On the request of the Mexican government, Cuban police evicted 21 individuals from the embassy grounds March 1.

The morning after the initial incident at the Mexican embassy, Cuba's main daily newspapers, Granma and Juventud Rebelde, published on their front pages a statement by the Cuban government outlining the facts of what happened and denouncing what it termed "a gross provocation organized openly by an official radio station of the United States government."

In early February Mexican president Vicente Fox made a 24-hour visit to Cuba, where he met with President Fidel Castro to discuss Mexico's trade with the island and other topics. Fox and Castañeda also met at the Mexican embassy with several U.S.-backed opponents of the Cuban Revolution and then issued a statement calling on the revolutionary government to pursue "democratic reforms" and respect "human rights," standard fare for the U.S.-led campaign against the country's socialist revolution.

At the same time, seeking to present his government as acting independently from Washington, Castañeda declared that Mexico would not sponsor an anti-Cuba resolution at the United Nations, for which U.S. officials have been arm-twisting under the banner of " human rights." Castañeda has previously made a number of public statements critical of revolutionary Cuba.

On February 26, while on a visit to Miami where he presided over the opening of the Mexican Cultural Institute, Castañeda stated, "This cultural institute belongs to all Mexicans, all Latin Americans, and naturally, to all Cuban-Americans." He added, "The doors of the Mexican embassy in Havana are open to all Cuban citizens, as is Mexico."

The next day Radio Martí reported that Castañeda "reiterated in Miami that the doors of his country's embassy in Havana are open to all Cuban citizens and added that so is Mexico." According to the official statement in Granma, "The radio station added that the Mexican foreign minister reiterated the position stated after his return to Mexico following his visit to Cuba that 'Mexico's relations with the Cuban Revolution have ceased and those with the Republic of Cuba have begun.' This phrase was framed in such a way that it could be interpreted to mean that diplomatic relations between Mexico and Cuba had just been broken."

That afternoon, as rumors spread through Havana that the Mexican government was issuing visas, several dozen people gathered near Mexico's embassy. Later that night, some 20 men commandeered a passenger bus and rammed it through the embassy gates, while dozens who were gathered nearby sought to walk through the breach into the diplomatic compound. Most of them were prevented by a detachment of 40 members of a specialized unit of the city police, who had been posted to the Mexican embassy when it became clear earlier in the day that an abnormal situation was developing. Some 150 were detained, according to a March 1 Cuban government statement.

The Cuban government immediately condemned the incident as a provocation and blamed Radio Martí. It pointed out that U.S. immigration policy, codified in the Cuban Adjustment Act, encourages incidents such as this one. Under that law, Cuban citizens who cross the Florida Straits on flimsy boats and land on U.S. shores are automatically granted official residency status. Meanwhile, Washington limits the numbers of exit visas for those seeking to emigrate through legal channels.

The Mexican government responded by asking Cuban authorities to remove the 21 men occupying the embassy building. Castañeda and Mexico's ambassador to Cuba, Ricardo Pascoe, said their government would not grant visas to the men because they had not asked for political asylum and were seeking to leave for economic reasons. On March 1, unarmed Cuban police evicted the 21 without incident. That day, a statement in Granma highlighted the fact that 13 of the 21 individuals had criminal records, including for robbery, assault, and theft.

Placed on the defensive, Mexican officials claimed Castañeda's words had been quoted out of context by Radio Martí. Castañeda blamed "radical elements in Miami." Cuban-American rightists in Miami, as well as opponents of the Cuban Revolution in Mexico City, circulated the accusation that the crashing of the embassy had been manufactured by the Cuban government itself "to warn the Mexican government off its new emphasis on human rights in its relations with Cuba," the Wall Street Journal reported.

The incident recalled, on a much smaller scale, the events of April 1980, when a group of Cubans crashed a bus through the gates of the Peruvian embassy, killing a Cuban soldier. After Peruvian officials, who had joined in Washington's anti-Cuba chorus, provocatively refused to hand over the criminals, the Cuban guards were withdrawn, and some 10,000 people crowded onto the embassy grounds, believing the U.S. and Peruvian propaganda that they would be welcomed with open arms. When that turned out to be false, Cuba's revolutionary government called the U.S. rulers' bluff and, much to their dismay, opened up the port of Mariel to anyone who wanted to emigrate, leading to a boatlift in which 128,000 Cubans left for the United States, while millions of Cubans throughout the island poured into the streets in support of their revolution.  
 
 
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