Posted on 04/07/2002 9:24:56 AM PDT by Luis Gonzalez
Not a chance.
Here's the truth, if you can handle it:
"When Fox was governor of the central Mexican state of Guanajuato, he visited Cuba and praised the communist government's advances in health and other social services, Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque noted. Fox met with Castro during that February 1999 visit. "
--- Associated Press, November 27, 2000
"Despite overwhelming evidence of chronic human-rights abuses in totalitarian Cuba, Mexico's old government pointed to its tradition of nonintervention to justify support of the repressive regime. That's what the Mexican lawmakers are now parroting -- even as many urge President Fox to press the United States to end the embargo of Cuba. Yet Cuba's regime makes no bones about intervening in domestic Mexican affairs. After picking up the tab for feeding and lodging the lawmakers -- more than 20 percent of the entire Mexican Congress -- Castro lobbied them on foreign affairs. Had they spoken to Vladimiro Roca, Oscar Elías Biscet or any other Cuban political prisoner or dissident, legislators would have heard a different story. It's bad enough for visiting lawmakers -- and not just the Mexicans -- to enjoy food and venues prohibited for ordinary Cubans. But to ignore the universal lack of freedoms and human rights and Cuba's persecuted opposition is unconscionable."
--Miami Herald, January 25, 2002
"The leftist government of Chile, that in 1990 ended the 17 year dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, received Mexican President Vicente Fox Quesada. In the historic Currency Palce, President Ricardo Lakes welcomed Fox...In conference, Vicente Fox spoke of creating a great Latin American Front in politicial and commercial ventures. On the matter he said: "We are going to ensure that the 21st century is the century of Latin America, we work together the different countries ". Also, he refuted an attack on Fidel Castro, when earlier this weekend declared that Mexico would be a help to the United States' campaign against him. Fox clarified: " For us, that does not have any substance that corresponds to the reality of today's U.S.-Mexico relationship". On the contrary, Fox said Mexico rejected any type of external interference during its government."
--Todito.com
"Fox, Mexico's first non-PRI president in 71 years, has declared his admiration for Cuba's achievements in health and education, and says he will not press Havana to carry out political changes, but will always be ready to support the changes it decides to adopt. Zedillo, on the other hand, never invited Castro to visit Mexico, and as president only travelled to Cuba to attend the Ibero-American summit in late 1999, when he delivered a speech replete with veiled criticisms of the Castro administration. Furthermore, his foreign secretary Rosario Green met on that occasion with internal dissident groups in Cuba, breaking with Mexico's diplomatic tradition. The fact that Fox named a leftist militant as ambassador to Havana clearly demonstrates that the president's idea is "to rebuild the delicate tissue of relations with Cuba," said Pascoe. ''It could be said that we are at a point in which relations are going to improve noticeably and significantly between the two countries,'' said the ambassador. Officials at Mexico's foreign ministry, which is headed by renowned political scientist Jorge Castañeda, another leftist, echoed Pascoe's optimism. The fact that Mexico has named Pascoe an ambassador is ''a gesture towards Cuba'' that was received with ''warmth and respect,'' said Cuban foreign minister Felipe Roque. The Mexican government said that in its relations with Cuba, it has no reason to consult the United States."
-- World News, Jan 9, 2001
Mexican President Fox visit to Cuba constitutes a whole treatise on double talk... While the Mexican Secretary of State, Jorge Castañeda, affirmed in several press releases that there was not going to be any meetings with the Cuban dissidents, President Fox was double talking by neither affirming nor negating the possibility for such an encounter, until Fidel Castro gave his approval, something admitted by President Fox later when he affirmed that Castro didn’t care if he met with those Cuban leaders opposed to the Cuban dictator. During his visits to the U.S, President Fox acted as if he had under his power the executive and the legislative powers of the American nation, dictating how and which U.S. immigration laws should be changed and applied. Is a pity that Fox did not negotiate an immigration pact with Castro that guarantees for the Cubans to move to Mexico and enjoy the same generous rights he is demanding from the U.S. for the Mexicans living illegally in the U.S. In fact, during his visit to Cuba, Fox didn’t dare to even say publicly whether he was going to receive or not a few defenseless human rights activists. When a delegation of the hysterical American women visited Cuba last year to offer their support for the Cuban tyrant, as a show of gratitude, Castro took one of them to the airport in his bullet proof Mercedes limousine. That was not a Clintonesque offer, but rather a courtesy extended frequently to those American members of the Congress or the media who serve his interests in the U.S. Sometimes, for the most deserving, he goes personally with all the pomp and circumstance and produces masses of cheering flag bearing populace. The President of the only nation in the world that has remained for 42 years unconditionally committed to the support of the Cuban Revolution even to the extreme of covering up its crimes against humanity, was received by de Cuban regime .... The “Maximum” leader was not at the airport to receive the Mexican President, nor was the high level