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WHITE HOUSE ANNOUNCES ANOTHER ROUND OF SANCTIONS AGAINST CUBA.

Article Excerpt
The decision by Mexico and Peru in May to recall their ambassadors from Cuba coincided with a White House escalation of the 44-year-old sanctions policy. The diplomatic crisis fits into White House plans to employ third-country support to isolate Cuba and replace the government of President Fidel Castro.

The UN Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) meeting in Geneva in April approved a resolution vaguely faulting Cuba on its human rights record (see SourceMex, 2004-05-12). The vote proved especially significant as it helped produce, or at least justify, the break in Mexico's traditionally strong formal relations with Cuba.

For the third consecutive year, the administration of Mexican President Vicente Fox Quesada voted against Cuba on the US-generated resolution.

One effect of the annual US campaign to get a resolution against Cuba is to force Latin American states to choose sides, using the Cuba issue to undercut regional integration and political unity. Some states, like Argentina, have slowly mended relations with Cuba that were disrupted in the 1960s. But when Cuba's neighbors vote with the US, relations become dangerously strained. In recent years, Castro has called Latin American presidents "bootlickers" and "Judases" for their Geneva votes.

On May 2, Fox's Foreign Relations Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez recalled Mexico's ambassador from Cuba and gave the Cuban ambassador in Mexico 48 hours to get out of town, alleging a confusing mix of Cuban interference in Mexican affairs. Since then, relations have been reduced to the consular level.

Former Mexican ambassador Ricardo Pascoe dismissed the allegations of Cuban interference, telling Agence France-Presse that Fox had decided to follow the Bush administration policy of bringing down the Castro regime. "The Fox administration decided on...