MexicoCountry Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2002Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor March 31, 2003 The police forces, which include federal and state judicial police, the Federal Preventive Police (PFP), municipal police, and various police auxiliary forces, have primary responsibility for law enforcement and maintenance of order within the country. However, the military played a large role in some law enforcement functions, primarily counternarcotics. There were approximately 5,300 active duty military personnel in the PFP as permitted by the 1972 Firearms and Explosives Law. Elected civilian officials maintain effective control over the police and the military; however, corruption is widespread within police ranks and also is a problem in the military. The military maintained a strong presence in the state of Chiapas and a lesser, but still significant, deployment in Guerrero. Military personnel and police officers committed human rights abuses.
During the year, the market-based economy began a slow recovery after the 2001 global economic slowdown. In 2001 the country's population was estimated at 98.8 million persons. Gross Domestic Product grew at an annualized rate of 2.1 percent during the first half of the year after declining by 0.3 percent in 2001. The rate of inflation was 4.4 percent. Leading exports included petroleum, automobiles, and manufactured and assembled products, including electronics and consumer goods. During the year, industrial production slowly recovered after contracting by 2.5 percent in 2001. Over the last year, automobile production, a key sector, fell by 2.7 percent; however, economic forecasters anticipate automobile production will grow in the future. Average wages increased by 5.8 percent during the year, slightly higher than the 5.5 percent rate of inflation in the same period in 2001 and higher than the government’s target rate of 4.5 percent. An estimated 25 percent of the population resides in rural areas where subsistence agriculture is common. Income distribution remains skewed: in 2000, the top 10 percent of the population received 37.8 percent of total income while the bottom 20 percent earned an estimated 3.6 percent.
The Government generally respected many of the human rights of its citizens; however, serious problems remained in several areas, and in some states, especially Guerrero, Oaxaca, and Chiapas, where a poor climate of respect for human rights presented special concern. Federal and state law enforcement officials and one member of the military were accused of committing unlawful killings. There were reports of vigilante killings. There were documented reports of disappearances. The police sometimes tortured persons to obtain information. Prosecutors used this evidence in courts, and the courts continued to admit as evidence confessions extracted under torture. There were cases of police torture of suspects in custody that resulted in deaths. Impunity remained a problem among the security forces, although the Government continued to sanction public officials, police officers, and members of the military. Widespread police corruption and alleged police involvement in narcotics-related crime continued, and police abuse and inefficiency hampered investigations. Narcotics-related killings and violence increased, particularly in the northern states and Mexico City. Prison conditions were poor. The police continued to arrest and detain citizens arbitrarily. Lengthy pretrial detention, lack of due process, and judicial inefficiency and corruption persisted. The authorities on occasion violated citizens’ privacy. Indigenous people's access to the justice system continued to be inadequate. There were reports of forced sterilizations in marginalized communities, especially indigenous areas. Human rights groups reported that armed civilian groups in the state of Chiapas continued to commit human rights abuses, and some observers alleged that the Government used excessive force during incidents of conflict with likely sympathizers of rebel groups in Chiapas and Guerrero. There was an increase in confrontations between armed civilian groups and sympathizers of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN). Isolated guerrilla attacks against government property and personnel continued; however, there were fewer such attacks than in previous years. Journalists investigating drug trafficking occasionally were threatened by narcotics traffickers, primarily in the northern states. Corrupt members of the police sometimes violated the rights of illegal immigrants. Human rights workers continued to be subjected to attacks and harassment. Violence and discrimination against women, indigenous people, religious minorities, homosexuals, and individuals with HIV/AIDs persisted. Sexual exploitation of children continued to be a problem. There were credible reports of limits on freedom of association and worker rights. There was extensive child labor in agriculture and the informal economy. Trafficking in persons, including children, remained a problem, and there were credible reports that police and other officials were involved in trafficking. Mexico was invited by the Community of Democracies' (CD) Convening Group to attend the November 2002 second CD Ministerial Meeting in Seoul, Republic of Korea, as a participant.
The Government continued to take important steps to improve the human rights situation; however, its efforts continued to meet with limited success in many areas. In addition, it increased its efforts to enhance cooperation with the international community and with domestic human rights groups during the year. The coordination of the Inter-Secretarial Commission on Human Rights, composed of members from the secretariats of Government (SEGOB), Foreign Relations (SRE), Defense (SEDENA), the Attorney General’s office (PGR) and others, has passed from the SRE to the SEGOB, with the added participation of civil society and human rights NGOs as permanent members rather than as observers. On July 30, the Secretary of Government, Santiago Creel, announced the creation of a new sub-secretariat for human rights tasked with attending efficiently to political and social conflicts, fortifying relations with Congress to promote human rights-related legislation, and emphasizing the President’s commitment to human rights. The new sub-secretary had not been named at year’s end. On July 1, Foreign Minister Jorge Castaneda and U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) Mary Robinson jointly announced the establishment of a UNHRC office in Mexico. The office will help the Government undertake a study of the human rights situation in the country and to formulate a national human rights program. On November 11, President Fox met with Amnesty International secretary general Irene Kahn who reproached the President for the lack of progress in the investigation of the death of Digna Ochoa and the lack of a cohesive national human rights plan. Fox emphasized the Government’s commitment to human rights. a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life
Members of the security forces and federal and state police were accused of committing a number of killings during the year.
