Скачать или смотреть Protests outside Cuban embassy amid diplomatic row

(4 May 2004)
1. Exterior of Cuban embassy
2. Various of pro-Cuban signs in the gates of the Cuban embassy
3. Cuban ambassador to Mexico Jorge Bolanos enters the Cuban embassy
4. Cuban embassy
5. Former Cuban ambassador to Mexico Pascoe Pierce
6. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Pascoe Pierce, former Cuban ambassador to Mexico:
"My opinion is that this weakens Mexico because it served the country to have a good relation with Cuba as a counterbalance to the strong, pressure-filled relations with the United States. We lost that counterbalance and I think that the Mexican government wrongfully thinks it has strengthen it (its foreign policy), but I think this weakens the foreign policy of Mexico."
7. Puppets depicting Mexican President Vicente Fox and US President George W. Bush
8. Various of Democratic Revolutionary Party members demonstrating in front of Foreign Relations Department building
9. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Agustin Guerrero Castillo, President of the Democratic Revolutionary Party:
"The intervention of another country in Mexico's internal affairs is not allowed but the Mexican government with its representation in its embassy in Cuba and in meetings in the highest level between the president and Cuban opposition members, they do meet in private and not exactly to praise the Cuban government."
10. Various of Democratic Revolutionary Party members demonstrating in front of Foreign Relations Department building
11. Puppet depicting Fox
12. Democratic Revolutionary Party members demonstrating with banners in front of Foreign Relations Department building

STORYLINE:

Mexico has recalled its ambassador from Cuba after Cuban President Fidel Castro condemned the country for supporting a United Nations resolution criticising Cuba's human rights record.

The Mexican government, accusing the communist island of meddling in its internal affairs, expelled the Cuban ambassador.

The actions, announced late on Sunday, stopped short of severing diplomatic relations completely.

In Mexico City on Monday, more than 2,000 protesters, many waving Cuban flags and hand-scrawled, pro-Castro signs, marched from Mexico City's Angel of Independence monument to the presidential resident of Los Pinos, clogging major throughways before
the start of rush hour.

An announcer on Cuban state television read a Foreign Ministry statement saying the Mexican declaration was "inspired by arrogance, haughtiness, obstinacy and lies" and promising a more extensive reply later.

The announcer said that Mexican officials had informed Cuban Ambassador Jorge Bolanos of his required departure by telephone "only five minutes before the declarations were made public."

Castro has bitterly denounced last month's UN Human Rights Commission vote, accusing the United States of forcing other nations to support the resolution.

The Cuban leader said on Saturday that the prestige Mexico once gained in Latin America and throughout the world for its independent foreign policies had "turned to ash" as it began toeing the line for the United States.

In Washington, US Secretary of State Colin Powell defended the actions of Mexico and described as "outrageous" Castro's charges against the country.

Mexico said its decision to withdraw its ambassador followed Castro's public criticism of its support for last month's UN resolution and other foreign policy decisions.

It also cited unauthorised activities by visiting Cuban Communist Party members who failed to notify Mexican officials of their presence.

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