Human Rights Groups in Mexico Claim their Soldiers Have Tortured and Raped

By:  Lindsey Brady
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

MEXICO CITY - Mexico - Mexico's National Human Rights Commission has been investigating allegations that soldiers have raped and tortured civilians for the past year.  Today, Reuters quoted the head of the commission as stating, "individuals belonging to the armed forces committed grave abuses...in 2007, we widely documented cases of torture, rape, and homicide."

Mexico's army and navy have been leading a campaign against the nation's dangerous drug rings under the leadership of President Felipe Calderon.  The American Bar Association Journal describes this military campaign as an attempt by Calderon to reclaim areas of Mexico that have fallen under the control of drug cartels.  The ABA also says the military is being used because they are viewed as relatively less corrupt than the police.  Mexico's police force has also been scrutinized for their treatment of civilians during protests in Oaxaca, Mexico in the past year.

Susan Pedroza, an official for the National Human Rights Commission stated that mosts of the evidence from their investigations has been the testimony of alleged victims and eye witnesses who have come forward.  Pedroza says the army has not been very cooperative in the investigation.  In October of last year, a Mexican civilian court ordered four soldier to be sentenced to up to forty years in prison for the rape of 9 women in Monclova, Mexico.  This is the first time troops have been tried in a civilian court but the judge stated it was because the soldiers had left their posts at the time of the rapes and were not acting under their military duties.  Nineteen soldiers involved in another case will also stand trial.  This time it involves the shooting of two women and three children at a roadblock in the state of Sinaloa in June of last year.  Sinaloa is known as a main area of the drug wars.

Reuters states that the United States is currently keeping tabs on the human rights issues associated with the drug campaign.  Currently Congress is debating a proposal that would begin the first payments in what President Bush has pledged to be a $1.4 billion aid to Mexico's efforts under the "Merida initiative."  David Johnson, the U.S. Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, said yesterday that "he did not see pressure to put human rights monitors on the ground."

For more information, please see:

Reuters - Mexico Right Official Says Army Tortured, Raped - 23 January 2008

SignOnSanDiego.com (Union Tribune) - Mexico Soldiers Kill Teenager at Military Checkpoint - 13 January 2008

American Bar Association Journal - Mexico:  Our Soldiers Raped and Tortured - 21 September 2007

Reuters - Mexico Jails Soldiers for Rape in First Civil Trial - 2 October 2007