BY JANE BUSSEY

 In recent trips to the United States, President Vicente Fox of Mexico has portrayed the neighboring countries as one integrated economic family unit. But as Washington seeks its allies' support against the forces of terrorism, Mexicans are sounding like distant cousins.

 Despite the ties between the two nations -- nearly eight years of the North American Free Trade Agreement, the presence of 20 million people of Mexican descent in the United States and any other cultural links -- the terrorist attacks have brought out a side of Mexican nationalism and anti-Americanism that pundits had pronounced buried.

 An opinion poll published in the daily Reforma showed that 62 percent of Mexicans said the country should remain neutral in the U.S. war on terrorism, 16 percent called for opposing it, and only 17 percent voiced support.

 "We are partners of the Americans, but in no way are we their lackeys,'' declared Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes.

 In the early hours after the Sept. 11 attacks, Foreign Minister Jorge Castañeda came out strongly backing the Bush administration's war against terrorism. Since then, lawmakers from the left-of-center Party of the Democratic Revolution and the recently unseated Institutional Revolutionary Party have spent more time accusing
 Castañeda of giving Washington a blank check than condemning Osama bin Laden, the Saudi multimillionaire accused of masterminding the attacks.

 When author Guadalupe Loaeza called a sympathy rally at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City a week after the attack, only 10 supporters showed up.

 In San Cristóbal de las Casas, Catholic Bishop Felipe Arizmendi told parishioners the United States ``has generated violence to protect its interests and now it is reaping what it sowed.''

 This is not just the view of the political elite. While many Mexicans have been saddened and shocked by the attacks, several Mexico City residents said friends or
 acquaintances had commented that the United States got what it deserved.

 "I was at a tea party, and one woman, who goes shopping in the United States several times a year, said that the attack was deserved and the United States had done damage in Latin America and everywhere,'' Mexico City resident Josefina Rivera said.

 It's the sort of reaction that could undermine Fox's plan to have Washington agree to a guest-worker treaty and begin development aid.

 Mexicans' love-hate relationship with the United States is nurtured in public schools, where Mexican textbooks still highlight the loss of over half of Mexico's territory to the United States and U.S. invasions.

 Missing from the controversy has been a strong stance from Fox. After he canceled Sept. 16 Independence Day celebrations in Mexican consulates across the United States, Fox made little comment until criticism mounted.

 Several prominent Mexicans called on him to step into the fray and express solidarity with the United States and sympathy for the thousands of victims, who included at least 15 Mexicans.

 "Historic offenses do not justify abandoning moral solidarity,'' historian Enrique Krauze said in a letter to Reforma. ``For this reason and because of the nature of the
 bilateral agenda, I think that President Fox should make a clear gesture of sympathy to the American people.''

 Similarly, Mexican poet Homero Aridjis says of Fox: ``He hasn't called for a minute of silence. He hasn't laid a wreath.''

 Aridjis, who is president of the writers' association PEN International, adds, ``We are not talking about military aid, that is another thing. This is about an act of solidarity by the Mexican people for the American victims.''

 Under growing pressure, Fox began to speak. On Wednesday, he repeated to reporters his unconditional support for the United States -- while calling on Washington to respect human rights. Thursday he made new comments: ``We are living an unusual moment in which international peace is threatened by terrorism and by governments that shelter terrorists.''

 But this was still a world apart from the outpouring of national support by European leaders immediately after the Sept. 11 attack, the thousands of people who lay flowers at U.S. embassies around the world, and the journey by world leaders to Washington to offer personal support to Bush.

 The Bush administration, concentrating on drumming up Mideast support, has no public complaint about Mexico. ``We haven't started breaking down Latin American reactions,'' said a State Department official in Washington.

 ``We noted Mexico was supportive in the Organization of American States resolution last week.''

 Andrés Rozental, a former deputy foreign minister in Mexico who serves as a policy advisor to Fox, said the president remained in close contact with Bush and the
 countries were cooperating on intelligence sharing and border security.

                                    © 2001