POLITICS-CUBA: Diplomatic Offensive to Overcome Row with Mexico

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Dec 7 1998 (IPS) - Havana has launched a diplomatic offensive to preserve Cuba’s good relations with Mexico, the only Latin American country that did not break off its ties with the Caribbean island in the 1960s, say analysts.

But in spite of a lengthy telephone conversation between Cuban President Fidel Castro and Mexican Foreign Minister Rosario Green, President Ernesto Zedillo has maintained his decision to temporarily withdraw Mexico’s ambassador to Cuba.

Diplomatic sources consulted by IPS in Havana said it would not be easy for Mexico to overlook remarks made by Castro at the closing of a Latin American Economic System (SELA) meeting in Havana last Wednesday. The Cuban president was quoted by the Mexican press as saying that country had chosen Mickey Mouse over its national heroes.

In response to the Mexican government’s demands for an explanation, the Cuban Foreign Ministry issued a communique late last week stating that Castro’s remarks had been made “in a setting of discretion and familiarity,” and that they had been taken out of context and “absolutely misinterpreted” by the press.

“If it had not been for the media scandal, perhaps nothing would have been heard,” a Latin American diplomat, who preferred to remain anonymous, told IPS.

He commented that when one has spent some time in Cuba, “you acquire a training for listening to Castro, which makes you see things in a different light.” Nevertheless, he added, “it is good that Mexico has protested, in order for everything to be cleared up.”

According to the Mexican press, Castro openly criticised that country’s entry into the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and said Mexicans had turned their back on Latin America by moving into the posh neighbourhood of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

In Mexico, Castro’s declarations were interpreted as meddling in internal affairs, and as an attack on Mexico’s national sentiments, which hurt even worse coming from a country that Mexico had never abandoned.

Sticking faithfully to Mexico’s diplomatic tradition of criticising the U.S. embargo against Cuba and defending Cuba’s right to choose its own political system, the Zedillo administration maintained its support for the Caribbean island nation since taking office in December 1994.

Mexico has more than one billion dollars in investment in Cuba’s oil industry and areas like tourism, textiles and communications, according to official Mexican figures.

The communique released by Cuba’s Foreign Ministry and published by Granma, the publication of the ruling Communist Party, quoted Castro’s remarks.

According to official transcriptions of last week’s speech, Castro acknowledged Mexico’s initiative when the proposal for a New International Economic Order was approved in the United Nations. He added that after actively working in defence of the rights of the “Third World”, Mexico “joined the OECD and we (developing countries) were left behind in the poor neighbourhood, in a kind of Villa Miseria (slum).”

But, he stressed, the proposal for a Multilateral Accord on Investment arose from a “club of the rich, with the exception of our dear friend Mexico.”

With respect to NAFTA, Castro said that when it was being created, Cuba “was not very pleased,” because it believed that “it would be better for Latin America as a whole to unite before Mexico, such an important country, signed the Free Trade Treaty.”

But “when the reporters came and asked us, we told them ‘Look, that is Mexico’s affair, Mexicans know better than anyone what they do. We do not want to give opinions on this’,” said Castro.

According to the Foreign Ministry statement, the reference to Mickey Mouse was just an example put forth by Castro to explain the impact of the U.S. cultural grip on the peoples of Latin America. Castro suggested that Latin American children -including Mexicans – be asked the names of the founding fathers of their countries, and said he was sure that many would not know, but that they would be able to identify Mickey Mouse.

“The same thing occurs in the rest of Latin America. It is a truth that leads to a tremendous loss of identity,” he said.

Participants in the SELA meeting consulted by IPS said that at no time did Castro’s statements about Mexico take on an ironic tone, and described his remarks as more like a joke about a close friend.

But they added that no matter how familiar the setting of a meeting like last week’s, statespersons must always take into account the possible repercussions of their statements, especially if they referred to another country.