Havana embassy incident should not cow Mexico
If President Fidel Castro of Cuba instigated the Feb. 27 occupation of
the Mexican Embassy in Havana in
an effort to press the Mexican government to drop its defense of human
rights and democracy on the
island, as many of us suspect, he may not have succeeded.
REACTION IN MEXICO
A week after 21 young Cubans hijacked a bus in Havana and crashed into
the Mexican embassy gates
in hopes of leaving the country, growing numbers of Mexican and U.S. officials
believe that the incident
was encouraged by the Cuban regime in part to create a major political
problem at home for Mexican
Foreign Minister Jorge Castañeda and his pro-democracy foreign policy.
Only hours after the incident, a small but vocal chorus of Mexican leftist
opposition congressmen called
for Castañeda's resignation. The leftist daily La Jornada ran a
front-page story -- denied by Mexican
officials -- that President Vicente Fox had berated Castañeda for
the alleged troubles his human rights
advocacy was causing.
But there are hopeful signs that Fox and Castañeda will not be cowed
into shelving their pro-democracy
foreign policy. Perhaps, Castañeda's initial statements that the
crisis had been instigated by
U.S.-financed Radio Martí and radical Miami exile groups was a defensive
move -- granted, somewhat
cynical -- to avoid picking a fight with Cuba on an issue in which Cuba
had a clear advantage to affect
events on the ground.
PRO-HUMAN RIGHTS
In an interview, Castañeda gave the first clear indication since
the Feb. 27 incident that Mexico will go
ahead with its pro-human rights stand. He said Fox will continue seeking
both closer trade relations
with the island and closer ties with Cuban human rights activists.
''This incident will not result in the slightest change in Mexico's policy
toward Cuba,'' Castañeda said.
``It will neither change our intention to continue deepening our economic
relations with Cuba nor our
insistence in the absolute respect for human rights on the island.''
As for the human rights of the 21 Cubans who were arrested by the Cuban
security forces hours after
the incident, Mexican sources say they have been interviewed by Mexican
consular officials in Havana
and were found to be in good condition.
There are indications that, rhetoric aside, Mexico's two-track Cuba policy will continue.
Earlier this week, Castañeda publicly fired the head of Mexico's
Foreign Ministry's website for failing to
stress Mexico's new commitment to human rights and democracy in a response
to an e-mail from a
Miami Cuban businessman.
In coming days, a senior Mexican diplomat is to visit Miami to reassure
Cuban exile leaders of Fox's
continued commitment to human rights in Cuba. And there will be new gestures
toward Cuban
dissidents on the island, senior Mexican officials say.
DEBT RESCHEDULING
On the other hand, Mexico announced Wednesday that it has agreed to reschedule
Cuba's $380 million
foreign debt to Mexico, which in effect will mean that Cuba will now have
a $30 million line of credit to
buy Mexican goods.
By now, many Mexican and U.S. officials say they believe that Castro was
a willing accomplice of the
Feb. 27 occupation of the Mexican Embassy. Among the indications leading
to that conclusion:
10-MINUTE DRIVE
• The 21 Cubans who hijacked the bus in one of Havana's best-secured neighborhoods
forced all the
passengers to get out, and drove the vehicle unmolested for 10 minutes
-- at times going against the
traffic on Havana's Fifth Avenue -- until they reached the embassy grounds.
The fact that a hijacked bus can move for 10 minutes, at times against
traffic, in the middle of Havana is
either a phenomenal breakdown of Cuba's security apparatus or, more likely,
a conscious decision to let
the hijackers go ahead with their plan, some Mexican and U.S. officials
say.
• In subsequent interviews by Mexican diplomats in Havana, none of the
21 hijackers said they had
heard Radio Martí that day. The detainees said they had heard that
the Mexican Embassy would be
open to asylum seekers ''from rumors on the street,'' according to Mexican
sources familiar with the
interviews.
Many Mexican and U.S. officials say they believe that, while most of the
Cuban intruders were legitimate
would-be refugees, they were egged on by rumors spread by Cuba's security
apparatus.
• Granma, which usually takes three or four days to report on breaking
news stories, came out the next
morning with full coverage of an incident that had taken place at 9:30
the night before.
My conclusion: Castro is aiming at Castañeda, because he does not
want to burn his bridges with Fox.
If Mexico does what it says, and joins all other modern democracies in
demanding basic freedoms in
Cuba, it will be a marked improvement over its longtime support for Cuba's
dictatorship.