THE AMERICAS: Bienvenido

The trim Fokker Friendship turboprop that touched down at Washington's National Airport last week was not as big as Nikita Khrushchev's big TU-114, but the welcome accorded its distinguished passenger was every bit as impressive—and considerably more cordial. As Mexico's President Adolfo López Mateos stepped out, a thundering 21-gun salute split the air; the U.S. Army Band rolled through Mexico's national anthem; a 231-man honor guard snapped to attention. On the red carpet stood Dwight Eisenhower, all smiles. "Bienvenido," said Ike, giving his guest a warm Latin-style embrace.

In response, the chief of a nation that the U.S. considers a fully equal Northern Hemisphere partner walked to a bank of microphones and put relations along the Rio Grande in a nutshell. Said López Mateos: "No problem exists or can exist between our governments capable of weakening or jeopardizing this friendship."

The statement took in much ground, but it was so. Compared to the days when Brigadier General John J. Pershing chased Pancho Villa across northern Mexico, today's problems are nothing. The Mexicans worry about the effect of cut-rate U.S. cotton surplus sales on its worldwide markets; some U.S. mining outfits fret over Mexican taxes; the sewers of Tijuana hamper ocean bathing near San Diego. And so it goes, trailing into insignificance.

Mexico's President came mostly to repay friendly visits by Ike, brother Milton, and Texas Senator Lyndon B. Johnson, and the U.S. made sure that he would hit all the high spots. On the agenda: a White House state dinner, a day with Ike at Camp David in Maryland's Catoctin Mountains, a helicopter's-eye look at Gettysburg, an Ike-guided visit to the Eisenhower farm, dinner with Ike at the White House correspondents' dinner celebrating Eisenhower's 69th birthday. From Washington, López Mateos planned to go to Chicago, New York, the Canadian capital of Ottawa and then to Lyndon Johnson's Texas ranch on his way home.

From beginning to end, the theme of the trip is the same as the name of his airplane. It is also the word emblazoned across the press kits López Mateos' government passed out to waiting U.S. newsmen : Amistad—Friendship.