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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: marcos who wrote (110442)	8/8/2003 6:58:58 AM
From: Chas.	Respond to of 281500

Please spare us on Political integrity, Mexico wrote the book on bribery, payoff, corruption, ....since the days of Pancho Villa.

To: marcos who wrote (110442)	8/8/2003 8:57:23 AM
From: carranza2	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Re: Mexico's lack of support for the war on Iraq. There were problems between Fox and Bush that pre-existed the push for the war. Most significant was the imposition of the death penalty on Mexican nationals in violation of their right to assistance by Mexican consular officers at the time of arrest. This caused one cancellation of a Fox visit to Bush. pacificnews.org I find Mexico's recent punctilious insistence on civil liberties a bit hypocritical. After all, for many years civil liberties in Mexico were whatever El Presidente said they were. And the argument that the death penalty is abominable and no longer used in Mexico falls equally on my deaf ears. Political assassinations of citizens from one end of the social spectrum to the other are too numerous to mention. I find no significant distinction between a court imposing a death sentence and a politician doing so as part of a political calculation. Both are arms of the government acting with the power of the State behind them. Nevertheless, this new insistence on genuine legal process, even if on the part of a previously authoritarian country where civil liberties were for years a bad joke, is probably a good thing. Progress. Moreover, Fox has had to follow Mexican public opinion to some extent now that elections are more or less honest. His party is in trouble and he can't afford to alienate voters. Finally, Mexico can't do a thing about the Colossus of the North except to on ocassion demonstrate a bit of independence in the foreign policy arena. Keeps the masses happy and gives the politicos a sense of power that they don't really have. It's fun to tweak Big Brother's nose, especially when the tweaker knows that there is no downside to doing so.