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http://www.thenewsmexico.com/noticia.asp?id=9030

Mexico won't support U.S. with troops: Foreign Secretary Combined Services - 9/21/2001

MEXICO CITY - Foreign Minister Jorge Castaņeda on Thursday categorically rejected Mexico taking part militarily in the United States' new war on terrorism.

U.S. leaders "have not asked us for military support, we have not offered them military support, we are not going to give them military support", Castaņeda told Monitor radio.

The high official reiterated sentiments made yesterday by Defense Secretary Clemente Vega Garcia who said Mexico's army is not a warrior force but an institution with the resources necessary to protect Mexico's sovereignty and guarantee national security.

Vega Garcia said though the country has reinforced its borders, heightened security at strategic sites and increased migration checks in response to recent attacks in the U.S., the military is not in a state of emergency and is operating at a normal pace.

Nonetheless, Castaņeda said Mexico will back a resolution pledging full support for the United States by the Organization of American States (OAS), but without committing troops.

Castaņeda said not to join in the support of the OAS resolution would isolate Mexico from the international community. Mexico would also run the risk of being taken off the list of "friends" of the United States, with whom Mexico has strong commercial links and overlapping issues of interest, such as tourism and the flow of undocumented workers, he said.

According to Castaņeda, a former left-leaning writer and political analyst appointed by conservative President Vicente Fox, "Military participation [by Mexico] has never been under discussion or in play."

Historically in its foreign policy, Mexico has adopted a position of non-interference in the internal affairs of any nation. That policy has led, for example, to its stalwart support of Cuba and its refusal to break off ties with the socialist island and has, at times, placed it at odds with Washington.

Castaņeda said the OAS resolution, due to be approved Friday in Washington, will be "very clear, of much support" for the United States and will call for the use of "all necessary means" to pursue and punish those responsible for last week's terror attacks in New York and Washington.

In a statement published Thursday in the local press, the Mexican government reiterated its "most energetic and unequivocal rejection of the atrocious terrorist attacks" in New York and Washington, describing them as "crimes against humanity."

-- K (infosurf@yahoo.com), September 21, 2001

Answers

God forbid a terrorist strikes their WTC

-- Steve McClendon (ke6bjd@yahoo.com), September 21, 2001.

God forbid they get set up like the Arabs.

-- Ken (n4wind@sonic.net), September 21, 2001.