Texas intent on executing Mexican despite Kerry warning over bilateral ties

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Guardian

Texas intent on executing Mexican despite Kerry warning over bilateral ties

Edgar Arias Tamayo is due to die on 22 January but Mexico says failure to facilitate consular assistance violates international

Tom Dart in Houston
theguardian.com, Friday 17 January 2014 14.20 EST

Texas is preparing to execute a Mexican national despite warnings that his death could harm relations between the United States and Mexico and affect the treatment of Americans detained abroad.

Edgar Arias Tamayo is scheduled to die by lethal injection in a Texas prison on 22 January for the 1994 murder of a Houston police officer. Tamayo was not promptly informed after his arrest of his right to consular assistance – a violation of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.

US and Mexican government officials have cautioned Texas that executing Tamayo without a review of his case would breach an order from the International Court of Justice (ICJ). John Kerry, the US secretary of state, fears that if America is seen to be flouting international law there is a danger that other countries will be less inclined to respect due process for its citizens.

The case has attracted considerable publicity in Mexico, and several of the country's politicians have called on Texas to delay the execution. Mexico's foreign affairs secretary, José Antonio Meade Kuribreña, last month sent letters to the Texas governor, Rick Perry, and the Texas board of pardons and paroles requesting a reprieve.




Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/17/texas-mexican-execution-tamayo-kerry

[Iggo]

1. KILL! KILL! KILL!

[sharp_stick]

2. Like this means

anything to Texas.

They've executed several people from Mexico, at least one from Canada and probably a bunch of other countries without giving them consular access.

Really classy place that State.

[herding cats]

3. Texas is just going to flaunt international law?

Not only will this damage how the US is viewed, if Texas violates international law and does this, Mexico can go before the ICJ and demand reparations.

[SamKnause]

4. Texas

John Kerry, the US secretary of state, fears that if America is seen to be flouting international law...................

Oh that's rich.

The US flouts where it wants and when it wants.

The charade is maddening.

Rick Perry will show his ass and execute Tamayo.

[11 Bravo]

5. Shit, Perry probably has a map in his office where he draws a happy face on every country from ...

which he has managed to execute a citizen.

[Jack Rabbit]

6. Colonel Travis fought to seperate Texas from Mexico in order to make the world safe for slavery

Slavery had been abolished under the Mexican constitution adopted after she gained independence from Spain.

Travis arrived in Mexico (that is, Texas) from Alabama with a slave in tow. I suppose he felt his property rights were violated.

[happyslug]

7. And the US was selling Native Americas as Slaves in Mexico as late as the 1860s.

Last edited Sun Jan 19, 2014, 03:57 AM - Edit history (2)

We know this for when Brigadier General Kit Carson suggested it as a solution to the problems the US had with the Navajo during the Civil War, his superior vetoed that proposal, do to the Civil War selling slaves were no longer an option.

Thus, while slavery was technically illegal in Mexico after 1821, in fact it remained legal in much of Mexico till the Revolution of the 1910s (and there are stories of it lasting till the 1930s in some parts of Mexico).

Side note: When the 14th amendment was adopted it was worded to include peonage, which had been the law in New Mexico even under Mexico rule. Technically Peonage related to having to stay in service for someone till a debt is paid in full. Made a federal crime in 1867, but peonage survived in some ways till 1900 but stories of peonage existing in the US (debt slavery is another name for it) also exists through the 1930s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peon

[Judi Lynn]

8. Thank you, happyslug. Hideous to learn this happened, thankful to have learned about it. n/t