Why Fox Betrayed US-Cuba Friendship Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Workers World - May 9, 2002 issue http://www.workers.org HOW BUSH GOT FOX TO BETRAY MEXICO-CUBA FRIENDSHIP By Gloria La Riva Havana With Mexico's April vote against Cuba at the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva, the government of Vicente Fox carried out yet another of Washington's orders, further subordinating Mexico's sovereignty and threatening a rupture in relations with Cuba. The Fox government's vote represented not only a capitulation to U.S. pressure, but also a break with Mexico's longstanding tradition of friendly relations with Cuba. In a decisive response on April 22, Cuban President Fidel Castro exposed Fox's earlier complicity in the virtual expulsion of the Cuban leader from the UN Summit on Development Financing, which took place in Monterrey, Mexico, on March 21. It is widely known that George W. Bush refused to land in Monterrey until Cuba's president was gone. Before this latest revelation, Cuba had only attributed the action to Jorge Castaņeda, Mexico's foreign minister. After Castro's departure from Monterrey, in response to questions by the Mexican and international media, Castaneda denied pressuring Castro to leave. In recent weeks Castaneda has engaged in unprecedented attacks on Cuba. In mid- February he openly instigated a crisis at Mexico's Havana- based embassy, by encouraging disaffected Cubans to enter Mexico's embassy. Meanwhile, at the Human Rights Commission in Geneva, the U.S. government worked overtime for months to find a Latin American country willing to sponsor an anti-Cuba resolution to be voted on April 18. Latin American government leaders were invited to several meetings by the United States, one of them a breakfast at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York, with the open proposition of sponsoring the resolution. Isolating Cuba in international circles has been one of Washington's many tactics against the Cuban Revolution since its triumph in 1959. In turn, many countries that make up the Human Rights Commission and similar international bodies bow to U.S. policy to condemn socialist or anti-imperialist countries. Since the collapse of the socialist camp, some ex-socialist countries have done Washington's bidding. For example, for the previous three years, the Czech Republic--part of the former socialist Czechoslovakia--had presented the anti-Cuba resolution in Geneva. This time the United States was determined to get a Latin American sponsor. Uruguay served as Washington's stalking horse this year. INCREASING U.S. INTERVENTION IN LATIN AMERICA The Mexican government's action should be seen in the context of deepening U.S. interference in Latin America, which aims to weaken the countries' sovereignty. U.S. imperialism's fingerprints are on the frustrated Venezuelan military coup against Hugo Chavez. It is engaging more directly in military actions against the revolutionary FARC guerrilla army in Colombia. It is significant that Mexico recently closed down the FARC offices in Mexico City. Mexico--for Latin Americans the political center of the continent--has sheltered many political exiles fleeing repression over the years. From Leon Trotsky to the Spanish Republican fighters to Chilean progressives escaping the fascist Pinochet to Puerto Rican revolutionary William Morales--Mexico offered safe haven. Mexico's foreign policy, historically independent of U.S. imperialism's desires, is rooted in the 1910 Revolution and radical struggles that led President Lazaro Cardenas to nationalize U.S. and British oil companies on March 18, 1938. That policy has in many ways contrasted with its position against Mexican progressives. Most notorious was the government's massacre of hundreds of students in 1968. Ramon Pacheco, international secretary for the Independent Mexican Union of Electricians, told Workers World in Havana: "The weight of the Mexican Revolution is strong and Mexico's foreign policy is linked to that sentiment. "Only two generations ago, our grandparents participated in the Revolution. We heard the living stories of those who sought to create an autonomous, just society. And there has always been a strong sentiment of brotherhood towards Cuba. "Even in the worst moments for those of us Mexican activists who don't agree with the government's policies against the workers, we've never forgotten that the foreign policy is based on the principle of Benito Juarez: 'Respect for self- determination is peace.' " Pacheco explained that there is widespread, majority opposition within both chambers of the Mexican Congress against Fox's and Castaneda's attacks on Cuba. And feelings among the population are strongly distrustful of both leaders' versions of the Monterrey scandal. Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: ww@wwpublish.com. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytcamer-05.04.02-03:47:29-5751