Rational Words, North and South : Mexican consul should be heard in a coolheaded exchange on beatings

Not long ago, Mexican consuls were expressly forbidden to speak out on diplomatic incidents. Only the Foreign Affairs Secretariat in Mexico City had the authority to comment. Things have changed. The Mexican Foreign Service has learned from countries like the United States that a rational, proactive stance by consuls defending their countrymen makes for better policy than being polite or fainthearted.

Two weeks ago, when Consul Jose Angel Pescador took it upon himself to defend the rights of the two Mexican nationals beaten by Riverside County sheriff’s deputies in South El Monte, he was not acting on impulse. He was following the policy set by the Foreign Affairs Secretariat to discourage abuse during arrests. The policy seeks to raise the legal and political cost of human rights violations against Mexicans--in this country illegally or not--by U.S. law enforcement agencies.

In raising the stakes, the Mexicans have shown they understand that the United States is a country of laws and human rights, and expect it to be. The Mexican reaction mirrors the duties of consular officers of all countries, including America’s, when their citizens are in trouble abroad. In this case, in a state where Mexican migration has become a political flash point in many communities over the last few years, the incident and the consulate’s response have triggered an extraordinarily negative response. Many ordinary citizens, not to mention radical anti-immigrant groups, are outraged at what they perceive as the consulate’s interference in U.S. internal affairs. On the other hand, some Mexican politicians are expressing outrage with the Mexican government, accusing it of being too soft on incidents like these.

We disagree with the critics. The Mexican consul is doing nothing more nor less than what we would expect from an American consul in an incident abroad, although these representations are always best handled with minimum fanfare to keep the political aspect from overwhelming the legal points.

The bilateral relationship with Mexico, perhaps Washington’s most complex relationship nowadays, demands a rational approach. Cool the rhetoric. We cannot live apart. We live side by side. Our differences must be settled by law, not anger.