On March 29, members of Federal Investigations Agency (AFI) under the PGR’s office arrested Guillermo Velez Mendoza for suspected involvement in a kidnaping case. Velez died in the custody of the AFI agents 5 hours later. Varied initial reports stated that Velez died of natural causes while in custody, while being subdued during an attempt to escape, or as the result of a fall; however, subsequent investigations revealed that he died from asphyxiation while being tortured. On May 14, the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) ruled that Velez was subjected to "arbitrary detention, cruel and degrading treatment and homicide." On August 8, the Mexico State Attorney General’s office ordered (PGJEM) the arrest of five AFI agents for being accessories to aggravated homicide, acting against the administration of justice, and abusing authority. One of the agents, commander Hugo Armando Muro Arellano, who is suspected of applying the headlock which resulted in Velez’ death, was freed on bail and was a fugitive at year’s end. On May 24, a group of soldiers shot at a group of Central American migrants, killing two Hondurans, Elmer Alexander Pacheco Barahona and another youth only known as David, both age 16, and wounding two, Pacheco’s brother Antonio and Jose Rodolfo Rivas Ramirez from El Salvador. In November the authorities arrested and charged soldier Ricardo Olvera Venegas with the killing of two youths.
On May 28, in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon state, Francisco Medellin Alberto died in custody during an interrogation by the ministerial police who arrested him on suspicion of robbing an automatic teller machine. The PGR confirmed that Medellin died of asphyxiation while apparently being tortured in the basement of the Ministerial Police building. Two police agents abandoned the body at the University Hospital. Suspects Juan Manuel Gutierrez Navarro, Juan Cruz Rosales, and Sergio Martinez Acosta had been arrested, and Jorge Julio Estupinian de la Rosa was a fugitive at year’s end. Three other police agents are suspected of involvement in the death. The investigation continued at year’s end.
On June 17, Roberto Carlos Mendoza Zuniga died in his cell at the PGR in San Nicolas, Nuevo Leon state from a gunshot wound inflicted by police agent Alejandro Huerta Rivera during a scuffle with Mendoza after his arrest on June 15 for possession of marijuana and drunkenness. Huerta Rivera and another agent, Cesar Alberto Perez Melendez, were arrested in connection with the death. The investigation continued at year’s end.
On June 11, SSP agents shot Josue Ulises Banda Cruz, age 17, while he was running away from police. The police proceeded to load Banda into the police car and drove off. His body was found in front of a house in Colonia Granjas in Mexico City a short time later. The Federal District Human Rights Commission (CDHDF) condemned the police actions. Sixty-two police were under investigation by Federal District authorities for suspected involvement or cover up in the crime. David Leon Mendez, director of the Sector Police, was temporarily suspended pending investigation into his part in covering up for two police officers sought in the case.
On May 31, an undetermined number of assailants shot and killed 26 peasant farmers near Agua Fria, Oaxaca. Police arrested 16 persons from Santo Domingo Tejomulco in connection with the crime. The National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) determined that the killing was part of an ongoing land dispute between the two communities dating back to 1935 and called on state judicial authorities to continue to investigate the killing.
There were no significant developments in the investigation into the October 2001 death of human rights defender Digna Ochoa y Placido (see Section 4).
At year’s end, government authorities were investigating the July 2001 killing of Everardo Obregon Sosa, a municipal Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) leader in Culiacan, Sinaloa.
During the year, federal judges denied the request for release of federal police officers Jorge Encarnacion Perez Barreto and Fabian Garcia Venegas, accused of killing Hector Manuel Bear Alvarez and wounding six other persons in May 2001. Both officers remained in prison at year's end. Fabian Garcia Venegas, had other outstanding charges against him, including abuse of prisoners (see Section 1.c.).
During the year, the Mexico State Human Rights Commission (CEDH) completed its investigation of the June 2001 death of Alfonso Escamilla Casimiro in his cell in Teoloyucan, Mexico state and made a six-point recommendation to the Teoloyucan Municipal Police, including the investigation of three agents of the Transit and Public Security Office and three members of the Office of Civil Protection and Firemen. The Municipal Police completed four of the recommendations, and partially completed two others. The Municipal Police declined to investigate the public servants due to lack of evidence.
At year's end, it was not known whether judicial proceedings had begun against Vicente Pena Zuniga, Efrain Cruz Bruno, and Nicasio Bernardino Lopez for the May 2001 killing of Fidel Bautista Mejia in Putla, Oaxaca.
There were no significant developments in the investigation of the May 2001 killing of Jesus Carrola, former chief of the Mexico City judicial police force, and his two brothers. The Mexico City Human Rights Office (CDHDF) found that there had been a violation of human rights; however, the CDHDF closed the case in June 2001.
