Mexico's former ambassador to Ireland, Mr Agustin Gutierrez Canet, has published an open letter to President Ernesto Zedillo in a Mexican newspaper in which he denounces what he considered to be his "unfair dismissal" from his Irish post.
Mr Canet's sojourn in Ireland lasted from October 1995 until May 1996, when former president Carlos Salinas was resident in the State. In May 1996 an academic, Mr Jorge Castaneda, visited Ireland and met Mr Salinas, an appointment allegedly organised through the Mexican embassy. "I was in Rome at the time," said Mr Canet, who denied any involvement in the meeting.
Mexican pundits, "paid by the government", according to Mr Canet, speculated that the Mexican ambassador to Ireland was planning to form a new party with Mr Salinas, using "multi-million dollar accounts in Switzerland".
On May 13th, 1996, Mexico's foreign minister, Mr Jose Gurria, ordered Mr Canet to return to Mexico. In addition, Mr Gurria told Mr Canet the decision was received with "satisfaction" by the Irish authorities. The Secretary General of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Mr Padraic MacKernan, was said to have informed Mr Canet that he had made no comment on developments.
"I never had the chance to explain or defend myself," wrote Mr Canet, "I was just told that the Mexican government had lost its trust in me. If that was the case then how come they immediately offered me an ambassadorial post in Haiti?"
Mr Canet returned to Mexico where President Zedillo refused to meet him.
Mr Canet's open letter, published by the conservative daily El Universal, sheds light on Mexican government concerns in Ireland, notably the Chiapas conflict, described in Mr Canet's letter as "the principal image problem for Mexico in Ireland".
The former ambassador attributed the problem to the work of the Irish-Mexico Group, which co-ordinates Irish solidarity efforts in Mexico. "Some of the members are well-intentioned," said Mr Canet, who invited representatives to the embassy, "but others are somewhat fanatic leftovers from the Sandinista support movement".
Mr Canet also said he walked out of a Sinn Fein ardfheis after a speaker criticised Mexico's policy in Chiapas and described the Mexican government as "corrupt".
"They invited me there to insult me," said Mr Canet, who communicated his dissatisfaction to the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams.