Paraguayan Executed in U.S.

“An Execution Heard Round the World” (Commentary, April 16) should be a wake-up call to all Americans. Philippe Sands tries to paint Angel Breard, a Paraguayan national, merely as a passing tourist caught up in our legal system, rather than a foreigner living in this country who committed and was convicted of a heinous rape and murder. This is just another example of a Third World loyalist trying to set international precedent to undermine U.S. sovereignty.

The rights provided by the Vienna Convention that Sands uses to support his argument when referring to former President Carter’s dealings with Tehran 20 years ago were aimed at settling international disputes, not the felonious criminal acts by alien residents of any country.

WILLIAM CASH

Victorville

* As Sands pointed out about the execution of Breard in Virginia without putting him in touch with the Paraguayan consul, what we do to other countries we can expect them to do to us. If we do not follow international law and the international court, then why should other countries? If we do not let the citizens of other countries have access to their consuls, then why should they let our citizens have access to the American consul?

Does America think it is above the law? We do not pay our bill to the United Nations. Yet we expect to call the tune. I wish I could say that my country was law-abiding. The vileness of Breard’s crime doesn’t affect the standard we hold our judges to. We, the citizens, and our courts and states, should obey the law, even if it’s only an international agreement like the Vienna Convention that we have signed. Otherwise, our word is no good, and that’s not good policy.

JANE HIRSCH

Pacific Palisades