Posted by Dan Ewert : 8/22/2002 11:30:00 PM (Archive Link)
It hasn’t received a great deal of national news, but Mexican president Vicente Fox recently canceled a planned trip through Texas because the state executed a man who was a possible Mexican national. They were slightly irked that the convicted man wasn’t allowed to contact the Mexican consulate, even though his nationality was very much in doubt. For the most part, I like Fox, but he’s annoying me on this matter. He’s been taking the moral high road and condemning Texas and the U.S. in general for using capital punishment. Said Fox, “When you believe in values, you live by them. We don’t believe that the death penalty is the way to go. The whole world is moving in the direction of the elimination of the death penalty.” He also pointed out that even though Mexico’s military courts allow the death penalty, nobody has been executed there for decades (yeah, at least not officially). So yes, even our southern neighbors are looking down their moral noses at us. What I find appalling about this… well, laughable, really… is that it’s Mexico. Mexico of all places! Does anybody hear the pot mocking the kettle? Allow me to point you to a few sites regarding Mexico’s sparkling human rights record… let’s see… there’s Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and well, here’s a whole bunch of Amnesty International articles and almost none of them are complimentary. My point is that if anybody should be lecturing the U.S. on human rights, it’s not Mexico. While Fox might be the man to help turn things around, I think he should clean his own house before pointing fingers at the mansion next door.