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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | March 2005 
Relations Warm as U.S. Envoy Weds Mexico Heiress
 Alistair Bell - Reuters
| The U.S. ambassador to Mexico has married the country's richest woman in a union between a Texas Republican and the well-connected heiress to the Corona beer fortune that may help to improve strained diplomatic relations between the two countries.
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Mexico City - Ambassador Tony Garza, a friend of President Bush, and Maria Asuncion Aramburuzabala were married at a quiet service in a Catholic chapel near Mexico City on Saturday.
"They are two people very much in love, it is very noticeable," U.S. embassy spokesman Jim Dickmeyer said on Monday.
Aramburuzabala's grandfather was one of the founders of the Modelo company, which makes Corona beer. Her fortune is estimated at around $1.5 billion.
The couple announced their surprise engagement in January, delighting gossip columnists and triggering cocktail party quips about warming relations between Mexicans and Americans.
But just as he was brewing up a romance with Mexico's most eligible divorcee, Garza, 45, was upsetting his host government. In January he wrote a frank letter to Mexican leaders complaining about the level of drug-related violence in cities on the border with the United States.
An angry President Vicente Fox termed Garza's missive, and a State Department travel advisory the same week, as interference in Mexico's internal affairs.
Mexico lost half its territory to its northern neighbor in a 19th century war and is still sensitive over anything it suspects may be U.S. meddling. It is also bristling over a CIA assessment that its presidential elections next year could cause political upheaval.
But society commentators hope the nuptials will go some way to calming the waters.
Complicated Relations
"Relations between the two countries are so complicated, so delicate. I don't know if this wedding can contribute something but I really hope so," said Guadalupe Loaeza, a newspaper columnist close to Mexico's jet set.
Only a few dozen relatives and friends attended the wedding and embassy officials said a bigger party was expected later.
"They will definitely invite the president," said Loaeza. "They are the 'in' couple, the attractive couple, the couple that everyone wants to have at an elegant dinner," she said.
The bride, in her early forties, is a mother of two who holds a senior post in Modelo and has big investments in some of Mexico's main companies, like broadcaster Televisa,
Garza's grandparents were Mexican immigrants and his father owned a gas station in Brownsville, Texas.
Once thought to be a bachelor for life, Garza speaks fluent Spanish and is a keen art lover. He held a glittering exhibition last year of the paintings hanging in his residence, including works by Mexico's Rufino Tamayo and U.S. pop artist Roy Lichtenstein.
He was named ambassador to Mexico in 2002 and analysts say he has political ambitions beyond the diplomatic world, eyeing perhaps the governorship of Texas or a senior federal government post in Washington.
The newlyweds did not go on honeymoon straight away and Garza was back at his desk at the heavily-protected embassy. "He turned up for work this morning," Dickmeyer said. |
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