Mexico's largest trading partner is the U.S., and Mexico, in turn, is the U.S.'s third largest customer, after Canada and Japan. These days the U.S.-Mexico relationship has acquired considerable drama as the U.S.'s big Latin neighbor confronts its worst economic crisis in 40 years. Against this background, 35 U.S. corporate, philanthropic and university leaders joined 15 TIME editors and company officers on a five-day Newstour of Mexico and Panama. Like the seven other such trips sponsored by TIME in the past 20 years, the tour was designed to provide our Newstour guest journalists with a reportorial view of the events and issues confronting the top officials in the countries on the itinerary. It permitted the participants to join us in our craft as they first examined and interviewed, then evaluated and reviewed what they saw and heard. The trip began in El Paso with a panel discussion on a major bilateral issue: illegal immigration along the 2,000-mile border. Then the participants flew to Mexico's northern Sonora state to visit a coalition of agricultural cooperatives. They spent that night in Monterrey, an industrial center, where they were guests at a dinner with local businessmen. The next day it was on to the steamy coast along the Bay of Campeche to tour the awesome La Cangrejera petrochemical complex at Coatzacoalcos. Says Houston Bureau Chief Sam Allis, who accompanied the Newstour: "I assumed nothing could touch the pure muscle of the refineries along the Houston Ship Channel, but the La Cangrejera complex dwarfs any single facility in Houston. And it isn't even the largest oil facility in Mexico." In Coatzacoalcos, the group met with Mario Ramon Beteta, the new director-general of Pemex, the state oil monopoly, who was crisp and candid in discussing the problems of his nation's petroleum industry.

The highlight of the stop in Mexico City was an hour long interview with Mexico's President of five months, Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado, who told the group that in trying to combat the current crisis, "we have had to combine the need for stringent, bitter and firm measures with the need to uphold our free democratic system." Excerpts from the President's remarks appear in this week's World section. In addition to meeting the President and presenting him with a glass eagle as a memento of the occasion, the group talked with the ministers of Foreign Affairs, Interior, and Finance, and the Director of Foreign Investments. The Newstour then visited a dusty slum area south of Mexico City, lunched with leaders of the P.R.I., Mexico's dominant political party, and dined at the Mexico City Museum while watching members of the famed Ballet Folklorico de Mexico perform dances from different periods of the country's history. The travelers were also provided with an impressive briefing at breakfast by U.S. Ambassador John Gavin.

To gain perspective on Central America, the tour members conferred with Mexico City Bureau Chief James Willwerth, whose responsibilities extend to the entire isthmus. They also met with representatives of Central America's rebel movements: an anti-Sandinista leader from Nicaragua, a leftist opposition spokesman from Guatemala, and a dedicated, intelligent advocate for the Salvadoran insurgents, Ruben Zamora. While in Panama, the party was briefed by Lieut. General Wallace H. Nutting, head of the U.S. Southern Command. A visit to the Canal was especially meaningful for one Newstour participant, Veteran Negotiator Sol Linowitz, who helped accomplish the return of that waterway to Panama. Later, at lunch, President Ricardo de la Espriella and Foreign Minister Jose Amado III presented Linowitz with the Order of Vasco Nunez de Balboa, Panama's highest honor, for his efforts on behalf of the 1978 treaty. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.