Posted on 03/08/2002 5:27:27 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
A Mexican official was fired from his job for failing to stress President Vicente Fox's commitment to human rights in Cuba in an e-mail exchange with a Miami businessman who had written to complain about Mexico's handling of the Feb. 27 occupation of the Mexican Embassy in Havana, Mexican officials said Wednesday.
The incident took place Tuesday, after the officials received copies of an e-mail signed by Manuel Morán, the coordinator of Mexico's foreign ministry's website, in response to an e-mail sent by a Cuban-born Miami businessman.
In his e-mail, Morán had written that the Mexican president had ``reaffirmed his position, based on the principle of self-determination, that the political and democratic evolution of Cuba is the exclusive province of the Cuban people.''
The e-mail echoed Mexico's defunct policy of never criticizing Cuba's record on human rights, and failed to mention Fox's new, two-pronged policy of seeking both better trade relations with Cuba and improving relations with Cuban dissidents.
Miami businessman Armando ''Manny'' Suarez, an executive with The Alison Group sales promotion company, had earlier sent an e-mail to various Mexican government websites complaining about Mexico's approval of the arrest by Cuban security forces of the 21 Cubans who had stormed into the Mexican embassy in Havana last week.
''What happened with President Fox's promises of respecting human rights?'' Suarez had asked in his March 1 e-mail.
Hours after he got his first e-mailed response from the Mexican government's website, Suarez got a second e-mail, this time by Arturo Sarukhan Casamitjana, the coordinator of Mexican foreign minister Jorge Castañeda's team of advisors.
''Dear Mr. Suarez,'' Sarukhan's e-mail said. ``I'm writing to you in response to the letter you sent to the Mexican Foreign Ministry's website.''
``I'm hereby informing you that the foreign ministry does not stand by the content of the letter sent by Mr. Manuel Morán, coordinator of the foreign ministry's website.
``It by no means represents the foreign policy of Mexico's current government, nor its position on international human rights or democracy. The official has been relieved of his duties.''
In a telephone interview, Sarukhan confirmed the authenticity of his e-mail.
Asked about the whereabouts of the 21 Cubans arrested by Cuban security forces after the Feb. 27 incident, other Mexican officials said all of them have been interviewed in Havana by Mexican envoys.
''I'm more relieved now,'' Suarez told The Herald Wednesday.
``I'm glad to see that the first e-mail I got does not reflect Mexico's point of view.''
Castro frequently says his one-party communist system is more democratic than the Western model and denies the existence of political prisoners or repression of freedom of expression.
The signatures, gathered by activists across the Caribbean island of 11 million inhabitants over the last year, will be presented to the National Assembly in a few weeks, once all 10,000 signatures have been checked and ratified, Paya said.
"This has never been done before, it has no precedent," he added. "It shows Cubans not only want changes, but also are ready to face the risks to show they want changes." [End Excerpt]
Fox declared yesterday that his relations with Castro's terrorist regime are closer than ever after the embassy fiasco and to prove it he decided to forget (deceivingly calling it re-structuring) Cuba's $400 million dollar debt; Fox would make up the loses by asking president Bush for immigration amnesty for more than 8 million Mexicans living illegally in the U.S.; giving Mexico access to the tens of billions of dollars they send to Mexico every year.
Fox’s actions were more despicable since the Cuban American Foundation offered to cover all the expenses of the 21 Cubans who sought asylum at the Mexican embassy in Havana while living in Mexico, a solution that was accepted by other Mexican administrations confronted by similar cases, but refused by Fox’s administration.
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