Acceptance of Negroponte Provokes Opposition Outrage : Mexico Furor Erupts Over U.S. Envoy

The Mexican government’s decision to accept John D. Negroponte as the next U.S. ambassador here has provoked a flood of outrage from intellectuals and leaders of the political opposition who view the envoy as a nefarious “proconsul.”

Ever since Negroponte’s name surfaced last week, Mexican political analysts have searched furiously for a hidden message in the Bush Administration’s appointment. As ambassador to Honduras from 1981 through 1985, Negroponte promoted the then-secret Contra war against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua, a war opposed by Mexico.

Still, the government of President Carlos Salinas de Gortari notified Washington on Monday that it has accepted the nomination. In the letter, the government said it hopes Negroponte will contribute to bilateral relations with “equality and strict respect for the sovereignty of both countries.”

Foreign Ministry sources say it was decided not to cause a confrontation with the new U.S. Administration over the issue. Negroponte now faces confirmation hearings in the Senate.

“In accepting John D. Negroponte as ambassador to Mexico, the government has diminished itself by permitting that it be compared with Honduras, where he acted as proconsul,” fumed columnist Miguel Angel Granados Chapa in the newspaper La Jornada.

“The Mexican government . . . knows very well what he is about. We all know. What we don’t know is . . . what dark reason, what golden promise prompted a government still weakened by public discredit to accept such an indecorous appointment,” he wrote.

‘Combat Official’

Under the headline “Combat Official,” Excelsior newspaper columnist Adolfo Aguilar Zinser added: “Independent of what his mission in Mexico might be and how he fulfills it, Negroponte symbolizes all that Mexico has always considered injurious to cooperation and good relations with the United States.”

Negroponte, 49, a veteran diplomat with 28 years in the Foreign Service, served as an aide to Henry A. Kissinger, then national security adviser to President Richard M. Nixon during the Vietnam War and, most recently, as deputy to former President Ronald Reagan’s national security adviser, Lt. Gen. Colin L. Powell.

In Washington, Negroponte is viewed as a “pro”--not a proconsul, which Webster’s New World Dictionary defines in one sense as a military and governing official in a colony or occupied territory. U.S. officials say he was named to the key Latin America post because of his experience and because he sought the job, which is considered to be a Foreign Service plum. They say the message that Mexico should take from the appointment is that the new Administration is making a priority of the bilateral relationship.

“He is fairly close to President Bush. Bush and (U.S. Secretary of State James A.) Baker have emphasized the importance of Mexico to the United States. Negroponte knows how the game is played in Washington and will be picking up the phone to get things done,” said one U.S. official.

“I have confidence he will acquit himself very well when he arrives,” added the official, who declined to be identified.

The fact is, Negroponte will have to “acquit” himself against widespread opposition. The message that many nationalistic Mexicans read into his appointment is that the U.S. Administration views Mexico as a crisis and is sending someone to manage it.

President Salinas was elected last July with the lowest show of support ever for a member of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party. The opposition charges that his party stole the election and has portrayed him as an illegitimate ruler. The Salinas government also is about to begin sensitive negotiations with Washington over its estimated $102-billion foreign debt.

“The message of Negroponte’s appointment is a call to submission,” said author and political commentator Carlos Monsivais. “Although the Mexican government accepted the appointment, I can only hope it resists this call.”

All new U.S. ambassadors receive a ritual bashing in the press before their arrival, but Negroponte’s has been unusually extreme. U.S. officials believe the uproar was provoked, in part, by a violation of diplomatic protocol: Negroponte’s appointment was leaked to the press before a formal request was made to the Mexican government. Mexican observers and officials said it would have been “inappropriate” for their government to reject the request.

‘Not Necessarily Bad

But one Foreign Ministry official said there had been hope that U.S. officials would withdraw the request once they realized the extent of the controversy.

However, an editorial in the government newspaper El Nacional said that the appointment was “not necessarily bad.”

“Negroponte was a faithful executioner of the instructions of a government blinded by apocalyptic, ideological visions,” it said. “He may now be one of an Administration that cleans up the broken dishes left by his predecessors.”