Why you should care about what happens to 51 Mexican nationals on death row
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Tuesday at 6 p.m., Texas is scheduled to execute Jose Ernesto Medellin, a Mexican citizen, going against an order from the International Court of Justice in the Hague. The ICJ is currently pondering a case brought by the Mexican government challenging death sentences in the United States of 51 Mexican nationals who were denied the right to contact Mexican consular officials after their arrest.
Former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Jeffrey Davidow weighs in on the issue of the executions and argues that if the United States doesn’t honor the court’s judgment, it may be putting the lives of U.S. citizens at risk in the future.
‘Because thousands of U.S. citizens are jailed abroad every year (sometimes for no good reason), anything that diminishes the power of American consuls to assist them in their time of need is cause for concern. Yet current developments in our own nation are threatening the power of American consuls.’ ‘At issue are the cases of 51 Mexican nationals who were arrested, tried and sentenced to death in the United States but were denied consular notification and access. Mexico sought a remedy for these U.S. breaches of the Vienna Convention at the International Court of Justice, the principal judicial arm of the United Nations and the international body that the U.S. and other Vienna Convention signatories had agreed would resolve such disputes. The United States was the strongest proponent of the court at the time of the formation of the United Nations and was the first nation to invoke its jurisdiction related to the Vienna Convention, in a case filed against Iran during the 1980 hostage crisis.’
-- Deborah Bonello and Reed Johnson in Mexico City
