MEXICAN CONGRESS: Unanimous Support of Cuba
Mexican Congress requests that President Fox oppose U.S. moves against Cuba at the 57th Session of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights
by Hector Carreon
La Voz de AztlanLos Angeles, Alta California - April 11, 2001 (ACN) The Mexican Congress voted yesterday in favor of a resolution requesting that President Vicente Fox order the Mexican Delegation to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights to vote against any U.S. move to condemn Cuba. The vote in the Mexican Senate was unanimous with only fourteen members of the Partido Accion Nacional (PAN) abstaining. The "Camara de Diputados", or lower house, approved a similar measure which went further by condemning the U.S. economic boycott of the small Caribbean sovereign nation.
The U.S. Delegation is planning to present an anti-Cuba resolution before the 57th Session of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights that is presently being held in Geneva Switzerland. The resolution is being pushed by Congresspersons Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Lincoln Diaz-Balart. Both represent the exiled, anti-Castro Cuban community in Miami. On April 18, the resolution is expected to be presented to the U.N. commission for a vote.
Mexico has a long friendship with the Cuban people and has historically opposed any meddling with the internal affairs of sovereign nations. This tradition goes back to the Mexican Revolution when the U.S. supported the dictator and despot Profirio Diaz and sent a military expedition into Mexico, led by General Pershing, in an attempt to capture General Francisco Villa.
The United States is a "hypocrite nation" when it comes to human rights. It is always criticizing other countries but it never acknowledges its own horrendous human rights abuses against Blacks, Mexicans and poverty stricken whites. We all remember the savage beatings of Rodney King and of Alicia Sotero because they were videotaped and given much publicity, but there are hundreds of other cases yearly that are never covered by the news media and are then forgotten. Presently there is a 22 year old youth in the Los Angeles County Prison who was arrested by the now disbanded CRASH units of the corrupt Los Angeles Police Department who, according to his family, was savagely beaten and tortured. Catarino Gonzalez, accused of killing CRASH officer Filbert Cuesta, has been in prison without trial for over two years. Many believe, as happened to LAPD victim Javier Ovando, that he was framed by the vicious ex-CRASH LAPD units.
The UN Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) was created in 1946 as a functional commission of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). One of the Commission's first major achievements was the preparation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The 53-member Commission meets for six weeks in March and April each year in Geneva. Using the Universal Declaration as a yardstick, state members of the Commission review observance of human rights worldwide, discuss reported violations, consider new ways to promote and protect human rights, and encourage countries to respect their populations' basic rights and freedoms.
The Commission has the authority to create mandates for special rapporteurs to investigate specific countries' human rights situations as well as particular "thematic" issues such as disappearances, torture, summary or arbitrary executions, arbitrary detention, religious intolerance, and violence against women. The Commission and its working groups have drafted covenants, conventions, and declarations for approval by the General Assembly. These include, inter alia: The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and its first and second Optional Protocols; The Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (CESCR); The Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT); and The Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Some topics included in this year's agenda are:
1. The right of peoples to self-determination and its application to peoples under colonial or alien domination or foreign occupation.
2. Racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and all forms of discrimination.
3. Question of the violation of human rights in the occupied Arab territories, including Palestine.
4. Economic, social and cultural rights.
5. Civil and political rights.
6. Torture and detention.
7. Disappearances and summary executions.
8. Freedom of expression.
9. Independence of the judiciary, administration of justice, impunity.
10. Religious intolerance.
11. Conscientious objection to military service.
12. Integration of the human rights of women.
13. Violence against women.
14. Rights of the child.
15. Specific groups and individuals.
16. Migrant workers.
17. Minorities.
18. Mass exoduses and displaced persons.
19. Other vulnerable groups and individuals.
20. Indigenous issues.
On April 9, 2001 a U.S. Congressional Delegation led by Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla) spoke before the U.S. diplomatic corps that included the U.N. Commission on Human Rights. At this meeting she said: "We are here to met with many of the diplomatic corps, and other delegations to ask them for their support for the resolution which yet to be presented but will be presented shortly by the Czech delegation, which condemns the violations of human rights in Cuba. We know that these are ongoing violations and if this institution, the UN Commission on Human Rights, fails to bring this resolution on Cuba, it will be a scandal. It is very important that the international community formally, by way of a resolution of the human rights commission, speak and speak clearly.
Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is to the Cuban people as Linda Chavez-Gersten is to La Raza, she is a malinchista. Dr. Fidel Castro Ruz coined a special word for people like her. He said they were "gusanas."
