United Mexican States
Head of state and government: Vicente Fox Quesada
Capital: Mexico City
Population: 100 million
Official language: Spanish
2001 ratifications/signatures: Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons
Death penalty: abolitionist for ordinary crimes
A leading human rights defender was murdered and many others received death threats. New legislation on indigenous rights failed to resolve the conflict in Chiapas. Arbitrary detention and torture remained widespread. There were reports of "disappearances"and extrajudicial executions. Impunity for such crimes remained the norm. Pressure increased for full and effective investigations of past human rights violations. More military personnel were assigned posts in the Attorney General's Office. Intense international and national pressure led to the release of two prisoners of conscience, but their convictions were not overturned nor their torturers brought to justice. Another prisoner of conscience remained in prison. At the end of the year the Senate approved the ratification of a number of international human rights treaties. Ratification of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court remained pending.
Background
On taking office in December 2000, President Fox, of the Partido Acción Nacional, National Action Party, made commitments to end the impunity which characterized much of the previous 70-year rule of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional, Institutional Revolutionary Party. In March the Foreign Minister made unprecedented pledges to combat human rights abuses, including by ratifying and incorporating into national law all outstanding international human rights treaties and by inviting all international human rights mechanisms to visit Mexico. However, by the end of the year, these international commitments had not resulted in effective improvement in human rights protection and reports of human rights violations remained widespread.
On taking office, President Fox had appointed as Attorney General of the Republic a serving army general who was also a former chief military prosecutor with a record of failing to prosecute military officials accused of human rights abuses. In 2001, at least 13 other military officials were given senior posts in the Attorney General's Office. No effective mechanism existed to carry out independent judicial investigations into the frequent reports of human rights violations committed by the military or agents of the Attorney General's Office or the Offices of State Attorney Generals. Pre-election proposals to reform the administration of justice did not materialize and the increasing role of the military in the Attorney General's Office raised serious concerns about the willingness of the government to tackle impunity.
The new position of Minister for Public Security was created with responsibility for the Policía Federal Preventiva (PFP), Federal Preventive Police, and prisons. Thousands of serving military personnel were transferred directly into the PFP.
In February the Mexican government authorized the extradition to Spain of an Argentine citizen accused of crimes against humanity during the military dictatorship in Argentina. At the end of the year the final decision of the Mexican courts on whether to allow his extradition was still pending.
Human rights defenders and journalists
There were numerous reports of harassment of human rights defenders and journalists in many different states. They were the victims of death threats, surveillance operations, smear campaigns and physical attacks. The authorities consistently failed to act to bring those responsible to justice, contributing to a worsening security climate.
- On 19 October, Digna Ochoa, a human rights lawyer who had worked with the Centro de Derechos Humanos "Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez" (PRODH), Human Rights Centre "Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez", was shot and killed in her office in Mexico City. A death threat was left next to her body warning members of the PRODH that they would face the same fate. Digna Ochoa had worked on high-profile cases in which members of the military and the Attorney General's Office were accused of serious human rights violations. The authorities had repeatedly failed to identify and bring to justice those responsible for a series of threats and attacks against Digna Ochoa and the PRODH. Inconsistencies in the initial investigation into her murder raised concern that vital evidence may have been lost. A week after Digna Ochoa's murder, five other prominent human rights defenders in Mexico City received death threats. The authorities promised to protect human rights defenders and to bring those responsible for the murder and the threats to justice. Investigations into the murder and threats were continuing at the end of the year.
- Over the year, members of the Centro de Derechos Humanos "Fray Bartolomé de las Casas" (CDHFBC), "Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas" Human Rights Centre in Chiapas State, reportedly suffered harassment and threats, including an attempted ambush by gunmen on the road to San Cristobal in August, e-mail threats and unidentified individuals requesting, both at the CDHFBC and at travel agencies, details of the travel arrangements of CDHFBC members.
- In October, Abel Barrera of the Centro de Derechos Humanos de la Montaña "Tlachinollan", Montaña Centre for Human Rights "Tlachinollan", Guerrero State, received a death threat after following up on investigations into previous threats against him. Despite commitments to investigate the new threat, the authorities failed to take appropriate action.
As part of President Fox's commitment to reach an early negotiated settlement to the conflict in Chiapas with the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN), Zapatista National Liberation Army, there were troop withdrawals in the conflict zone and many EZLN sympathizers were released from custody. In April, expectations of an early solution to the conflict receded after Congress modified and approved an indigenous rights bill which failed to meet agreed principles. Indigenous and human rights organizations across the country condemned the bill as a violation of Mexico's international obligations on indigenous rights. The EZLN withdrew from negotiations.
Indigenous communities continued to suffer intimidation and attack by paramilitary or "armed civilian" groups. Despite this, a number of internally displaced people returned to their communities.
- In February a paramilitary group reportedly forced six Tzotziles indigenous families off their land in the municipality of Chenalhó, Chiapas. The special unit of the Attorney General's Office set up in 1999 to investigate paramilitary groups failed to prosecute those responsible for this and other crimes.
- In November several of those who were reportedly responsible for organizing the 1997 massacre of 45 members of the indigenous community of Acteal were acquitted by a federal judge and released.
Arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment continued to be commonly used by federal, state and municipal police forces and military personnel carrying out policing operations. Legislation preventing and punishing such abuses remained inadequate and was seldom invoked. The courts routinely failed to challenge prosecution evidence reportedly extracted under torture, or to investigate those allegedly responsible. There were reports of prison conditions amounting to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
- In May, in the town of Miguel Aleman, Tamaulipas state, José Antinio Garcia Sandoval was dragged from his house by the municipal Policía Preventiva, Preventive Police, after a dispute with a neighbour. He was beaten, kicked and repeatedly struck in the face. He was held incommunicado for 24 hours and threatened with reprisals if he reported the incident. Two official medical examinations failed to identify his serious injuries, which included fractured ribs. Although he lodged a complaint with the State Attorney General's Office and the State Human Rights Commission, no action was reportedly taken.
- In December, PFP agents in Tijuana, Baja California state, detained two migrant workers, Filiberto Girón Cisneros and Enrique Rey Buenrostro, and reportedly tortured them to extract confessions to trafficking illegal migrants. The two were subsequently hospitalized for their injuries and lodged official complaints. The PFP officers responsible were reportedly detained pending an investigation.
Federal and state police were reportedly responsible for the "disappearance" of at least three people in police operations. The whereabouts of the victims remained unknown at the end of the year. A reform to the federal penal codes codifying the crime of " was passed.
There were reports of extrajudicial executions by the members of the security forces in various states, including Chihuahua. The authorities reportedly failed to take prompt and effective action to bring those responsible to justice.
- In June, Faustino Jiménez Alvarez was reportedly detained by members of the Policía Judicial del Estado, State Judicial Police, in Tierra Colorada, Guerrero state. The local authorities failed to establish his whereabouts and officers accused of participating in his "disappearance" remained on active duty while under investigation; they fled the state before charges were filed. Faustino Jiménez Alvarez' fate had not been clarified by the end of the year.
- In November Rodolfo Montiel Flores and Teodoro Cabrera García, two peasant environmental activists, were released on "humanitarian grounds" by order of the President. The two men had been detained in 1999 for their peaceful activism and signed false confessions under torture by the military. They were then tried and sentenced by the courts and in July 2001 their appeal had been rejected by the courts. On their release, the authorities did not acknowledge their innocence or take steps to bring to justice those responsible for their torture.
- Another prisoner of conscience, Brigadier General José Francisco Gallardo, spent his eighth year in custody. An appeal to the civilian courts to compel the authorities to comply with the recommendation of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights calling for his immediate release, was postponed after the authorities repeatedly failed to provide the courts with the requested documents. The Commission took the case to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. At the end of the year the Court issued a resolution requiring the Mexican State to guarantee the safety of the General and summoning the parties to the Court to analyse the case.
Relatives of the many hundreds of "disappeared" from the last three decades continued their campaign to learn the fate of their relatives and to put pressure on the judicial authorities to investigate and prosecute all those responsible for the "disappearances". New photographic evidence of the 1968 Tlatelolco square massacre emerged which increased pressure for investigations into the case to be reopened. President Fox failed to keep his pre-election promise to establish a Truth Commission to look at these and other unresolved cases of past human rights violations such as extrajudicial executions.
In November the Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos (CNDH), National Human Rights Commission, produced a report on 532 reported "disappearance" cases dating from the 1970s and 1980s. In response the President ordered the creation of a Special Attorney to investigate these crimes.
Military courts failed to effectively investigate or prosecute military officials accused of human rights violations, and prevented cases being heard by the civilian courts. CNDH officials stated that army anti-drug operations were a major source of complaints of human rights violations.
- In March the military sealed off the village of Guardados de Abajo, Tamaulipas state, in a joint anti-narcotics operation with the federal police. Military personnel reportedly broke into houses and carried out arbitrary detentions, reportedly torturing several of those detained. Human rights defender Mauro Cruz of the organization Centro de Estudios Fronterizos y de Promoción de los Derechos Humanos, Centre for Border Studies and the Promotion of Human Rights, was threatened by soldiers when he tried to enter the area.
In November the bodies of eight murdered women were discovered in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state. Since 1993, over 200 women have "disappeared" or been murdered in Ciudad Juarez. According to reports, the authorities consistently failed to investigate these crimes effectively, to bring all those responsible to justice, or to take adequate measures to protect women in the area.
There were several reports of attacks on gay men, some fatal, in a number of states. The authorities of Yucatán and Colima states reportedly failed to act promptly to investigate these crimes or bring those responsible to justice.
Intergovernmental organizations
The first phase of the Technical Co-operation Program between the government and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights was implemented. Training of medical and forensic experts in assessing torture was a priority; independent evaluation of the phase was critical. In May the UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers visited Mexico to examine the judicial system.
The government agreed to reopen unresolved cases with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. It invited a Commission delegation to visit in July to assess, along with non-governmental organizations, victims and relatives, how to secure compliance with outstanding Commission recommendations. By the end of 2001, expectation of progress on many of these cases had not been fulfilled.
At the end of the year the Senate approved the ratification of a number of international human rights instruments. Steps were also taken to recognize the competence of the UN Human Rights Committee and the Committee against Torture and other treaty-body committees to receive individual complaints. Ratification of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court remained pending.
AI country reports/visits
Reports
- Mexico: Torture cases – calling out for justice (AI Index: AMR 41/008/2001)
- Memorandum to the Government of Mexico (AI Index: AMR 41/015/2001)
- Mexico: Justice betrayed – torture in the judicial system (AI Index: AMR 41/021/2001)
- Mexico: Silencing dissent – an update on the case of General Gallardo (AI Index: AMR 41/037/2001)
- Mexico: Daring to raise their voices (AI Index: AMR 41/040/2001)
AI delegates visited Mexico on three occasions, including in March when the then Secretary General of AI met President Fox and other senior members of the administration.
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