Memo From The Midwest | Edgar Tamayo: Mexico’s Government Goes To Bat For Yet Another Illegal Alien Murderer
01/22/2014
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Mexican national Edgar Tamayo, who first entered this country as an illegal alien, is scheduled for execution by lethal injection in Texas January 22nd. Tamayo was condemned for the murder of Houston police officer Guy Gaddis—almost exactly twenty years ago.

Mexico is vociferously protesting Tamayo’s execution. The Mexican Foreign Ministry (SRE) has requested a stay of execution; Mexican Foreign Minister Jose Antonio Meade met with Secretary of State Kerry about it; the Mexican government has denounced the U.S. before the Organization of American States.

In Cuernavaca, capital of Tamayo’s home state of Morelos, “migrants” burned an American flag in protest (photographs here) and symbolically closed a McDonald’s and a Burger King. [Migrantes queman bandera de EU en Morelos contra ejecución de Tamayo, LaJornadaEnLinea, January 16, 2014]

Mexicans burning the American flag

In Tamayo’s hometown of Miacatlan, 2000 people marched in his defense:

“…We think, we believe, that he [Edgar Tamayo] is innocent, there is much injustice in the United States…” said Adriana Puentes, a friend of the family.

Micatlan’s mayor, Sergio Arias, who is also Edgar Tamayo’s cousin explained that “we believe that they are blaming him unjustly only for the crime of being Mexican…””.

Con marcha, piden clemencia para Edgar TamayoPedro Tonantzin, Excelsior, January 19, 2014 

There are so many natives of Morelos state living north of the border that they have a coalition of expatriate organizations: the Confederación de Asociaciones y Clubes de Morelenses de Estados Unidos y Canadá. In November,  it started its Salvemos a Edgar de la Pena de Muerte campaign.

The Mexican Reconquista band Tigres del Norte (see here) recorded a song about Edgar Tamayo a few years ago. It begins with these unsubtle lyrics:

"Los canijos gringos me tienen cautivo siendo inocente, sin tener delito, a mi me aplicaron la pena de muerte…"

[The cunning gringos have me captive, being innocent, without having a crime, they sentenced me to death…]

Although the Tigres have lived here for decades, are rich and famous and all but one are now U.S. citizens, they sure don’t identify with America. In fact, they resent it.

The Obama Administration, too, opposes the execution, with Secretary of State John Kerry as point man. (For recent English MSM coverage of Tamayo, click here and here and here. Here’s Tamayo’s entry at Murderpedia.com. )

But despite all the opposition, Governor Rick Perry is adamant that the execution take place. In November of 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to take up the case.

The Perry Administration reportedly told the protesting governor of Morelos that

"We have received your petition. It doesn't matter where you are from. If you commit this kind of despicable crime in Texas, you will be held accountable to our laws, including the maximum punishment."

Mexican Man On Death Row In Texas Reunites With Family Days Before Planned Execution, By Bill Vourvoulias, Fox News Latino, January 13, 2014

Tomayo’s crime was despicable. On January 31st, 1994, he had been picked up for drunk driving and was being transported in a police car when he was able to get ahold of a gun and shot Officer Gaddis, a 24 year old white man,  three times in the back of the head. Not only did Tamayo confess, he trivialized the murder by claiming to have murdered Gaddis when the officer didn’t let him give his car keys to his wife.

So why is the government of Mexico defending this guy? I refer the reader to my article For Fox, Some Dead Mexicans More Equal Than Others, published way back in 2002. It’s about Javier Suarez Medina, another Mexican cop-killer, who was executed in Texas and then given a lavish funeral attended by 6,000 across the border in Mexico.

Whatever you think about the death penalty, this was just disgusting. It was making a hero out of a murderer.

While the Mexican government can’t control the mayhem in its own country, it routinely defends Mexicans who commit murder in our country.

But which of our fearless politicians has criticized Mexico for this?

