Cuban ambassador quits Mexico in row over Havana rights record
Wednesday, May 5, 2004
HAVANA, Cuba (AFP): Cuba's ambassador headed
home Tuesday amid a diplomatic row over Havana's human rights record, leaving
the communist island increasingly isolated even as the United States
reportedly readies tougher sanctions. Cuban
ambassador Jorge Bolanos left Mexico City for Havana warning "difficult times"
were ahead for the historically strong ties between the two countries.
Bolanos' move follows the departures of the ambassadors of Mexico and Peru to
Cuba, who abandoned Havana Monday after their countries recalled them.
Mexico and Peru were angered by President Fidel Castro's May Day speech
Saturday blasting them for having voted for an April 15 resolution condemning
Cuba before the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva.
Cuba has been increasingly isolated from Latin America and Europe since the
arrests of 75 dissidents who were summarily tried and given harsh sentences a
year ago. Cuban relations with the United
States have been at a new low under Republican President George W. Bush's
administration. Mexico's relations with Cuba
began to deteriorate with the 2000 election of center-right President Vicente
Fox, who favored the United States. Both
Mexico and Peru denied Tuesday having been pressured to lower their diplomatic
representation to Cuba. Fox said, "We defend
the sovereignty and dignity of Mexico in any place in the world and we act
with absolute independence." Peru Foreign
Minister Manuel Rodriguez said any link between the break in relations and a
US green light to open free trade talks with Peru were "unfounded and absurd."
In the US state of Florida, home to some 800,000 Cuban-Americans, local media
reported a six-month review of US policy toward Cuba was in Bush's hands and
due to be announced this week. The new policy
is aimed at prompting Castro's collapse by tightening Washington's four-decade
economic embargo on Havana. The plan
reportedly would cut into the approximately one billion dollars
Cuban-Americans send to relatives in Cuba as remittances, the island's second
source of hard currency, after tourism.
Mexico on Sunday asked Cuba to withdraw its ambassador, saying Cuban diplomats
had been involved in political activities incompatible with their duties.
Ambassador Bolanos boarded a Cubana airliner and left Mexico without his
family or embassy personnel, who had accompanied him to the airport.
"Very difficult times could be coming, sadly," Bolanos told reporters when
asked if Cuba's relations with Mexico could be mended.
In Havana, state media highlighted opposition within Mexico to Fox's decision.
Cuba's foreign ministry called the decision "another mistake by the Mexican
government," according to local newspapers.
Tensions between Havana and Mexico City had been heating up since April 28,
when Cuba deported a Mexican businessman of Argentine origin, Carlos Ahumada,
wanted in Mexico on corruption charges.
Ahumada is charged with bribing politicians close to leftist Mexico City Mayor
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a leading contender to replace Fox in the 2006
presidential election.
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