Amnesty International Calls for real Human Rights Improvements in Mexico

Amnesty International's secretary general, Irene Khan, called for Mexico's current president to improve the country's human rights policies.  According to the Associated Press and the New York Sun, Khan called Mexico's policies "schizophrenic."  Khan spoke to reporters shortly after meeting with President Calderon and stated Khan "reiterated the government's commitment to the promotion and protection of the fundamental human rights and human freedoms of all Mexicans."  Amnesty International is especially persistent in trying to get the government to follow through with this “commitment” because of past president’s record.  According to Reuters, "Mexican courts have been unable to make former President Luis Echeverria stand trial for his alleged role in a 1968 massacre of leftist students" and although "former President Vicente Fox appointed a special prosecutor in 2002 to look into human rights violations by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which ruled for 71 years and crushed leftist student and guerilla movements in the dirty war, the office closed in March 2007 without convicting anyone."  Khan stated to Reuters, that although Mexico's past record has improved there is still need for great improvement in such areas as "police accountability, judicial process and treatment of suspected criminals."  President Calderon's office said they had already improved upon human rights in the areas of freedom of the press, access to government information, public safety, and actively fighting organized crime.

According to Khan, "the real test will be how the president reflects and implements human rights in his forthcoming human rights in his forthcoming legislative and policy reforms."  Amnesty International's current tour of Mexico was partially prompted after claims of mass police brutality during a public demonstration by an activist group.  Amnesty International has publicly called for the state of Oaxaca's government to appropriately investigate the incident that included arbitrary detention as well as police abuse.  Khan, as reported by the International Herald Tribune this past week, said that President Calderon "recognized that there was impunity in Oaxaca and acknowledged that the judicial system impedes the federal government's ability to handle cases at the state level.  Calderon also said his administration has sent Congress an initiative to change that."  Other initiatives by Calderon have already been criticized, however, as Reuters reported that Calderon's "military backed crackdown on drug gangs has drawn criticism that soldiers have used excessive force during their raids on towns and villages suspected of colluding with [drug] cartels."

For information on this topic please see:

http://web.amnesty.org/pages/mex-310707-feature-eng

http://www.nysun.com/article/60118  

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N01408048.htm

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/08/america/LA-GEN-Mexico-Human-Rights.php