MEXICO: Fox wants death penalty cases reviewed

Mexican President Vicente Fox said Friday the International Court of Justice and the United Nations will have to decide what to do if the United States doesn't comply with a ruling that it review the cases of 51 Mexicans on death row.

In an interview with the board of directors for the Associated Press Managing Editors, Fox declined to say, however, whether Mexico would take additional measures if the U.S. government does not follow the order.

"We don't have any actions planned because we're expecting (the United States) to comply," he told the APME board of directors, which represents 1,700 newspapers in the United States and Canada.

The International Court of Justice, the United Nations' highest judiciary, ruled Wednesday that the United States violated the rights of Mexican inmates by denying them assistance from their government. That right is guaranteed under the 1963 Vienna Convention.

The court ordered the United States to review the Mexican cases, but the U.S. government has ignored the court's rulings in the past.

Wednesday's ruling raised questions from the eight states holding the inmates, but gave no assurances that they will try to address the court's concerns.

Mexico's Foreign Relations Department said earlier this week that if U.S. officials don't comply voluntarily, Mexico would consider asking the U.N. Security Council to issue a resolution urging them to do so.

Fox, who opposed the Iraq war and lobbied for a resolution within the U.N. Security Council, declined to say whether Mexico would take the death penalty cases to the United Nations.

But he has pushed for the international body to be strengthened, saying Friday the United Nations must be given a "very, very strong moral authority that should be recognized by every nation."

The death penalty has been a sore point in Mexican-U.S. relations, with Fox canceling a trip to meet with President Bush in 2002 after Texas executed a Mexican man convicted of killing a police officer. Fox is a strong opponent of the death penalty.

He said Friday he hoped the United States would not only review the Mexican death penalty cases, but ensure that all future foreigners convicted of a major crime had access to consular assistance from their governments.

San Diego Union-Tribune

Mexico's Creel prods U.S. on death-row cases

Mexico will "do all that is within our reach" to make sure the United States complies with this week's ruling by the International Court of Justice that the sentences of 51 Mexicans on death row be reconsidered, Interior Minister Santiago Creel said yesterday.

If the United States doesn't follow the international court's ruling, Creel told The San Diego Union-Tribune, "then our question is, 'What purpose is served by international law?'"

Creel was in San Diego yesterday to speak at the University of California San Diego, where he helped open a 2-day conference on state reform in Mexico.

A member of President Vicente Fox's National Action Party, or PAN, Creel is frequently mentioned as a likely candidate for Mexico's 2006 presidential election.

He has stopped short of saying he will run, insisting that he is focusing on his job as interior minister, a powerful post that oversees national security and immigration issues.

The international court in The Hague, Netherlands, ruled Wednesday that the United States must reconsider the sentences of Mexicans on death row because the inmates were deprived of the advice of Mexican diplomatic officials. The inmates are in prisons in 8 states. More than half, 28, are in California.

It is uncertain whether the states will follow the order of the court, which is the principal judicial body of the United Nations. The court ordered Arizona in 2001 and Virginia in 1998 to stay the executions of foreign citizens, but in both cases the rulings were ignored.

The international court's ruling was greeted as a historic decision in Mexico and a setback for death penalty proponents. Mexico has not had executions for decades and recently moved to eliminate the death penalty from its military penal code.

"We believe that the human rights of a criminal must be respected," Creel said. "We aren't saying that they're innocent . . . much less are we judging the internal process through which they are punished. . . . What is at issue is the decision to impose the death penalty at the end."

Some Mexican legislators have called on the Mexican government to press its case with the U.N. Security Council if the U.S. states don't comply with the court order.

Both Creel and Fox have stopped short of demanding specific measures be taken to enforce the ruling. Addressing the board of directors of The Associated Press Managing Editors in Mexico City yesterday, Fox said the United Nations would have to make a decision, but added: "We don't have any actions planned because we're expecting (the United States) to comply."

The court's decision was based on the 1963 Vienna Convention, which protects foreigners accused of serious crimes.