Mexico offered Cuban President Fidel Castro an olive branch on Tuesday, even as it sent Cuba's ambassador packing and defended a decision to scale back diplomatic ties with the communist island.
While Cuban ambassador Jorge Bolanos was boarding a flight bound for Havana, Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez sent a letter to Cuba suggesting officials from both countries work together to improve their strained relationship.
"With the clear aim of getting relations between Mexico and Cuba back on track, at least in diplomatic terms,'' Derbez wrote to his Cuban counterpart, Felipe Perez Roque, "I declare my absolute [belief] that by re-establishing trust and dialogue between the two of us we can arrive at a relationship equal to our mutual needs."
Since the announcement that it was sending Cuba's ambassador home, Mexico has been quick to clarify it wasn't breaking off diplomatic relations completely. Derbez said his letter was the first step toward improving things.
After he arrived in Cuba, Bolanos was welcomed by government officials who thanked him for a job well done.
"We receive you with a profound feeling of pride and satisfaction for a job carried out with honor and dignity," Perez Roque told Bolanos after he arrived at Havana's Jose Marti International Airport.
The ousted ambassador said he felt "happy."
"I don't come distressed. I don't come defeated," he said. "I come with my head held high. I also come encouraged and inspired by the warmth of the Mexican people, this people that stands firmly by Cuba's side."
Also on Tuesday, Honduras and Nicaragua publicly criticized Cuba in what has become a growing regional outspokenness against Castro.
In Mexico, Fox made his first public comments referring to the conflict, although he didn't mention the issue directly.
In a morning speech to a labor union, the president said Mexico "will continue to have as our guide the constitutional mandate of monitoring and ensuring fulfillment of the law."
"We defend Mexico's sovereignty and dignity in whatever forum and everywhere in the world," he said to loud applause and cries of "Mexico! Mexico!" from the audience.
Interior Secretary Santiago Creel insisted that Mexico's actions were not part of an international effort to boot Castro from power.
"Absolutely not," he said, adding that Mexico's decision was "autonomous, independent."
Mexico announced late on Sunday that it was recalling its ambassador to Cuba, Roberta Lajous, and giving Bolanos 48 hours to leave the country after it accused Cuba of meddling in its affairs.
Peru also recalled its ambassador to Cuba late on Sunday after Castro insulted Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo and harshly rebuked it for supporting a UN resolution critical of Cuba's human-rights record.
Mexico said the decision to scale back relations was based on Castro's ongoing criticism of Mexico's foreign policy, including its support for the UN resolution, Cuba's comments about a political scandal in Mexico and the alleged unauthorized activities of Cuban Communist Party members in Mexico.
Like Mexico, Peru stopped short of severing diplomatic relations completely with Cuba, choosing instead to simply reduce bilateral ties to the level of charges d'affaires.
Honduras, the sponsor of this year's US-backed resolution on Cuban human rights, restored ties with Cuba in 2002, but never appointed an ambassador. On Tuesday, Honduran President Ricardo Maduro said that "for the moment" he would not do so.
Maduro also said that he had denied a request from Cuba to support a separate UN resolution asking for an investigation into prisoner treatment at Guantanamo Bay.
"If Cuba didn't comply with a UN resolution then they can't make a similar request," the president said. "And Cuba lacks the standing to make such a proposal."
Honduras also announced on Tuesday that it would grant temporary residence to 10 Cuban refugees who landed on Honduran shores last week.
Cuba has called Honduras and other Latin American nations that supported the human rights resolution "toadies" of the US. Other supporters included Chile, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic and Guatemala.
During his May Day speech on Saturday, Castro also lashed out at Nicaragua for sending troops to Iraq. Nicaragua responded on Tuesday, saying it would file a formal complaint with Castro.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in