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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | October 2005 
Mexico 100th Nation to Ratify
 El Universal
| | The United States has threatened to cut off aid to fight narco-traffickers if Mexico doesn't give U.S. citizens special status. |
Despite pressure from the United States, Mexico became the world's 100th nation to ratify the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Friday.
Mexico's Ambassador to the United Nations Juan Manuel Gómez Robledo ratified the treaty in a ceremony at U.N. headquarters in New York. Congress had voted in May to adopt the treaty, allowing Mexicans accused of crimes against humanity to be tried in The Hague.
The United States has opposed the ICC, saying the court could be used for politically motivated persecution of U.S. troops. Washington has warned Mexico that if it ratifies the ICC, US11.5 million in U.S. funding will be cut from aid destined to helping the justice system deal with drug trafficking, according to human rights groups. The amount is equal to almost 40 percent of the economic aid Mexico receives from the United States.
Although other nations in the same position as Mexico have signed an immunity agreement with the United States that would only turn over U.S. nationals to the ICC with U.S. permission, Foreign Relations Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez said emphatically this week that Mexico would not sign such an accord. He said Mexico was prepared to lose the aid rather than give the United States special status.
Eleven other Latin American nations who have refused to sign the immunity agreement have had their aid cut.
The ratification process has taken more than four years. In 2000, former President Ernesto Zedillo signed the treaty, but it wasn't until 2002 that Congress modified the Constitution to give the ICC jurisdiction in Mexico. In 2004, two thirds of federal lawmakers and state assemblies voted to enact the constitutional change. |
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