IL MESSICO RICORRE AL TRIBUNALE DELL�AJA PER I CONDANNATI A MORTE MESSICANI IN USA

CITTA' DEL MESSICO, 9 GEN - Il governo messicano haannunciato un ricorso alla Corte internazionale di giustizia dell'Aja chiedendo la revisione dei processi nei confronti di 54 messicani condannati a morte negli Stati Uniti.

   Nel ricorso il governo messicano sostiene che le autorita' statunitensi non hanno permesso agli imputati di esercitare il loro diritto all'assistenza consolare.

   Negli ultimi due anni, a 51 condannati a morte messicani le autorita' statunitensi hanno commutato la pena di morte nell'ergastolo ma altri 142 messicani sono attualmente accusati da tribunali statunitensi di reati che prevedono la condanna a morte, secondo cifre fornite dal ministero degli Esteri messicano.

   Il Messico, dove non e' prevista la pena di morte, ha istituito nel 2000 il Programma di assistenza giuridica ai messicani condannati a morte negli Usa. 

Mexico asks Hague court to intervene on behalf of Mexicans on death row in U.S.

Jan 9, 2003 

 By LISA J. ADAMS, 

 MEXICO CITY - Mexico on Thursday asked the World Court in the Hague (news - web sites) to resolve the case of 54 Mexicans on death row in the United States who allegedly were denied their rights to consular representation under an international treaty.

 Mexico's foreign relations department has made such allegations against the United States in the past � one recent case led President Vicente Fox (news - web sites) to cancel a meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush (news - web sites) last summer. But this is the first time officials have brought the matter to an international court.

In a news release, the foreign relations department said it had asked the court to rule that municipal and state officials in the United States had violated the 1963 Vienna Convention of Consular Relations. The convention obligates authorities to inform detained foreign nationals that they have the right to assistance from the consulates of their native countries.

 The 54 Mexican nationals currently on death row in the United States were denied this right, the foreign relations department said, and as a result "they didn't receive the timely assistance from Mexican consular representatives that could have avoided application of the death penalty."

 In Washington, the U.S. State Department wouldn't comment on Mexico's petition before the Hague Court.

 Mexican law prohibits the death penalty and Mexico won't extradite its own citizens to face criminal charges in the United States in cases where the death penalty or a life sentence may be applied.

 The issue is an important and sensitive one for Mexicans. Last August, Fox canceled a scheduled visit with Bush at his Texas ranch after the U.S. president refused to pardon a Mexican national on death row in Texas.

 Fox contended that the prisoner, Javier Suarez Medina, was never told he could contact the Mexican consulate for help after his 1988 arrest.

 In that case, U.S. officials said that they weren't clear if Suarez, who spent most of his life in the United States, was even Mexican.

 In addition to asking the court to rule that the prisoners' rights were violated, Mexican officials want the tribunal to order U.S. authorities to review the convictions and death sentences in each one of the 54 cases. Finally, it asks the court to ensure that none of the prisoners is executed or scheduled to be put to death until the court has resolved the case.

 The foreign relations department said that before it decided to submit its petition to the court, it had "exhausted every recourse" before local and federal authorities in the United States and other international agencies.

 "Despite those efforts ... in the past decade five Mexicans have been executed," the release said.

 "Mexico's petition does not constitute a political confrontation that will affect bilateral relations with the United States," the bulletin said. "It seeks to obligate the state and local authorities to comply with their obligations in terms of consular notification."

  Latin America

 Mexico Seeks U.S. Death Row Intervention

Jan 9, 2003

 By LISA J. ADAMS,

 MEXICO CITY - Mexico alleges that all 54 Mexican inmates on death row in the United States were denied access to consular officials, and asked the World Court on Thursday to intervene.

 The foreign relations department claims that U.S. officials violated the 1963 Vienna Convention of Consular Relations, the department said in a statement. The convention requires authorities to inform detained foreign nationals that they have the right to assistance from the consulates of their native countries.

 The 54 Mexican nationals "didn't receive the timely assistance from Mexican consular representatives that could have avoided application of the death penalty," the statement said.

 A spokesman with the U.S. State Department had no comment Thursday about the appeal.

