Mexico
Protests Execution Date For Its Citizen in Oklahoma
Mexican
President Vicente Fox has urged the United States to halt the
execution of Osvaldo Torres, a Mexican foreign national who is
scheduled to die in Oklahoma on May 18th. Oklahoma set the execution
date despite a 2003 ruling by the International Court of Justice,
based in The Hague, that called for staying Torres�s execution and
the execution of two other foreign nationals in Texas until the Court
could further review the case. The allegation before the world court
is that Torres and more than 50 other Mexican prisoners in the U.S.
have been arrested, tried, and sentenced to death without notice of
their opportunity to seek aid from the consulate, as required under
the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. Oklahoma's Attorney
General had also requested that an execution date not be set. Geronimo
Gutierrez, the Mexican foreign ministry�s undersecretary for U.S.
affairs, noted that Oklahoma�s decision to set a date for Torres
upset Mexico and its President, who opposes capital punishment in all
circumstances. �This for us is a deliberate violation of the
provisional measures that the International Court of Justice dictated,�
said Gutierrez. In 2002, Fox abruptly cancelled a meeting with Bush
after Texas executed a Mexican foreign national.
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