If you go overseas - Will you be ALLOWED to contact the US Embassy?

[annabanana]

If the country you're visiting is annoyed at the US, maybe not.

Received this morning from the Center for Constitutional Rights:

Contact Your Representative About Protecting Consular Rights
Contact your Representative immediately to protect your consular rights and the life of Jose Medellin, a Mexican national who will be executed by Texas authorities on August 5, 2008. Jose Medellin and 50 other Mexican nationals were denied the right to visit with a Mexican consular official while in detention in the U.S. This right has been routinely denied to many detained under the Bush Administration-including many of CCR's clients-and has prevented foreign authorities from protecting their own citizens from the Bush Administration's torture, rendition and other human rights violations of non-U.S. citizens. Contact your Representative now with the easy to use form on our website.http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/383/t/6374/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=25299

[Eurobabe]

1. Well, where I am

seriously, who the F needs them? I'd trust the German govt. more than the USA at this point. Screw em!

[islandmkl]

2. until you are visiting a foreign country, and realize that country does not extend the rights..

of THEIR citizens to you....a small problem can turn into your worst kafka nightmare...

you'll be looking for an embassy to protect you, then....

when abroad, you are nothing more than a visitor, a tourist, a foreigner....

the embassy can be your only hope for representation, should you need it...

[Eurobabe]

8. Dual citizenship baby

Coming right up.

[DrDan]

3. well - you might want to temper that tone

Be overseas and lose your passport, I doubt the German Gov is going to help you out.

I have worked overseas 9 years in 3 locations. Access to the embassy is a pretty important consideration.

Just one more issue junior has screwed up with his pseudo-cowboy persona. Does he ever think through anything?

[Eurobabe]

7. I only seem to lose my passport when I am in the US

only happened once in 17 years. :)

[AnneD]

4. Jose Medellin......

committed a heinous crime. He came to this country as an infant but lived his entire life in this country. The fact of his citizenship in question was not brought up until the end of the trial when he was rightly sentenced to death. He and his fellow gang members brutally raped and murdered two innocent young girls (Pena and Ertman) in a shocking and heinous manner. If we had known they were that bad and illegal, we could have deported their butts back to Mexico and saved those girls. Any tears shed here in Houston are crocodile tears. Most other countries would not have given these hoods as many opportunities as they got coming here illegally. Just check how countries like Mexico treats illegal immigrants in their own countries. Talk about hypocrites.

[Cid_B]

6. Agreed...

nt

[Marrah_G]

5. Jose Medellin - Probably not a good example for your argument.

They confessed to doing this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Medell%C3%ADn

"The gang members ran and grabbed Elizabeth and pulled her down the incline, off of the tracks. Testimony showed that Jenny had gotten free and could have run away but returned to Elizabeth when she cried out for Jenny to help her. The confessions of the gang members that were used at trial indicated that there was never less than 2 men on each of the girls at any one time and that the girls were repeatedly raped orally, anally and vaginally for the entire hour. One of the gang members later said during the brag session that by the time he got to one of the girls, "she was loose and sloppy." One of the boys boasted of having "virgin blood" on him.

The 14-year-old juvenile later testified that he had gone back and forth between his brother and Peter Cantu since they were the only ones there that he really knew and kept urging them to leave. He said he was told repeatedly by Peter Cantu to "get some". He raped Jennifer and was later sentenced to 40 years for aggravated sexual assault, which was the maximum sentence for a juvenile.

After the rapes, the gang members took Jenny and Elizabeth from the clearing into a wooded area, leaving the juvenile behind, saying he was "too little to watch". Jenny was strangled with the belt of Sean O'Brien, with two murderers pulling, one on each side, until the belt broke. Part of the belt was left at the murder scene, the rest was found in O'Brien's home. After the belt broke, the killers used her own shoelaces to finish their job. Medellin later complained that "the bitch wouldn't die" and that it would have been "easier with a gun". Elizabeth was also strangled with her shoelaces, after crying and begging the gang members not to kill them; she began bargaining, offering to give them her phone number so they could get together again.

The medical examiner testified that Elizabeth's two front teeth were knocked out of her brutalized mouth before she died and that two of Jennifer's ribs were broken after she had died. Testimony showed that the girls' bodies were kicked and their necks were stomped on after the strangulations in order to "make sure that they were really dead."

I have no pity for these animals. I hope they all die in prison. I hope they are never allowed a single moment of joy or happiness in their lives, EVER.

[AnneD]

10. Thanks ....

I really didn't want to research the details-once was enough. You can't imagine the effect that murder had on all of us. It was just so tragic and brutal. Their partents have been though a living hell.

[AnneD]

9. That's true....

but as I mentioned.......he came over as an infant and there was no asking to see the consulate until after he was convicted and it was discovered that he wasn't here legally. He was a Mexican National in name only and only then when it was convenient for him so that he could avoid answering for his crime. In this case, it was just a convenient loop hole found by an attorney. If I committed a crime in another country, I would expect prosecution by local law, even as an American. Our consulate is the first to tell you that. All they can do is try to make sure you are treated humanely, receive all you are due by local law (Medellin has received this), and give you mail. They can try to advocate for you but little else.

Mexico has always wanted it both ways. He was clearly guilty of a crime and was convicted of the death penalty and even if he did consult the Embassy here, they could not have done more here than they have. There are many Americans being held in Mexican jails for carrying arms (even carrying just bullets gets you prison). They'll let you out but it will cost you everything you have (the justice system is so corrupt). Now here you have the right to bear arms-but that right doesn't extend to Mexico. I come from many generations of Texans-there was a reason why Texicans rebelled against Mexico-so I plead a generational contempt for the ruling Mexican upper class. If I side with anyone, it is the migrants escaping the crushing poverty that this ruling class has imposed. And GOD help the poor immigrant from Honduras or Guatemala that tries to go though Mexico. We treat our arrested illegal aliens far better.

No offense but most Americans traveling abroad are rather naive or stupid when it comes to the law . Your American passport does not give you immunity from local law, just as a foreign passport gives you no immunity here. I am especially hard nosed on this case because the girls bodies (I think they were between 14-16 yo) were found blocks from my house and their deaths were very brutal-they were gang raped and beaten to death in a slow tortuous manner. I have followed this case for years and have met at various times with the families involved. The two girls-best friends are buried together. They have been dragging this case out far to long. One other leader, the 'American', was put to death years ago as should Medellin.

I can't speak to the other cases but this case deserves to be carried to it's conclusion.

[Dorian Gray]

11. If I committed

a crime in England after having lived there for 12 years, was convicted of said crime, then claimed I wasn't a national to get out of that crime? Yeah... I don't think I'd blame them for denying me a consul visit.

I'm sure the Mexican embassy wants nothing to do with Jose Medellin.