 The issue is an important and sensitive one for Mexicans. Mexican law prohibits the death penalty and Mexico won't extradite its own citizens to face criminal charges in the United States in cases where the death penalty or a life sentence may be applied.

 In August, President Vicente Fox (news - web sites) canceled a scheduled visit with President Bush (news - web sites) after Bush refused to pardon a Mexican national on death row in Texas. There are more than 3,500 people on death row in the United States, the Department of Justice (news - web sites) says.

Fox contended that the prisoner, Javier Suarez Medina, was never told he could contact the Mexican consulate for help after his 1988 arrest. U.S. officials said that it wasn't clear if Suarez, who had spent most of his life in the United States, was even Mexican. Medina was executed in August.

 Mexican officials asked the World Court, in the Hague (news - web sites), Netherlands, to order U.S. authorities to review the convictions and death sentences of the 54 inmates. It also asked the court to ensure that the prisoners are not executed or scheduled to be put to death until their cases are resolved.

 The foreign relations department said it submitted its petition to the court because it had "exhausted every recourse" with local and federal authorities in the United States and other international agencies.

 "Despite those efforts ... in the past decade five Mexicans have been executed," the release said.

 The statement made clear that Mexico does not want to damage relations with the United States.

 "Mexico's petition does not constitute a political confrontation that will affect bilateral relations with the United States," the document said. "It seeks to obligate the state and local authorities to comply with their obligations in terms of consular notification."

U.S. Challenged By Mexico on Death Penalty

  By Kevin Sullivan

  MEXICO CITY, Jan. 9 -- Mexico filed a complaint against the United States in the International Court of Justice today charging that American officials have violated the rights of all 54 Mexicans on death row in the United States and asking that their executions be commuted.

   In its filing with the U.N. court in The Hague, Mexico argued that the United States violated the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, which guarantees people access to their country's diplomatic missions when accused of a crime in a foreign country.

   Juan Manuel Gomez Robledo, the Foreign Ministry lawyer who filed the compliant, said U.S. state and local courts regularly assign Mexican defendants public defenders who "speak little or no Spanish and have no experience in death penalty cases." He said if the courts followed the treaty, Mexican consulates would provide defendants Spanish-speaking lawyers who are well-versed in capital cases in the United States, which would greatly improve chances of a fair trial.

   "It's the difference between life and death," Gomez said.

  Mexico has asked the court to recommend that the United States stay all 54 executions until the court rules.

  It has also asked the court to recommend that the death sentences be reduced to life in prison and that the men be granted new trials with lawyers provided by the Mexican government.

   Of the 54 Mexicans on death row, 28 are in California, 16 are in Texas and the others are in Oregon, Oklahoma, Illinois, Arizona, Nevada, Florida, Arkansas and Ohio, Gomez said.

   A U.S. government official said 100,000 Mexican nationals are in U.S. prisons, so sheer numbers make it difficult to comply with the Vienna Convention. In addition, he said, because the United States has so many local law enforcement agencies, it has been difficult to educate all of them about the treaty.

   Today's filing follows an emotional case last August in which Texas executed a Mexican man, Javier Suarez Medina, after President Vicente Fox called President Bush and the state's governor, Rick Perry, to argue that Suarez's rights had been violated. Mary Robinson, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, the European Union and various human rights groups also asked that Texas stay the execution pending a review of Mexico's objections.

  But Suarez, who killed an undercover U.S. anti-drug agent in 1988, was executed by lethal injection.

   The case became a national crusade in Mexico, and Fox, with the backing of all political parties here, canceled a scheduled visit with Bush at his Crawford, Tex., ranch to show his displeasure. Mexico has no death penalty -- or even a punishment of life in prison -- and many Mexicans believe capital punishment is disproportionately applied to Mexicans and other minorities in the United States.

   "What Mexico has done here is very important, and the people who are going to benefit most from this are Americans," said Sandra Babcock, a Minnesota lawyer working with the Mexican government.

  Babcock said governments of the 164 other countries that have signed the treaty are less likely to honor it if the United States ignores it.

  She said that could have grave consequences for Americans arrested abroad.

   Babcock said that although the State Department has tried to educate local law enforcement agencies about the treaty, there are no sanctions in U.S. law for those who violate it.