Mexico's ambassador to Ireland met a reception bordering on hostility at an Amnesty International meeting in Dublin this week. It was held to protest at recent violence in his country, particularly last December's massacre of 45 Maya Indians in the southern state of Chiapas.
The ambassador said the massacre, which "shook" him personally, seemed to take Mexico back to 1968, when hundreds of students were shot dead by security forces. At that time Mexico should have opened up its system and its economy, as Ireland had done under Sean Lemass. This was his personal view, he said.
Mr Daniel Dultzin Dubin told an audience in the Oak Room of the Mansion House on Tuesday night that he would have "expected the courtesy" of an advance copy of a lengthy statement read by Ms Riana Walsh of Amnesty so that he could "answer professionally" the accusations of government negligence over growing human rights abuses and their investigation. He undertook to come back with answers.
Mr Jim Loughran of Amnesty said the ambassador's comments were "absolutely disingenuous". The matters raised in Ms Walsh's introduction amounted to a summary of Amnesty's "urgent action" appeals concerning abuses and escalating violence over the past four years, and Mr Dultzin was already aware of them. Ms Walsh had asked why previous harassments and murders had been ignored, thus granting impunity to right-wing paramilitary groups and creating the climate in which one of these groups murdered 45 Tzotzil Indians in Acteal just before Christmas.
The ambassador, who was in Mexico at the time of the massacre, listed the measures taken since - including the arrest of suspects and the "intellectual authors" of the killings, as well as the replacement of both Mexico's Interior Minister and the governor of Chiapas. "Five officials are now in jail and can't get bail," he said.
Mr Dultzin was challenged by members of the Irish-Mexico Group (IMG), which is sympathetic to rebel Zapatista-supported communities. They claimed that a number of foreigners - some of them "human shields for peace" - had been expelled or "invited to leave" Mexico when questioned by migration police in the state. The ambassador asked for details.
Mr Dultzin expressed pride at changes in his country creating "a full democracy in Mexico" under which power could change hands more easily than in the past.
AFP adds from Mexico City: Mexico expelled a US woman for taking part in "unauthorised activities" after entering Mexico as a tourist. Ms Maria Bullitt Darlington took part in a pro Zapatista demonstration in Chiapas in April, 1997, according to an interior ministry statement. It was a "caravan for peace with justice and dignity that crossed Chiapas", the statement said.
The Zapatista National Liberation Army launched an uprising against the government in January 1994 to win improved indigenous rights. Peace talks broke down in September 1996, but since the massacre the government has put out tentative feelers to fresh talks.