USA/Mexico: Statement to the case of Agustín Aguayo

(21.02.2007) México, D. F., 21 de febrero de 2007

The SRE will lend consular attention to Dr. Agustín Aguayo, detained in Mannheim, Germany.

The Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Patricia Espinoza Cantellano, received today the Mrs. Susana Aguayo, mother of the Dr. Agustín Aguayo Mares, American citizen by naturalization and of Mexican origin, who is under arrest in the American military prison in Mannheim, Germany.

In the meeting, with Mrs. Susana Aguayo she presented to the Office of the secretary of Foreign Affairs (SRE) a letter that requests the support of the Government of Mexico in favor of her son. During the meeting it was verified that Agustín Aguayo Mares is of Mexican origin and that he acquired American citizenship by naturalization in the year 2000.

In such cases, officials of the Chancellery explained to Mrs. Aguayo that the practice and international law impede to a State, in this case Mexico, to exercise the diplomatic protection against a secondary State (U.S.) of which is also national, unless the first nationality be the predominant one.

Nevertheless, in consideration of Dr. Aguayo and his nationality of origin and to that of his relatives all being Mexicans, the Office of the secretary of Foreign Affairs (SRE) has rotated instructions to the Embassy of Mexico in Germany, in order that aid be lent by the consulate, consistent with good relations to obtain information on the physical state of Aguayo Mares and his present legal situation.

This is the official Mexican government report translated to English:

Legislators condemn the court martial that has continued against Agustín Aguayo, for which they have asked the Executive Chief to assume his legal defense.

The Senate of the Republic condemned the military judgment that continues against Mexican Agustín Aguayo for deserting the Army of the United States, and asked the president Felipe Cauldron that the Embassy of Mexico in Germany assume his legal defense. Likewise, the full Senate requested to the office of the secretary of Foreign Affairs that "they exhaust all the political tactics and diplomacy to contribute to the immediate liberation of Agustín Aguayo and to guarantee his psychological and physical integrity".

When presenting a point in agreement, the senator Silvano Aureoles, of the Party of the Democratic Revolution, said that Aguayo, who was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, and enlisted in 2003 in the US Army said, " he is a prisoner of conscience and one more victim of president George W. Bush’s militaristic eagerness". He gave details of how Aguayo was sent as a paramedic to Iraq in 2004, and , while living in Germany on a military base was notified in 2006 he would be returned to the zone of conflict, despite that had expressed his refusal to participate in said war, identifying with the "right of conscientious objection". "Unfortunately in his case, the military courts of the United States have refused to recognize the right of Aguayo to be declared a conscientious objector and they have accused him of desertion", he added.

Legislators confirmed that Aguayo is prisoner in a military base of the United States, in Germany, awaiting a court martial to define his legal situation, and could be condemned to seven years of prison "for refusing to support the massacre of civilians and the innocent" in Iraq. Besides, they defended the right of Aguayo to refuse to participate in a war, and it is "unjustifiable that someone can be imprisoned as a consequence of his decision to not participate in any type of military activities". The proposal of Silvano Aureoles, considered by the entire Senate as of most urgency and of obvious resolution, was approved unanimously.

Official Mexican Statement (translated) Spanish version located at http://www.sre.gob.mx/csocial/comunicados/2007/feb/b_050.htm.

Keywords:    ⇒ Agustin Aguayo   ⇒ Conscientious Objection   ⇒ Imprisonment   ⇒ Jugdement   ⇒ Mexico   ⇒ USA