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MEXICO CITY - The Mexican government has issued postage stamps depicting an exaggerated black cartoon character known as Memin Pinguin, just weeks after remarks by President Vicente Fox angered U.S. blacks.
The series of five stamps released Wednesday depicts a hapless boy drawn with exaggerated features, thick lips and wide-open eyes.
His appearance, speech and mannerisms are the subject of kidding by white characters in the comic book, which started in the 1940s and is still published in Mexico.
The Mexican government defended the stamps, saying that like Speedy Gonzalez - a cartoon mouse with a Mexican accent that debuted in the United States in 1953 - the Memin Pinguin character shouldn't be interpreted as a racial slur.
''Just as Speedy Gonzalez has never been interpreted in a racial manner by the people in Mexico, because he is a cartoon character, I am certain that this commemorative postage stamp is not intended to be interpreted on a racial basis in Mexico or anywhere else,'' said Rafael Laveaga, the spokesman for the Mexican embassy in Washington.
Activists criticized the stamps as offensive, though officials denied it.
''One would hope the Mexican government would be a little more careful and avoid continually opening wounds,'' said Sergio Penalosa, an activist in Mexico's small black community on the southern Pacific coast.