"What is going on in Mexico is terrible," said Jose Maria Imaz of El Barzon, a group that claims more than one million members. El Barzon is trying to gain support for economic reform, including renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Imaz countered claims by Mexican and U.S. officials that the Mexican economy, which was sent into a tailspin following the Dec. 1994 peso devaluation, has stabilised. He noted that businesses continued to fail at a rate of 120 per day, and that the nation's industrial plant was operating only at 30 percent of capacity.

He also said that in the past year, eight million middle-class Mexicans fell into the ranks of the poor, which now total 48 million nationwide.

Imaz, whose organisation is made up primarily of small business owners and other middle-class Mexicans, blamed the continuing problems on government fiscal policies that seek to control inflation at the cost of high interest rates.

Although interest rates have fallen to about 40 percent after reaching a historic high of more than 140 percent last year, Imaz said they remain too high. "You can't pay that kind of interest rates," he said.

"We're losing our houses, our cars, our property, our companies (to loan default)," Imaz added. "We won't let them take anything away from us. That is our commitment."

The structural weaknesses of the Mexican economy, according to Imaz, were exposed by the implementation of NAFTA two years ago, which has had "very bad consequences on both sides of the border."

"It was supposed to be a win-win trade agreement, but it has been a lose-lose agreement," Imaz said, pointing out that rather than creating one million jobs in Mexico, two million jobs have been lost, while in the United States 300,000 jobs have disappeared.

Imaz acknowledged that, like many other middle-class Mexicans, he believed former President Carlos Salinas' promise that NAFTA would secure the nation's place in the global economy. "I bought this dream, but I woke up in a nightmare -- a real one," he said.

El Barzon is demanding that the government renegotiate NAFTA in order to provide protection to certain industrial and agricultural sectors that have been particularly hard hit by NAFTA, such as the auto parts industry.

"We are not simply against NAFTA," Imaz said, explaining that his group is seeking to renegotiate the trade pact in order to allow Mexican industries more time to strengthen themselves before facing international competition. "We need to protect our industrial base," he added.

Imaz, who received a "positive" response when he lobbied Congress Thursday in support of NAFTA renegotiation, lambasted President Ernesto Zedillo for refusing to consider reworking NAFTA and failing to implement other needed reforms.

"If the Mexican government doesn't get real, there is going to be social unrest," Imaz said. "Instead of going for real solutions, they are preparing themselves to repress the Mexican people." He accused the Zedillo administration of using the fight against drugs as a cover for militarising police and passing laws that curtail civil liberties, actions clearly intended to fight civil unrest.

To illustrate his claim that the Mexican government is becoming repressive, Imaz pointed to the 100 people in the State of Guerrero who died last year at the hands of government security forces. Increasingly widespread human rights abuses, Imaz said, has undermined his government's moral standing to protest recent, highly publicised abuses of Mexican immigrants in California.

The Mexican government "doesn't have the moral quality" to demand that the United States take action against those responsible, said Imaz, who is using his current tour also to draw attention to the plight of Mexican immigrants.

While he understands the U.S. desire to curb illegal immigration in order to protect jobs, Imaz said, "What is unacceptable is that they treat us like animals."

Meanwhile an IPS report Diego Cevallos from Mexico City says After six comprehensive restructurings of its foreign debt, Mexico, the most heavily indebted country in Latin America, is staking its bets on new refinancing strategies to stave off threats of financial suffocation.

The offer of bonds in international markets, and a proposal to the holders of Brady Bonds to change their documents for ones with longer-term maturities are part of the measures drawn up by the government of President Ernesto Zedillo.

With a private and public debt totalling 161.13 billion dollars, 24.7 percent higher than the 1994 level, Mexico is to pay 28.69 billion dollars to its creditors this year - an amount that represents 10 percent of the Gross Domestic Product and 36.1 percent of total exports.

The payment agreements for 1996 - which are piling up, at a time when the economy is showing signs of recovery and productive sectors' demands for financial support are getting louder - are applying pressure to depleted state coffers and forcing a refinancing, said analyst Enrique Quintana.

This week, the government "invited" those who hold 23 billion dollars of Mexican debt in Brady Bonds, with due dates in the early 21st century, to change them for Global Bonds with a 30 year maturity.

According to the government, that strategy could lead to a 1.5 billion dollar reduction of the debt.

Opposition politicians say the government lied in 1995 when it denied rumours of the necessity for a new restructuring, like the one negotiated six years ago.

It is true that debts are being restructured, responded Finance Secretary Guillermo Ortiz. But he added that the negotiations are not for a comprehensive rescheduling of the debt.

In September 1995, authorities had rejected any possibility of a refinancing. "The restructuring of Mexico's foreign debt is neither necessary nor desireable. Information on that issue is inaccurate," stated a communique issued by the Finance Ministry this month.

But to ward off trouble, authorities placed debt bonds for 3.4 billion dollars in Europe and the United States last year. And they repeated the operation for 284 million dollars in the Japanese market in March.

Moreover, the government negotiated with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) an extension of deadlines for a segment of debt that fell due this year.

According to a World Bank report released in March, Mexico has replaced Brazil as Latin America's most indebted country.