Andres Oppenheimer. Published Thursday, April 12, 2001 in
the Miami Herald
MEXICO CITY -- What irony. Amid a national debate over how Mexico should
vote at the United Nations on Cuba's human rights violations next week, many
leftist intellectuals are supporting a condemnation of the Castro government,
while many conservative business magnates and legislators are lobbying against
any criticism of the island's regime.
The April 18 U.N. vote on Cuba is a big issue here because Mexico has
traditionally been Cuba's closest ally in the hemisphere. Until recently, it
opposed any criticism of the island's human rights record in the name of
non-interference in other countries' internal affairs.
But this was largely an excuse by Mexico's authoritarian regimes to avoid
setting a precedent that would allow other countries to look into Mexico's own
human rights record.
Since Fox took office four months ago and promised a new emphasis on human
rights, and his foreign minister, Jorge G. Castañeda, made a superb
speech at the United Nations March 20 stressing that "one cannot cite
[national] sovereignty to justify violation of rights,'' Mexican media have
speculated that Mexico may issue its first vote against Cuba this year.
The debate grew in intensity on Wednesday as a group of more than 90 writers
and human rights organizations -- including some leftist groups that are best
known for defending Mexico's Zapatista rebels -- issued a three-paragraph public
letter urging President Vicente Fox to be tough on Cuba at the April 18 U.N.
vote in Geneva.
Stopping short of asking Fox to vote for a condemnation of Cuba's human
rights abuses, the letter asks that Mexico's delegation at the meeting take a
stand "that is consistent with the seriousness of the systematic violations
to individual freedoms that the Cuban people are suffering and, at the same
time, reject the U.S. economic embargo.''
While blaming both sides, the letter marks a sharp departure from many
leftists' previous position that they could not criticize Cuba as long as the
United States maintained its four-decade trade embargo on the island.
Among the signatories of the letter are Enrique Krauze, Angeles Mastretta
and Laura Esquivel, as well as well-known leftist writer Carlos Monsivaís.
Novelist Carlos Fuentes could not be reached in time for the signing of the
letter, but has recently made a statement calling for democracy in Cuba, the
drafters of the letter told me.
Most interesting, however, is the support of the National Network of Civil
Human Rights Organizations, better known as La Red (The Network), Mexico's
biggest human rights umbrella group. It includes some 70 human rights groups,
including organizations from the states of Oaxaca and Chiapas that have made
their mark defending leftist Zapatista rebel prisoners.
Meantime, Mexican newspapers reported Wednesday that the Congress approved a
resolution calling on the Fox government not to vote for any condemnation of
Cuba at the Geneva meeting. The lower house voted unanimously, while the Senate
passed the resolution by majority.
One of the leaders of the pro-Castro resolution was Sen. Javier Corral, of
Fox's Conservative National Action Party (PAN), and the votes of 14 of the PAN'S
46 legislators helped the resolution pass.
"These people are linked to business circles of the PAN,'' says
Edelmiro Castellanos, a Cuban exile human rights activist who drafted the letter
condemning Cuba's human rights abuses.
"They either have business interests in Cuba, or have investment
projects on the island.''
The Mexican government hasn't said what it's going to do next week, but my
own guess is that Mexico will most likely abstain, while making a strong speech
criticizing the absence of civil and political rights in Cuba.
Copyright 2001 Miami Herald | 