functionaries of the regime of the Communist Party, the only one there was the mentally challenged Cuban Secretary of State. There were no multitudes with Mexican flags, something that is customary in Cuba when Castro welcomes foreign dignitaries. During an interview televised today on Univision, it seemed that the great Mexican artist, Cantiflas, famous for his incoherent comic double talk, had reincarnated in President Fox. Yes, he was for human rights, but he would not support any measure that would pressure Castro to respect and abide by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a Declaration that Cuba was a signatory long before Castro came to power. The Mexican government will not support human rights for the Cuban people and will oppose, or al least abstain, from voting on any declaration of the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva that may be condemnatory of the Cuban regime’s gross violations. On the other hand, Fox condemned on strong terms the commercial embargo of the U.S. against the Castro regime irresponsibly calling it a “blockade,” a very deceiving term that is only used by Castro’s agents. Apparently, things began to warm up when was the theme of business was introduced between Castro and Fox. On the Univision interview, Fox pointed out the great achievements reached in order to facilitate the investment of the Mexicans in Cuba and of the Cubans in Mexico. In fact, it rather seemed to be an accord on how to pillage the treasure of both nations. After all, Cuba is a money laundering paradise for drug traffickers, terrorists and corrupted politicians. Since there is not free enterprise or private property in Cuba, foreign investors must deal directly with Castro and his commercial agent, the Cuban State. In order to invest in Cuba all foreign investors, including Mexicans, must accept Fidel Castro as a majority holder and controlling partner with absolute powers in a deal that forces them to accept the use slave labor. Any foreign company investing in Cuba must give 95 to 97% of the Cuban workers’ salary in dollars to Castro and Castro pays 5 to 3% back to the worker in Cuban worthless pesos. That is a diabolic pact that violates every international labor law as well as the most elementary human and civil rights of the Cuban worker. Because there is not such a thing as Cuban capitalists or investors what Fox and Castro agreed was how to open for Castro the doors to Mexico even more, not in order to supply the Chiapas’ guerrillas, but to own Mexican enterprises through a network of companies under his control through out the world. With a capital of more than 1.5 billion dollars, Castro is among the richest chief of state in the world, according to Forbes magazine, while the Cuban people suffer the worst oppression and misery. We should not be amazed that Castro’s “paradise” has one of the highest rate of suicide in the world, three times that of U.S.; and the Cuban women have the highest rate of suicide in the world, nor including the more than 50,000 men, women, and children who have died trying to cross the Florida Straits in fragile makeshift rafts in the pursuit of freedom, in what constitutes a kind of mass suicide since only one in four arrives alive. At the end of the trip, Fox received the Cuban dissidents in the Mexican Embassy in Havana, and treated them with the same discourtesy.... Almost subversively, they came one by one through a barely open iron gate, as if they were the servants of the embassy. That is the way Fox treated those who represented the honor of the Cuban nation; the courageous men and women who bare handedly were challenging the all-powerful brutal tyrant. For less than 20 minutes Fox listened without making any comments. Fox later remarked that he made no commitments with the Cuban human rights and pro-democracy activists. Furthermore, he reiterated Mexico’s policies of supporting Castro’s human rights violations whenever the case is presented to the United Nations Human Rights Commission. One of the attendants to the meeting, the very courageous human rights activist, Marta Beatriz Roque, was detained, interrogated, frisked and harassed by Castro’s repressive security police, without any protest, so far, from President Fox or the Mexican Embassy . Castro’s farewell to President Fox ended the way it began. Although, in the war against terrorism, and in spite of the fact that Cuba has remained a terrorist state for 42 years...Furthermore, notwithstanding all the public assurances that Mexico would continue defending Castro’s violations of human rights in international organizations, Castro did not deem necessary to bid farewell to his loyal supporter. This imposing man who was supposed to be an icon for Latin American democratic leaders, left diminished and tarnished by his obsequiousness towards a decrepit and bloody tyrant after his swift visit to Cuba."
--2/6/2002 | Jesus J. Chao
"The Cuban-Mexican bond has many ties. Across the water to Cuba: it was in Mexico that Castro met an itinerant, politically-engaged Argentine doctor by the name of Ernesto Guevara, who acquired the nickname El Che. Castro was in exile and preparing his return to Cuba. Guevara saw him from the first as a "great leader" and joined Castro and the other men who crammed into a tiny American cabin cruiser with the cosy name, Granma. That was in 1956. Three years later, after the unpopular dictatorship of Batista had crumbled, Fidel Castro had Cuba in his hands. More than 40 years on, he still does. ... The United States, the story tells us, is "desperately looking for an ally in Latin America to try to condemn Cuba" in the meeting of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva in April. "
--UPI | 3/28/02
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