Wednesday, April 25, 2001

Real Sovereignty In Latin America

After the U.N. Commission on Human Rights voted last week in Geneva to condemn Cuba's treatment of dissidents, the Castro regime tried to convert international censure into a political triumph.

"A colossal moral victory of the Revolution," was how Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque put it. "Cuba in no way feels condemned. Today it is more proud than ever of its work in favor of human rights."

This was said with a straight face. Havana's self-delusion remains as boundless as it has been for the 42 years Castro has been in power.

It was a self-delusion of another kind, however, that prevented the vote in Geneva from being as absolute a victory for the cause of human rights as it could have been: the delusion of countries that abstained because their governments think that not aligning themselves with the United States makes them more sovereign.

Take two cases: Argentina and Mexico. Argentina was one of the four Latin American nations voting along with the United States to condemn the Cuban regime. Mexico was one of five that abstained.

Although Havana pressured both in the months leading to the vote, Argentina got it worse. Castro called the government of President Fernando de la Rúa "Yankee bootlickers" and mockingly suggested that the American flag should replace the Argentinean flag.

An old stratagem, playing on the national insecurities of most Latin American countries. Nobody wants to be seen as a lackey of American "imperialists." And in the world of Fidel Castro, only lackeys of American imperialists criticize the Cuban regime.

The rhetoric had a ready-made audience among the Argentinean left wing, which includes prominent members of de la Rúa's own party. They panicked at the thought that anybody could accuse Argentina of being under the control of the United States, and demanded that the government not vote to criticize Cuba.

But they did not have de la Rúa's ear. "We analyzed the situation objectively, without political influences and without considering the attacks (of Fidel Castro)," Argentinean newspapers quoted him as saying. "It was a vote in favor of human rights."

Indeed. The Castro regime's violations of basic rights are documented every year by objective observers such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, and Argentina decided it could not ignore the evidence. That determination -- contrary to the rant coming from Havana -- actually underlined the fact that Argentina has a sovereign foreign policy capable of independently and objectively judging Cuba's horrendous human-rights record.

Mexico is almost there, but not quite.

In part because of understandable resentments dating from the Mexico-U.S. War, Mexico is even more terrified than Argentina of appearing subservient to American interests. Such fear explains why for four decades Mexican governments have been Castro's best friends in Latin America. And it explains why Mexico abstained in the vote to condemn Castro rather than vote for a resolution condemning him that was backed by the United States.

However, there are signs that the new administration of Mexican President Vicente Fox has arrived at the realization that a foreign policy obsessed with maintaining a distance from the United States, no matter how absurd, is not really a sovereign foreign policy after all.

For one thing, there is the close relationship between Fox and George W. Bush, a relationship remarkably free of arrogance on the American side and defensiveness on the Mexican side. More concretely, Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castañeda (despite the vote to abstain) hasy criticized the Castro regime to an extent unprecedented by any Mexican diplomat. In fact, his Cuban counterpart, Pérez Roque, has even said Castañeda urged Fox that Mexico vote against Castro, and was stopped only by Castro's friends in Mexico's Congress.

What's next?

Mexico's representative in Geneva, Marie Claire Acosta, told Mexico City newspaper La Jornada that votes in the commission "should be based on the real situation on human rights and not on political agendas particular to any third country."

A perfect description of the formula Mexico should follow next year in Geneva when the question of Cuba comes up again.

© 2001 King Features Syndicate Inc.