Perry in Mexico defends execution -- Says death of Suarez not racist

In Mexico City, under tough questioning from reporters, Gov. Rick Perry insisted Friday that "Texas is not a racist state" and defended last week's execution of a Mexican citizen.

 "He received the justice that in the sovereign state of Texas is meted out for killing a police officer," Perry said of Javier Suarez Medina, 33, convicted in 1989 of shooting to death a Dallas undercover narcotics agent. "And that is death."

 Many people in Mexico see Suarez's execution as one more example of the racism against Mexicans that they consider to be the norm north of the border.

 But Perry said that Suarez was executed only after his legal right to appeals was exhausted. And he insisted that Mexican citizens accused of breaking laws in Texas are afforded the same rights as U.S. citizens.

 President Vicente Fox of Mexico last week canceled a planned 3-day visit to Texas in protest of Suarez's execution. Fox told the Houston Chronicle and other Texas news media on Wednesday that he scrapped the Aug. 26-29 visit in order to emphasize his demands that Texas and other states respect Mexican citizens' "human rights."

5 Mexicans have been executed in the United States in the past decade, including 4 in Texas. Scores of Mexicans sit on U.S. death rows, including 17 in Texas.

 Since Perry took office in January 2001 to finish the term of President Bush, 39 prisoners have been executed in Texas, including 22 since the beginning of this year, according to an Associated Press tally.

 "We have chosen as a people to have the death penalty for individuals who commit heinous crimes against our citizens," Perry said. "That is the law in the state of Texas. It has been the law in the state of Texas since 1972."

 Referring to the uproar here over Suarez's execution, Perry said that one way to avoid "that problem is to not come to Texas and kill a police officer."

 Perry said he didn't expect the execution to hurt his Latino support in November's election.

 "I think most Hispanic citizens in Texas supported the decision," Perry said. His Democratic opponent, Laredo businessman Tony Sanchez, said last week that he agreed with the decision to go ahead with Suarez's execution.

 Suarez was born in northern Mexico and moved with his family to Texas when he was 3. Mexican officials base their complaint on the fact that Suarez was unable to contact a Mexican consulate at the time of his arrest. Texas officials argue that Suarez's citizenship was unclear because he had spent most of his life in the United States.

 Perry arrived in Mexico City Friday morning to support a large San Antonio delegation's pitch for that city to host the Pan American Games in 2007. Texas officials estimate the games, a sort of hemispheric equivalent of the Olympics, could bring some $435 million in revenues for San Antonio. Representatives of the 42nation Pan American Sports Organization will decide later today whether San Antonio or Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, will host the games.

 Perry said his aides had requested a meeting with Fox while he was in Mexico City but that it had not been possible. The governor said he did not think Fox was rebuffing him over the death penalty issue.

 "He's the president of a country; he's got a busy schedule," Perry said.

 In early June, Fox canceled another trip to Texas during a dispute over billions of gallons of water from the Rio Grande Basin that Mexico owes under terms of a 1944 treaty dividing hydraulic resources along the border.

 Mexican officials and the public had been angered by Texas' insistence that the water debt be paid. An agreement for partial repayment was reached later in June.

 Perry said Friday that the recent disputes would not have any lasting effects on relations.

 "Mexico and Texas are always going to be neighbors, and we're always going to have issues that unite us. And that's where I try to focus, on the uniting issues," Perry said.