And from the Mexican government’s point of view, this hypocrisy makes perfect political sense. Mexico discontinued the death penalty many decades ago, so the government gets to proclaim its superiority to the U.S. and make a great show of defending Mexicans in the US, regardless of legal status—scoring points with Mexicans on both sides of the border.

It’s yet another example of Mexico’s contempt for our laws, along with its constant support for illegal immigration.

One argument against the execution: according to Tamayo’s attorneys, Tamayo is “a mentally retarded, brain damaged man who spoke almost no English at the time of his arrest.” He is said to have an IQ of 67.  

Mysteriously, it’s considered acceptable for death penalty opponents to talk about IQ. And the Left regularly accuses conservatives of having low IQs. Thus the comments section in this Guardian article on the Tamayo case contains disparaging comments about Texas IQs. [Texas intent on executing Mexican despite Kerry warning over bilateral ties, by Tom Dart, January 17, 2014]

But this is actually an argument for keeping out immigrants who don’t speak English. Remember that Tamayo never entered legally. Supposing that Tamayo is really retarded and brain damaged—isn’t the onus on whoever let him escape from Mexico? Why did his family allow it?

Tamayo was certainly clever enough to finagle a gun, shoot a police officer and to escape—all while handcuffed.

Then there’s the diplomatic argument. According to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, a country should inform the consulate of a foreigner arrested within its borders.

Article 36 stipulates that

…if he so requests, the competent authorities of the receiving State shall, without delay, inform the consular post of the sending State if, within its consular district, a national of that State is arrested or committed to prison or to custody pending trial or is detained in any other manner. Any communication addressed to the consular post by the person arrested, in prison, custody or detention shall be forwarded by the said authorities without delay. The said authorities shall inform the person concerned without delay of his rights under this subparagraph.”

The critics emphasize the “without delay” part, but there’s also the “if he so requests” part. According to Fox News Latino (see above) “Tamayo claims he was never informed that he had the right to contact the Mexican consulate.” Which indicates he never requested that right.

How did Tamayo present himself upon arrest? The police knew he was born in Mexico, but did he claim U.S. citizenship?

In any case, the Mexican diplomats eventually did find out about Tamayo before the trial, and have been in contact ever since.

I do think that Texas police departments, if they know they have a foreign national in custody, ought to contact his consulate as soon as possible. However, even the U.S. Supreme Court has not ruled against Texas on this point.

More importantly: Mexico itself routinely violates the Vienna Convention, which stipulates in Article 55 (“Respect for the laws and regulations of the receiving State” that

“…it is the duty of all persons enjoying such privileges and immunities [diplomatic and consular personnel] to respect the laws and regulations of the receiving State. They also have a duty not to interfere in the internal affairs of the State.”

Mexico interferes constantly in our immigration policy—which, ironically, makes it more difficult to deal with people like Edgar Tamayo.

(Furthermore, since Mexico energetically asserts its jurisdiction over its own citizens residing in the U.S., how then can their children be considered U.S. citizens when the 14th Amendment stipulates that “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States….”? So whose “jurisdiction” are these children subject to?)

It’s sad that Mexicans get executed in America. But the reason they get executed is that they murder people. Isn’t that sad too? Yet the Mexican government doesn’t show much concern.

The Edgar Tamayo case is yet another example of the decades-long failure of our immigration system, intentionally perpetrated by both Democrats and Republicans.

If we’d been controlling our border all these years, Edgar Tamayo would have stayed in Mexico. And Officer Guy Gaddis would still be alive.

Our entire political class has blood on its hands.

And that includes Gov. Rick Perry, who talks tough when defying the Mexican government over capital punishment but has been a pushover when facing the Slave Power over illegal immigration into Texas.

American citizen Allan Wall (email him) moved back to the U.S.A. in 2008 after many years residing in Mexico. Allan's wife is Mexican, and their two sons are bilingual.  In 2005, Allan served a tour of duty in Iraq with the Texas Army National Guard. His VDARE.COM articles are archived here; his Mexidata.info articles are archived here ; his News With Views columns are archived here; and his website is here.

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