One of the joys of having an extended family in the US is that I occasionally catch sight of pearls of wisdom on Facebook such as this -
"Check the law again. It is a felony to be in this country illegally. Try being in another country illegally and see what happens. Most places imprison and some, like Mexico may even execute."
Which would be a truly fabulous point, but for one small detail - nobody has been executed in Mexico since 1961, and capital punishment was formally abolished in 2005.
The joys of free speech are that we don't have access to free ear plugs!
ReplyDeleteYou see such nonsense on Youtube too... and on blogs.
People write down what they would say in a pub argument; it's something that their mate said or they got from their or they read in the Express or the Mail. It has absolutly no basis in fact, but it sounds good and it fits their prejudices.
A bit like Richard Baker's arguments, really.
" ... nobody has been executed in Mexico since 1961, and capital punishment was formally abolished in 2005."
ReplyDeleteOne of my brothers is married to a Mexican lady and he goes down there fairly regularly. He assures me that extra-judicial political executions are common. Being a socialist he likes to get in touch with local labour leaders to talk about conditions for workers and will join in demos and such like. He tells a story about being at a garden party at his in laws (who are members of the upper/ruling class) and talking to the chief of police for that city. The chief, apparently aware of his contacts in the labour movement,told him that as long as his holiday remained a holiday he wouldn't be found dead in a ditch.
That's Mexico for ya.
I see on Wikipedia that the Green Party of Mexico is one of two parties in favour of restoring capital punishment, which seems a bit bizarre.
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