Out of the Thicket

Fences may make bad neighbors, but rivers can drive them wild. When the flooding Rio Grande between El Paso and Ciudad Juarez switched course in 1864, it hefted the U.S.-Mexican border south and thereby shifted to the U.S. an arid, chop-shaped patch of land known as El Chamizal (The Thicket). The transfer exacerbated American-Mexican relations for a century.

Last week, in a cordial exchange of abrazos and acreage, Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Gustavo Diaz Ordaz redressed the Rio Grande's trespass. Crossing into bunting-festooned Ciudad Juarez, they spoke at the monument erected by Mexico to commemorate the settlement. "An old argument has ended," said L.B.J., "a lasting bond has been forged." Echoing these sentiments, Diaz Ordaz stressed: "This is not an isolated case of understanding."

Earlier, L.B.J. had exuberantly welcomed Diaz Ordaz to Washington for his first state visit there and their fifth meeting. "I want you to feel at home in my house, as I do in yours," L.B.J. beamed at his friend. This accentuated mood of friendship prevailed, although in a speech before Congress Diaz Ordaz sternly warned against protectionist trade tendencies in the U.S. But the visit's highlight was clearly the celebration of the Chamizal affair's settlement.

Under the arrangement, Mexico got 437 acres of El Chamizal and the U.S. kept 193. The pact also requires the building of a new river channel and three bridges across the Rio Grande, with Mexico sharing the costs. Meantime, Congress allocated $44.9 million for the relocation and compensation of the 5,600 residents and property owners of the area. Now that the Mexicans have El Chamizal, mostly a thicket of slums, the question is: What will they do with it? So far, they have not said.

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