Florence Cassez is a french woman that was arrested for the kidnapping of three people, along with her boyfriend. She was found guilty and was sentenced to 96 years of prision. Now, it seems her case is at the top of the agenda of President Sarkozy for his upcoming visit. Apparently, the media at France has gone wild over her, and most of the French people that have heard of her case believe it is an example of the corruption and impunity that dominate Mexico. They believe, because the media promoted the idea, that she is innocent and that their President should excercise all his power to liberate her. She's been in jail for around four years, but in that time been in touch with her family, given press conferences, received books and letters from her home country, and received a pretty damn good treatment for being in jail.
I ask: is the fact that she's French given her some sort of prerogative over the rest of the people? What's so special about her that allows her to be above the law? The Mexican Constitution states that all foreigners have to obey and respect the Mexican institutions and laws, and that they have to stick to the decisions of the Court. They also can't appeal to any other resource that the common Mexican citizen can't have access to. Meaning, Miss Cassez can't appeal to diplomacy or to the intervention of the French government, unless it was proved that there was injustice in her legal process. And seeing how all three of the people that she allegedly kidnapped have testified against her and it has been proved beyond reasonable doubt that she did it, there was no injustice.
It seems like the French people have some issues with respecting other countrie's laws. I mean, remember the Pastry War in 1838? The French Foreign Minister demanded that the Mexican government had to pay Monsieur Remontel for some damages that a brawl caused in his shop. But again (does anyone sense a deja vu here?), that wasn't a legal action. What Monsieur Remontel had to do was raise a complaint to the competent authorities and seek the pay from the people responsible for the damages. But of course, he was French, and French people have special privileges. And since the Mexican government refused to pay (they were in all their right to refuse, and thanks to this sort of actions International Law was coded and these kind of interventions were prohibited), they invaded.
Of course, nowadays intervention is not an option, but trust me, there are many new and varied ways of pressuring a government into doing something, and I'm afraid that's exactly what Sarkozy is going to do. This is just one example out of many where a powerful country unilaterally decides to ignore the correct proceedings of International Law in favor of its interests. Don't whine later then, when the rest of the world turns its back on you when you need help (coughUnitedSatescough).
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