President Hipólito Mejía traveled today to San José, Costa Rica where he will meet President Miguel Angel Rodríguez of Costa Rica and President-elect Vicente Fox of Mexico. Fox is on a tour of Central America prior to assuming the presidency of Mexico. Mejía said in Santo Domingo that he will take advantage of the meeting to request preferential treatment for crude purchases made from Mexico. On his schedule is a private meeting with the President-elect. Mejía will visit the Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad and the Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos in Costa Rica. On Wednesday, he is scheduled to be in Managua to meet with President Arnaldo Alemán of Nicaragua. He is scheduled to return to Santo Domingo that evening. Mejía left on a private plan from the San Isidro Air Base. Traveling with him are Minister of Foreign Relations Hugo Tolentino Dipp; press director Luis González Fabra; protocol director Carlos Guzmán; and chief of military aides, General Carlos Díaz Morfa. The DR has pending the congressional approval of the free trade agreement signed by the past administration in 1998 with Central America. All Central American countries have passed the agreement that was practically an initiative of the Dominican Republic.
