MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

US raps Mexican president on “racist” remarks

The United States government Monday called on Mexican President Vicente Fox to clarify what was described as “insensitive and inappropriate” remarks about Afro-Americans.

Last Friday Mr. Fox told a group of U.S. businessmen that Mexican immigrants in the United States were doing jobs "that not even blacks want to do".

Faced with an intense negative reaction to his remarks, President Fox's press office issued a statement Saturday expressing "enormous respect for minorities, whatever their racial, ethnic or religious origin" and saying that he regretted "interpretations that labelled his statements as racist".

Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez further pointed out that Mr. Fox's remarks were "made within the context of indicating the important (role) that the Mexican community has in the development and progress of American society".

However, the controversy particularly in the U.S. media has not ceased to grow with the Reverend Jesse Jackson identifying "ominous racial overtones" in Mr. Fox's remarks.

"President Fox should not confuse the need for sound legal immigration policy between the two countries, which is important, and the border disputes between the two countries, with a spurious comparison" Mr. Jackson told CNN.

In the daily press briefing, U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said that the Bush administration has been in contact with Mexico on the issue.

"That's a very insensitive and inappropriate way to phrase it and we would hope that (the Mexicans) would clarify the remarks if they have a chance", said Mr. Boucher.

He also revealed that United States will maintain its travel alerts for Mexico as long as danger exists in the border region, insisting that it should not be interpreted as "political act" or an action against the Mexican government.

Washington recently issued a travel alert regarding violence and drug trafficking along the shared border.