MUTED REACTION FROM MEXICO ON GARZA

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Mexico took a hands-off attitude toward Tuesday's
execution of Juan Raul Garza, an American citizen of Mexican ancestry
who prosecutors say ordered four murders in Mexico.

Garza was caught in Mexico and deported to the United States in 1992.
That is a sensitive point, since Mexico opposes the death penalty, and
refuses to extradite suspects who might face execution.

But Mexican officials said Garza was a different case.

``This (deportation) could not have violated any treaty, since he is
an American citizen,'' Foreign Secretary Jorge Castaneda said prior to
the execution.

Garza, 44, was convicted of murdering a man by shooting him five times
in the head and neck and ordering the deaths of two other men. It was
all part of Garza's marijuana smuggling operation, which federal
prosecutors say he ran ruthlessly.

Death penalty opponents and some former Justice Department officials
wondered whether Garza would have been sentenced to death if he were
white or had committed his crimes elsewhere.

Local radio stations like Mexico City's Formato 21 stressed Garza'a
ethnic background in reporting the execution, noting ``the United
States has executed a Hispanic.''

But Mexicans are much more concerned about the pending execution of
one of their own: Mexican citizen Gerardo Valdez, whose execution was
postponed until July 16 after Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating issued a
30-day stay Saturday to consider recommendations for clemency.

``Imagine it,'' said Rosa Tapias, a 38-year-old supermarket cashier.
``Mexico has no death penalty and the United States is not this man's
country. Still, he can die there.''

Keating issued the stay after speaking by telephone to Mexican
President Vicente Fox, who made a personal plea that Valdez's death
sentence be commuted to life without the possibility of parole.

The Mexican government argues that Valdez was not notified of his
right to contact the Mexican consulate after his arrest, in violation
of international law. Such issues were not at stake in the Garza execution.