New Hand Across the Border

When President Johnson meets Mexico's President Adolfo Lopez Mateos in Palm Springs this week, he will have a chance to introduce the new U.S. ambassador who is about to move to Mexico City. He is Fulton Freeman, 48, currently U.S. envoy to Colombia and rated one of the most energetic and effective U.S. diplomats on the job in Latin America.

Taking over in Bogota in 1961 on his first ambassadorial assignment, Freeman traveled 25,000 miles around the country talking to people who had never seen an American before. Such freewheeling diplomacy raised eyebrows, but Freeman won general respect for his sincere--and at times crisp--approach to U.S.-Colombian relations. In 1962, when some government officials accused U.S. corporations of taking more out of the country than they put in, Freeman quietly made his own survey and disclosed the real facts--which showed that U.S. companies reinvested most of their profits. This squelched the critics.

In Mexico City, Freeman has a tough act to follow. Under able former Ambassador Thomas C. Mann, who recently moved up to Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs (TIME cover, Jan. 31), Mexican-U.S. relations reached a rare high point. The nagging, century-old Chamizal border dispute on the Rio Grande at El Paso, Texas, was amicably settled last year, and the Kennedy visit in 1962 brought vivas and warm abrazos all around. But the U.S. would still like to see a firmer stand by Mexico against Castro's Cuba.

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