MEXICO: The Undiplomatic Diplomat
Jorge Castaņeda Gutman Ousted

by
Ernesto Cienfuegos
La Voz de Aztlan

Los Angeles, Alta California - January 9, 2003 - (ACN) The Jewish author Isaac Goldberg once said that, "diplomacy is to do and say the nastiest things in the nicest way". This is definitely one thing the former Secretary of Foreign Relations of Mexico, Jorge Castaņeda Gutman, never learned at Princeton University where he received his undergraduate degree. He was forced to resign yesterday after making shambles of Mexico's historic good relations with Cuba and incurring the wrath of both the Mexican Congress and the Mexican press.

Jorge Castaņeda Gutman, or George Gutman as many of his media critics call him, was educated, taught at universities and wrote for major news publications in the United States prior to being appointed by President Vicente Fox to head Mexico's foreign relations. This experience gave Gutman a definite USA perspective of things, something that the Mexican Congress and the press noticed and objected to. He was often accused by the Mexican press of being a "puppet" of the Bush Administration. Jorge Castaņeda Gutman would in turn lash out by calling the press "ignorant" and suggesting that Mexican journalists should learn English in order to be able to read the New York Times.

Jorge Castaņeda Gutman, who is of Jewish descent, was also accused of working to advance International Zionist interests to the detriment of Mexico. He completely sabotaged Mexico's role at the United Nations Conference on Racism in South Africa on September 7, 2001 when the vote to equate Zionism with racism was being debated. Four days later, when the terrorist attacks took place in New York and Washington D.C., Gutman started pushing for unquestioned and complete support from Mexico for Bush's "War on Terrorism", something many in President Fox's cabinet, senators, congressmen and party leaders were unwilling to do. One month later, on October 10, 2001, there was an attempt to bomb the Mexican Congress by two Israelis, one a MOSSAD Colonel and the other an undocumented alien from Israel. Gutman's high level meetings with Shimon Perez of Israel resulted in the release of the two Jewish terrorists and the whole matter being swept under the rug.

One of the worst and most undiplomatic acts that Gutman committed while Secretary of Foreign Relations was his shabby treatment of Cuba and its government, acts that completely destroyed the great relations Mexico had enjoyed historically with the island nation of Cuba. He did this on the behest of the U.S. in return for favors from the Bush Administration, favors that were subsequently never provided.

Jorge Castaņeda Gutman used Mexico's vote in the United Nations against Cuba. He in addition concocted a devilish scheme to snub Fidel Castro by ousting him from the "International Conference on Finance for Development" that took place in Monterrey, Mexico early last year. Gutman, in this incident, manipulated President Fox to carry out the scheme by making him believe that President Bush would make certain concessions on immigration if Fidel Castro was ousted from the conference. President Fox made an international telephone call to Fidel Castro asking him "nicely" not to be at the conference dinner table where Bush was to make an appearance. Unbeknown to President Fox, Fidel Castro taped the whole conversation. Later, Fidel Castro released the "taped conversation" to the Mexican news media to refute misrepresentations that both President Fox and Secretary Gutman were making to congress and the public concerning Fidel Castro's abrupt departure from the conference . The result was a very angry congress and the most embarrassing moment in President Vicente Fox's political career.

Jorge Castaņeda Gutman also caused the storming of the Mexican Embassy building in Habana, Cuba on February 26, 2002 by Cuban dissidents. He accomplished this with the cooperation of the Cuban exile community in Miami, Florida and an official U.S. government propaganda radio station. A speech made by Gutman in Miami was continuously broadcast to Habana making the dissidents believe that Mexico had broken relations with Fidel Castro and that the Mexican Embassy in the Cuban capital was ready to provide political asylum to any Cuban that wanted it. This resulted in a riot. Hundreds of dissident Cubans attempted to break into the embassy after a bus crashed at full speed into the gates.

Another embarrassing incident that Gutman caused for President Fox occurred while both were in Belgium on government business. Jorge Castaņeda Gutman had a clandestine meeting at a Brussels nightspot with Carlos Salinas de Gortari, Mexico's former discredited president who has been implicated, along with his now imprisoned brother Raul Salinas, in a multi-million narco racket. Gutman explained to the Mexican press that the meeting was purely "casual", "coincidental" and of the "least importance". President Fox was forced to wash his hands from the whole affair.

No one knows, yet, what Jorge Castaņeda Gutman is going to do now. There are rumors, however, that he wants to be Mexico's Secretary of Education!