Mexico’s Ties to Cuba Unravel

Mexico’s decision over the weekend to downgrade diplomatic ties with Cuba marks the unraveling of a once-tight relationship between the Caribbean neighbors as the Mexican government has allied itself more closely with the United States.

Mexico on Sunday recalled its ambassador to Cuba in response to a fiery weekend speech by Cuban President Fidel Castro, who blasted this country for supporting a United Nations measure last month condemning his government’s record on human rights.

Mexican officials, already irritated by recent harsh comments out of Havana regarding a political scandal here, also expelled the Cuban ambassador to Mexico, accusing the Castro government of meddling in its internal affairs. Mexico stopped short of severing all diplomatic relations with Cuba. Still, the moves underscore a deepening rift that has emerged between the two countries since Mexican President Vicente Fox was elected in 2000.

The nation traditionally has avoided any public castigation of Cuba’s treatment of pro-democracy dissidents. But under Fox, Mexico for the first time in 2002 stepped up to support a perennial U.S.-backed vote by the Human Rights Commission criticizing Cuba’s track record.

The Fox administration has continued to throw its support behind the American position. That has enraged Castro, who in his annual May Day speech Saturday maintained that Mexico’s prestige in Latin America and beyond has “turned to ashes” because, he said, Mexico had fallen in lock step with U.S. foreign policy.

The diplomatic breach also follows recent sharp remarks that Cuban officials made about the scandal involving Mexican businessman Carlos Ahumada, who was caught on videotape passing wads of cash to Mexico City officials. Ahumada fled to Cuba, which returned him last week -- but not before a top Cuban official insinuated that the Fox government created the video scandal to discredit left-leaning Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque alleged that Ahumada had told Cuban officials the videos were “deliberately calculated to achieve political objectives,” implying that the Fox administration had a role in their release. Before the scandal, Lopez Obrador had been widely viewed as the front-runner in the 2006 presidential race.

The Fox government denied any involvement and immediately took issue with Perez Roque’s allegations. Ahumada’s lawyer told the Reforma newspaper Monday his client was pressured by Cuban authorities into making the remarks while being held for extradition.

Despite Cuban criticism that the Fox administration is too closely aligned with the Bush administration, the U.S.-Mexican relationship has been marked by its own tensions in recent years, among them Mexico’s opposition to the American-led war in Iraq. But Daniel P. Erikson, an expert on Caribbean affairs for the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington, said Latin American nations are finding it increasingly tricky to foster friendly diplomatic ties with both Cuba and the United States given the deep hostility between them.

“I think that in general, every country in Latin America knows that it’s difficult to simultaneously improve relations with the U.S. and Cuba. You have to keep one or the other at bay,” Erikson said. “For Castro particularly, the U.N. vote is a litmus test on whether you’re for him or against him.”

Peru on Sunday also pulled its ambassador from Cuba after withering comments by Castro about Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo. Like Mexico, the Andean nation supported the U.S.-backed measure critical of Cuba, which was narrowly approved by the U.N. panel in Geneva last month.

But many Mexicans are sensitive to the impression that their country has abandoned its longtime friend, albeit a communist one, to curry favor with the United States. During the late 1950s, a number of exiled Cuban guerrillas -- including Castro and Ernesto “Che” Guevara -- resided in Mexico, where they plotted the overthrow of the U.S.-backed government in their homeland. After the revolution, when the U.S. was pressuring Latin American countries to join in isolating the Castro regime, Mexico stayed neutral.

By Monday, the gates outside the Cuban Embassy in Mexico City were covered with signs supporting the Cuban government and reproaching the Fox and Bush administrations: “Enough Already of Yankee Aggressions, Long Live the Cuban Revolution,” “Mexico and Cuba Are Brothers,” “Fox, Understand That Fidel Isn’t For Sale.”

Times staff writer Reed Johnson in Mexico City contributed to this report.