeles, and San Diego.

UCSD experts who are available to put the president's visit into proper context include:

Richard Feinberg, professor of economics at UCSD's Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies (IR/PS) and Special Advisor to the Chancellor for Pacific Rim Affairs. Feinberg is an authority on U.S. foreign policy, especially trade and investment, economic modernization, democratization, and non-governmental organizations in Latin America. Feinberg, who helped plan two visits of Zedillo to the White House, served as senior director of the National Security Council's Office of Inter-American Affairs in the Clinton Administration and has been credited as the principal architect of the 1994 Summit of the Americas in Miami. He is the author of Summitry in the Americas: A Progress Report, and is co-director of the Leadership Council on Inter-American Summitry. Feinberg can be reached at (619) 534-7627.

Kevin Middlebrook, director of UCSD's Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, the premier academic center for the study of U.S.-Mexican relations and related issues in the United States. Current research at the Center includes projects on immigrants to the United States and immigration policy, economic and tourism development at the U.S.-Mexico border, voting behavior and public opinion in Mexico, and environmental regulations and protection along the border. Middlebrook's current research includes projects on democratization in Latin America, labor rights and free trade, and institutional aspects of North American economic integration. He can provide commentary on a wide range of issues related to U.S.-Mexican relations and Mexican politics. Middlebrook can be reached at (619) 534-4503.

Charles Nathanson, executive director of UCSD's San Diego Dialogue, the leading policy and research forum on the San Diego/Baja California region. Under Nathanson's direction, the Dialogue has sought to address regional policy issues by bringing together a variety of important academic, civic, business, and governmental constituencies in the San Diego and Tijuana communities. Nathanson can provide commentary on border development and regional integration at the California-Mexico border, and cross border planning issues including trade infrastructure, workforce development, technology transfer, etc. Nathanson can be reached at (619) 534-8638.

Peter Smith, director of UCSD's Center for Iberian and Latin American Studies and a professor of political science is one of the nation's foremost authorities on U.S.-Latin American relations. Smith, a prominent commentator and adviser on Latin American politics, U.S.-Mexican relations, and the politics of drug trafficking in the western hemisphere, is the author of Talons of the Eagle (1996, Oxford University Press), which traces the history of contemporary policy challenges in the U.S.-Latin American relationship. Smith is also the co-author of a five-volume series on Dimensions of U.S.-Mexican Relations. Smith can be reached at (619) 534-6043.

Attorney Mark Spalding is a guest lecturer at IR/PS, where he teaches courses in international environmental policy and law and serves as executive editor of the Journal of Environment & Development. A guest scholar at UCSD's Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, Spalding was as active participant in the negotiations and drafting of the environmental side agreements to NAFTA. Recently, Spalding was appointed to the Good Neighbor Environmental Board, which involves his reviewing federal government environmental activities along the U.S.-Mexican border. He can provide commentary on environmental issues of binational concern. Spalding can be contacted at (619) 259-7879.