Baker Institute to Host Americas Project June 13-16

Hemisphere Focus of Program

Baker Institute to Host Americas Project June 13-16

BY DANA DURBIN
Rice News Staff
May 28, 1998

Mexican political analyst and writer Jorge Castañeda, Mexican Secretary
of Treasury and Public Credit José Angel Gurría, and Porfirio
Muñoz Ledo, leader of Mexico’s Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD),
will speak to emerging Latin American leaders at the Americas Project program,
scheduled for June 13-16, at Rice University.

Sponsored by Rice’s James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, Greater
Houston Partnership and the Organization of American States, the Americas Project
is designed to bring together young Latin American leaders from both the public
and private sectors to discuss important issues in the Western Hemisphere. This
year’s program will center on the theme, "The Future of Hemispheric Relations
through the Prism of Mexico."

"The Americas Project brings emerging young leaders in the hemisphere
together to discuss and debate key public policy issues with a view toward providing
decision makers in the public and private sectors with new ideas," said
Baker Institute Director Edward Djerejian. "Last year we addressed the
issue of free trade and structural reform in the hemisphere. This year the participants
from a number of Latin American countries will be addressing hemispheric relations
with a focus on Mexico."

Houston attorney J. Michael Solar, a board member of the Greater Houston Partnership
and an organizer of the program, said "The Americas Project is truly unique.
Together we bring forth the Americas most promising young men and women to our
city to meet their peers in commerce, the arts and government. While in Houston,
our guests will explore topics of great hemispheric importance with leading
business, political and cultural leaders."

Portions of the program will be open to the news media, including the keynote
speeches by Castañeda, Gurría and Ledo.

Ledo will give a public lecture on the democratization of Mexico at 5 p.m.
on Monday, June 15 in the International Conference Facility (ICF) at Baker Hall.
His lecture will follow a panel discussion among project participants on the
movements toward and against fuller democratization in Mexico. Panels will also
meet during the program to address economic reform and income inequality.

Gurría will discuss economic liberalization at his speech at 9 a.m.
June 16 at the ICF at Baker Hall. The public lectures will conclude with Castañeda’s
discussion of poverty and inequality in Latin America at 6 p.m. on June 16 at
the ICF at Baker Hall.

The program opens at 5:30 p.m. June 14 with remarks by Djerejian and Rice President
Malcolm Gillis. A reception open to the Rice community will be held from 6-7
p.m. on June 15 at the Baker Hall commons.

For related information visit the following Web site:
James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy:
http://riceinfo.rice.edu/projects/baker/index.html