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MEXICO CANCELS INDEPENDENCE CELEBRATIONS IN HAVANA EMBASSY, DELIVERING ANOTHER BLOW TO RELATIONS WITH CUBA.

Article Excerpt
Cuba-Mexico relations have deteriorated since the early 1990s, as Mexico steadily aligned itself with US policies. During the last month, President Vicente Fox's administration seemed to go out of its way to offend Cuba, ordering its embassy in Havana not to sponsor its customary celebrations on Sept. 15 and 16 honoring Mexican Independence Day. During a bizarre controversy, complete with public salvos between Mexican Ambassador Ricardo Pascoe and the Mexican foreign office, Foreign Relations Secretary Jorge Castaneda laid bare the rationale for Mexico's Cuba policy.

Friction between the two countries became apparent during the administrations of Presidents Carlos Salinas de Gortari (1988-1994) and Ernesto Zedillo (1994-2000) and has worsened since Fox came to power in 2000 (see NotiCen, 2000-08-31).

During a visit to Cuba in February, Fox invited Cuban dissidents to the Mexican Embassy and said President Fidel Castro was aware of the meeting. However, Castro later said Fox never raised the question of meeting dissidents during their conversations (see NotiCen, 2002-02-28).

Later in February, Castaneda made remarks in Florida that gave the impression he encouraged Cuban dissidents to seek asylum in the Mexican Embassy (see NotiCen, 2002-03-14). Twenty-one Cubans violently entered the embassy grounds and had to be removed by police. While Castro absolved Castaneda of any blame for the incident, he said the secretary "shouldn't go around playing with words."

The string of clashes continued in April, when Mexico departed from its traditional abstentions and voted with the US on a UN resolution...

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