After anti-US remarks, Mexico removes UN ambassador

MEXICO CITY -- Mexico's ambassador to the United Nations, Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, has been fired following remarks he made accusing the United States of treating its southern neighbor like a "weekend fling" and its inferior "backyard."

Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez announced Monday night that he was "separating" Aguilar Zinser from his post as of Jan. 1, when Mexico finishes a two-year stint as a nonpermanent member of the UN Security Council.

The move came as little surprise. Last Wednesday, a day before Derbez held bilateral talks with US Secretary of State Colin Powell in Washington, Aguilar Zinser told an auditorium full of university students here that Washington would never think of Mexico as its partner.

"The relationship between Mexico and the United States doesn't go beyond a weekend fling, since that country is not interested in establishing a relationship of equals," Aguilar Zinser said in his remarks at the Iberoamerican University.

The remarks, while conveying a sentiment shared by many Mexicans, embarrassed President Vicente Fox, who has staked much of his presidency on forging closer ties with the United States. In an interview with CNN, Fox called Aguilar Zinser's comments "a false declaration . . . that does not correspond with reality."

Powell, meanwhile, denied that Washington treats Mexico with disdain.

"Mexico is a partner of the United States, a neighbor of the United States, and a great friend of the United States," he told reporters during a joint news conference with Derbez on Thursday. "Never, never would we treat Mexico as if it were the backyard, a second-class nation."

Aguilar Zinser has not commented publicly on his dismissal, except to tell reporters gathered outside the Foreign Affairs Ministry Monday night that he felt "very content." There was no news yesterday as to who would succeed him in the UN post.

Aguilar Zinser, a staunch critic of the United States, is unlikely to be missed in Washington. He was a vocal opponent of the North American Free Trade Agreement when it was adopted a decade ago. In March and April, during intense diplomatic negotiations over Iraq, he was Mexico's representative who voted against the US-led war and reportedly favored going further to forge a common anti-US front with France and Germany.

"He was not well received in Washington. Frankly, he was perceived as a pain in the tush," said George W. Grayson, a professor of US-Mexico relations at the College of William and Mary in Virginia. He and other analysts said that Bush administration officials had reportedly been urging Fox for months to replace the outspoken ambassador with someone less combative.

Aguilar Zinser's departure comes almost a year after his friend, Jorge Castaneda, resigned his post as foreign secretary in frustration over stalled talks on US immigration reform.

Both respected intellectuals known for their prickly characters, Castaneda and Aguilar Zinser were key to Fox's success in ousting the long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party in the July 2000 presidential elections. Fox rewarded them with key positions in his administration, but few expected them to last throughout the six-year term.

"Among Fox's inner circle, none of them really thought that Castaneda or Aguilar Zinser were the president's men," said Armand Peschard-Sverdrup, director of the Mexico Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

Peschard-Sverdrup described the two career academics as "intellectual street fighters," whom he said "brought a certain edge to the Fox campaign at a time when things were getting tough and hot." But he added that Aguilar Zinser, in particular, had since become a political liability for Fox.

Given his background in politics and international relations, it seems unlikely that Aguilar Zinser was unaware of how his comments would be received. Analysts said he probably had already planned to resign as ambassador after Mexico's Security Council term ends in January.

Aguilar Zinser's comments struck a chord with many here in Mexico, which has long had a love-hate relationship with the United States. While many Mexicans hope to work north of the border, they resent the often harsh treatment of migrants -- more than 1,000 of whom have died trying to cross into the United States since Fox took office in 2000.