Ambassador recalled after Castro accuses Fox administration of being a pawn of U.S.

By LAURENCE ILIFF and ALFREDO CORCHADO / The Dallas Morning News
 
MEXICO CITY – Mexico, the sole Latin American nation not to break relations with Cuba during the Cold War, is taking steps just short of that because of attacks by an erratic Fidel Castro and Mexicans' desire to leave behind their own authoritarian past, analysts said Monday.

On Saturday, Mr. Castro called Mexico a pawn of the United States for criticizing Cuba on human rights during a recent U.N. vote.

"The Mexican government felt Castro was very insulting, and they had to do something about that," said newspaper columnist Sergio Sarmiento. "I think he [Castro] is a senile, hurt politician looking for little fights."

Moreover, a Mexican official charged, the Castro government has been working with the leftist opposition in Mexico to help Mexico City Mayor Andrés Manuel López Obrador in his possible quest for the presidency in 2006. The official spoke on condition of anonymity.

The head of Mr. López Obrador's Party of the Democratic Revolution, Leonel Godoy, denied there was any plotting with Cuban officials. Rather, Mr. Godoy said, his party met with members of the Cuban Communist Party to discuss matters.

Nonetheless, the Cubans' recent actions and years of minor diplomatic disputes between Mr. Castro and Mexican President Vicente Fox led to Sunday's announcement that Mexico was recalling its ambassador to Cuba and asking the Cubans to do the same, officials said. The Cuban political attaché in Mexico was formally expelled.

The Peruvian government also recalled its ambassador to Cuba and filed a diplomatic note of protest after Mr. Castro criticized that South American nation during his speech on Saturday – which was Labor Day in most countries.

In Havana on Monday, the Cuban government reacted with anger toward Mexico.

"The Foreign Relations Ministry rejects this new action against Cuba and announces that these declarations inspired by arrogance, pride, stubbornness and deceit will receive a timely response," the ministry said in a statement.

A small group of Mexicans protested Monday outside the Mexican Foreign Ministry to express support for the Cuban government. Mexicans are deeply divided over Mr. Castro's rule.

"This [action] shows a country that is far too servile to the interests of Washington," said Ricardo Pascoe, a former Mexican ambassador to Havana, in Mexico City's Reforma newspaper.

Since 2000, when Mr. Fox became Mexico's first president from an opposition party in seven decades, his administration has moved away from support for Cuba in favor of promoting human rights at home and abroad, Mexican officials said.

"This is a clash of two different visions of the world," said Fox spokesman Agustín Gutiérrez Canet, "that of the democratic government of Fox and the totalitarian government of Fidel Castro."
 

Cuba recently deported to Mexico a fugitive businessman, Carlos Ahumada, who is wanted on charges of giving bribes to politicians close to Mr. López Obrador. Mr. Ahumada said upon his arrival in Mexico that he was forced by Cuban officials to make false statements.

The flap comes as President Bush prepares to announce results of a six-month policy review aimed at hastening the fall of Mr. Castro and preparing the island for democracy.

But some analysts contend that Mexico's action had little to do with U.S. pressure and everything to do with Mexico's new, more aggressive foreign policy.

"The decision is indicative of how Mexican foreign policy has matured and indicative of its independence," said Armand Peschard-Sverdrup, director of the Mexico Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.