What was Vicente Fox thinking?

That was the question rippling across Mexico and the United States on Thursday after the Mexican president snubbed Texas for the second time this summer, in this case to protest the execution of a Mexican citizen for the murder of a Dallas Police officer.

Fox was scorned by some for taking too rash an action and jeopardizing talks with the United States on delicate issues. And relatives of the murdered detective himself an American of Mexican descent took the Mexican president to task for expressing little sympathy for the victim of Javier Suarez Medina in the 1988 shooting.

At the same time, however, Fox’s move drew praise from many Mexicans, who generally oppose the death penalty.

“This was a miscalculation on many levels, but mostly because Fox jumped into an issue that’s strong in Texas, even among law-and-order Latinos, and where he was not going to win,” said Ana Maria Salazar, international relations analyst at Mexico City’s Autonomous Technical Institute. “He should have realized that now, in the middle of a campaign, in a state with a strong death penalty, was not the best time to be asking a governor to do his bidding.”

Aides to President Bush tried to downplay the snub, even though it meant scrubbing a planned meeting at the American president’s Crawford ranch.

“President Bush and President Fox share a strong professional relationship as well as a friendship that represent the deep bonds of our two countries,” said White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan, traveling with Bush in the Midwest. “And the president very much looks forward to his next meeting with President Fox.”

The two presidents are next scheduled to meet Oct. 26-27 at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Mexico. One Mexican official said the Fox administration was tentatively looking at rescheduling the Texas visit for November.