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Garza doesn't shy away from blunt talk
Ambassador to Mexico known for taking his own path.
By Jay Root
FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM
Saturday, April 29, 2006

BROWNSVILLE — When Tony Garza left a promising career in Texas politics to become U.S. ambassador to Mexico, military conflicts abroad and homeland security fears at home drowned out most of the debate over illegal immigrants and drug violence.

But now, border security and immigration are the hottest political buzzwords in the United States. Brazen violence plagues once-quiet border towns. And Garza, the son of a Brownsville gas station owner, finds himself right in the middle of it — as a top diplomat, husband of a Mexican beer heiress and, possibly, a future candidate for Texas governor or U.S. senator.

In a recent interview, Garza said he'd like to stay in his current job as long as President Bush wants him to stay. But he also made it clear he is coming back someday, perhaps to run for public office again.

"I'll be back in Texas. I love it. It's home," said Garza, a Republican. "I've got a wife that looks forward to living in Texas."

Ambassador to Mexico is not on the traditional route to high state office in Texas, but Garza hasn't always taken the conventional road. As a young graduate of Southern Methodist University's law school, Garza shook up South Texas politics when he became the first Republican elected county judge in heavily Democratic Cameron County in 1988. And after becoming the first Hispanic Republican elected statewide in 1998, Garza took the controversial step of calling for tougher protections against oil spills while on the Texas Railroad Commission, a panel known for cozy ties to the oil and gas industry it oversees.

Garza hasn't been a shy ambassador to Mexico, either. His sometimes blunt talk about raging drug cartel violence and illegal immigration have not always endeared him to the Mexican government. In January, federal ministers went on national television to angrily denounce a U.S. State Department alert and a Garza letter warning about rampant violence and kidnapping in border cities, where warring cartels have carried out spectacular ambush-style attacks, often in broad daylight.

Garza also publicly chided Mexican political leaders for their heated rhetoric on border security proposals in the U.S. Congress, including the addition of more physical barriers. He decries comparisons of the barriers to the Berlin Wall.

"Comparisons of proposals to alter our border policies to the Berlin Wall are not only disingenuous and intellectually dishonest; they are personally offensive to mem" he said, because that wall was intended to keep people inside.

"There is no human right to enter another country in violation of its laws," Garza said. "Perhaps a greater effort by other governments to discourage their citizens from crossings would help."

Several weeks later, in an interview, Garza said he knew "criticism was going to rain down" on him in Mexico City for some of his comments. But he said protecting American citizens is his primary focus, and he noted that people who live along the border, on both sides, were "very appreciative of the fact that somebody was focusing on the reality of their communities."

It's a reality, a changing one, that Garza has seen firsthand.

When he was growing up in Brownsville, the border was more state of mind than physical barrier. Children crossed the bridge to play sports and get their hair cut, and immigrants could often be seen swimming the Rio Grande to and from work. Today, the river is a modern cesspool, fences and bright lights mark the divide, and human smuggling has morphed into a multimillion-dollar industry.

"Heck, I remember riding my bike to pickup games in Matamoros and thinking nothing of it," Garza said. "It's still a great place and home to me, but the pace is faster, more aggressive. You won't see bikes on the bridge or folks you know walking around the plaza after a meal. People are more careful, and should be."

A fluent Spanish speaker, Garza deepened his ties to Mexico last year when he married Maria Asuncion Aramburuzabala, vice chairwoman of Grupo Modelo, maker of Corona beer. She was recently named one of the 100 most powerful women in the world by Forbes magazine.

The ambassador offered no timetable for his return to Texas, or any indication of which office he might seek. His name has been thrown around in Austin as a possibility for the 2010 governor's race, or perhaps U.S. senator if a vacancy opens up. But Garza did say that he won't leave the Republican Party to run as an independent, the strategy Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn adopted in her bid against Gov. Rick Perry this year.

Jon Taylor, a political scientist at St. Thomas University in Houston, said Garza could be a strong statewide candidate as Hispanics, who tend to favor Democrats, continue to see their clout grow.

"''He could be the guy that . . . saves the Republican governorship in 2010." But he said Garza, named ambassador to Mexico in 2002, would first have to substantially increase his visibility and name recognition in Texas.

Garza, who will deliver the commencement speech next month at his alma mater, the University of Texas, said he's not focused on state politics right now. But he said the perspective he's gained south of the border could help on this side someday.

"The insights from where I have been able to sit for the last couple of years have been very helpful and I hope beneficial to me, and perhaps someday to the state," Garza said. "But that's a long way off."


Tony Garza

Born: July 7, 1959

Hometown: Brownsville

Education: Bachelor of arts, University of Texas, 1980; Southern Methodist University School of Law, 1983

Politics: First Republican elected county judge in Cameron County, 1988; appointed Texas secretary of state by Gov. George W. Bush, 1995; first Republican Hispanic elected statewide, as Texas railroad commissioner, 1998; appointed ambassador to Mexico, 2002

Family: Married to Mexican beer heiress Maria Asuncion Aramburuzabala