http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N18337843.htm

U.S. envoy, high-society pal of Bush, riles Mexico
18 Aug 2005 20:17:09 GMT

Source: Reuters

By Alistair Bell

MEXICO CITY, Aug 18 (Reuters) - He married Mexico's richest woman, is an old pal of U.S. President George W. Bush and now Washington's envoy south of the Rio Grande is stirring up controversy in a dispute over crime and immigration on the U.S.-Mexican border.

U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza upset Mexico this week by boasting he had shut a consular office in a border city to "punish" the country for failing to halt a drug war there.

It was the latest in a series of run-ins with Mexico's government that have earned Garza a reputation as a bully who, despite his Hispanic roots, largely disregards Mexican sensibilities about its powerful northern neighbor.

A senior Mexican Foreign Ministry official rebuked Garza's comments as "frankly, unfortunate," but the State Department in Washington defended him on Thursday.

"Secretary (Condoleezza) Rice thinks that Ambassador Garza is a fine ambassador and the right person for the job," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told a briefing.

He said Garza acknowledged he could have used different phrasing in his speech.

Garza, a Texas Republican, has sent several strongly worded warnings to Mexico this year about killings and kidnappings in a drug feud between gangs in northern Mexico.

Several dozen Americans have been abducted in and around the Mexican city of Nuevo Laredo as two rival gangs battle it out for the control of drug routes.

Many Mexicans agree with Garza that the violence should stop, but bristle at what they see as U.S. interference.

"In Mexico, the way you say things is very important. I think that is what the ambassador lacks," social commentator Guadalupe Loaeza said. "He lacks charisma. He is very like Bush in his style."

DELIBERATE SNUB

Garza said in a speech in Denver on Tuesday that his decision to close the U.S. consulate in Nuevo Laredo for a week was punishment for Mexico's failure to halt the drug war.

"Some have said that I ordered the shutdown to punish the Mexican government for its failure to control violence in the region. And in a sense that's true," he said.

The comment was seen as a deliberate effort to rile Mexico, which still smarts from the loss of half its territory to the United States in a 19th century war.

Embassy aides sent advance copies of Garza's speech to the media and pointed out that the punishment phrase was likely to raise eyebrows.

Garza, in his mid-forties, was a campaign advisor in Bush's 1994 gubernatorial race and Texas railroad commissioner.

Despite the diplomatic friction, Garza charmed Mexico's high society in April with a lavish wedding to the country's wealthiest woman, beer heiress Mariasun Aramburuzabala who is worth about $1.5 billion.

U.S. first lady Laura Bush and Mexican magnate Carlos Slim, one of the world's richest man, were among the guests at a lakeside resort.

The glittering nuptials did little to paper over serious disagreements between the two countries.

Mexico is frustrated that Congress has dragged its feet on immigration reform sought by Bush that would mainly benefit millions of Mexican workers in the United States.

Crime and violence on the Mexican side of the border has become worse in spite of repeated warnings by Washington.

A lot has changed since Bush won elections in 2000 and chose Mexico as his first foreign trip after taking office, hailing President Vicente Fox as his "amigo."

Mexico, and much of the rest of Latin America, complains that Washington has ignored it since Sept. 11, 2001, to concentrate on the Middle East.

"The dialogue that augured so well five years ago has become weaker, and today the relationship is tense," said Jesus Silva Herzog, a former Mexican ambassador to the United States.