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Andres Oppenheimer---Listen carefully to Latin America's response to Cuba's repression: silence***Reached in Madrid, Mexico's Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez told me through his spokesman that Mexico ''laments'' the prison sentences, and that it will take them into account in the April 16 vote on Cuba's human rights conditions at the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva.

Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, whose country had not said anything about the Cuban crackdown on peaceful dissidents, responded, ``We are always worried about the human rights situation in any country, but the most strident actions are not always the most effective ones.''

Foreign Minister Allan Wagner of Peru, whose country is cosponsoring a mild resolution at the U.N. Human Rights Commission asking that Cuba allow a human rights monitor to visit the island, told me that his country ''expresses its concern'' over the fate of the jailed dissidents, intellectuals and independent journalists in Cuba.

Argentine Foreign Minister Carlos Ruckauf told me that ''the Cuban dictatorship has committed another crime against freedom of expression.'' But his boss, President Eduardo Duhalde, was at the same time evading any strong criticism of Cuba.

Insiders say Duhalde is under pressure from his hand-picked presidential candidate, Néstor Kirchner, to vote in support of Cuba at the United Nations, as part of his efforts to capitalize on Argentina's escalating anti-American sentiment in the wake of the war in Iraq.

What irony! The democratic leaders of Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Peru and Chile were themselves peaceful opponents until recently, forced to knock on the doors of foreign governments, international human rights organizations -- and journalists -- to demand solidarity against their countries' authoritarian governments. Compared to Cuba's Rivero, they had it easy. Most of them were never imprisoned for having a typewriter, foreign newspapers, or for contacting foreign diplomats to explain their struggle for democracy. How can they remain silent in the face of such an outrage?***

Mexico Condemns Executions in Cuba***MEXICO CITY - Mexico on Monday condemned Cuba's execution of three men who tried to hijack a ferry to the United States. But Mexico kept silent on how it plans to vote on a resolution on its traditional ally's human rights record. The vote is expected in the coming days at the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva.***

''This is as far as I go'' - Disgusted by executions, Castro ally cuts ties to Cuba *** In a bitter criticism of the executions carried out last week in Cuba, José Saramago, the Nobel Prize-winning Portuguese writer considered Fidel Castro's best friend among European intellectuals, broke with the regime Monday. ''This is as far as I go,'' Saramago wrote in a short but powerful essay printed in Spain's leading newspaper, El País, as the European Union, various countries and organizations around the world continued to offer public repudiations.

Killing three men by firing squad at dawn Friday for trying to spirit a ferry boat is unacceptable -- especially since the would-be hijackers didn't hurt anybody, wrote Saramago, a communist. ``Cuba has won no heroic victory by executing these three men, but it has lost my confidence, damaged my hopes, robbed me of illusions.''***