No information from Military Justice was available concerning the charges against military personnel for the separate January 2001 killings of Esteban Martinez Nazario and Rodrigo Torres Silvain.
On August 13, judicial policemen Luis Carlos Morales Romo, Jose Isable Vargas Davila, Armando Ovando Rios and Marco Antonio Constantino Gonzalez were tried and found guilty of homicide and aggravated robbery for the 2001 killing of 10-year-old Roberto Blancas.
There were no developments in the investigation of the November 2001 abduction and killing of Raul Varela Meza, Juan Antonio Chavez, Eduardo Ramirez, and Lorenzo Barraza in Ciudad Juarez.
There were several killings of journalists during the year, allegedly by narcotics traffickers (see Section 2.a.).
There were a number of deaths in prisons during the year. The CNDH investigated three cases during the year. Two were confirmed to be suicides and one was under investigation at year's end.
There were numerous reports of executions carried out by rival drug gangs, whose members included both active and former federal, state, and municipal security personnel. Throughout the country, but particularly in the northern border states, violence related to narcotics trafficking continued. The preliminary number of documented deaths related to narcotics trafficking for the year was 123; however, the final confirmed number may be significantly greater. Most of the deaths were execution style killings. Between January and August 31, 57 murders with presumed or proven drug connections occurred in the Ciudad Juarez area, a 62 percent increase over the number of killings in the same period last year.
On November 12, heavily-armed assailants killed four police officers and wounded five in a shootout in Sinaloa's capital city of Culiacan. The police wounded three of the attackers, and one of them later died in a hospital. Police had not commented officially on a motive by year’s end. Sinaloa has been plagued with drug-related shootings in the past.
In November the governor of Nayarit state asked federal authorities to help investigate a series of violent incidents in the state’s mountain region. The incidents began in July and resulted in at least eight deaths, including that of a police officer, a state government employee, and a city councilman in La Yesca. Local law enforcement officials stated that these incidents were nothing other than the work of common bandits. However, local residents alleged that guerrilla groups committed the killings. State and federal authorities determined that the violent incidents were the work of ordinary criminals and launched a public information campaign. On June 7, two soldiers from the 37th Infantry Battalion and two indigenous local residents were killed in the vicinity of Huecato, Michoacan, during a gun battle when a routine patrol came across a group of indigenous people who were allegedly engaged in illegal logging. A third soldier was injured. It was not clear who started the shooting. No formal complaint had been made to either the state or national commission on human rights regarding the initial incident. The Congressional Human Rights Commission for the state of Michoacan reportedly initiated an investigation.
In December 2001, Jose Romualdo Quintero Carrizoza was arrested in Tijuana, Baja California, in an anti-kidnaping operation. Subsequent investigations between authorities in Baja California and Sinaloa and fingerprint matches identified Quintero as being one of the perpetrators of the February 2001 killing of 12 persons in the town of El Limoncito, Sinaloa. Investigations into the case continued at year’s end.
There were no developments in the 2000 hanging deaths near El Quelite, Sinaloa state of five men with known drug connections whom witnesses alleged were detained by individuals in PFP uniforms.
Investigations into the presumed suicide of Jose Manuel Urbina, who was found drowned in a Durango state security facility in 2000, found that Urbina had hidden from police officers in the water cistern of the house where he was being held. The police officers were given administrative sanctions for dereliction of duty. The policemen were drinking that night and did not realize Urbina had hidden in the cistern.
On November 13, press sources reported that 18 persons were sentenced to 36 years and 3 months in prison for their participation in the killings of 45 persons in Acteal, in the Chenalho municipality of Chiapas in 1997. Twenty-nine arrest warrants were still outstanding at year's end. During a visit to Mexico in July, Juan Mendez, president of the Inter-American Human Rights Commission (IAHCR), met with NGOs and family members to follow up on progress made on the Acteal case.
In January the Attorney General of Military Justice announced the reopening of the investigation of the 1995 death of Air Force Lieutenant Jose Raul Vargas Cortez. The current Secretary of Defense ordered the investigation reopened to determine if there were errors or omissions in the case.
In June the Congress of Guerrero state requested that federal authorities reopen the investigation into the 1995 Aguas Blancas massacre of 17 indigenous farmers. Both the federal and state Governments previously had considered the case resolved.
On August 18, unknown armed assailants killed a PGR official and wounded a judicial police agent in El Bosque municipality, Chiapas. On September 5, seven inmates escaped from the state penitentiary in Mexicali, Baja California; three of the inmates still at large from the escape were implicated in the execution-style killing of three state police agents early in the year (see Section 1.c.). On September 9, unknown assailants killed one policeman and wounded two in an ambush in El Bosque. The federal Attorney General's office was investigating the August incident at year's end. On October 4, state police arrested two individuals in connection with the September incident and charged them with homicide, robbery, and illegal weapons possession.
Investigations continued into the 2001 killings of two federal judges in Mazatlan, Sinaloa state.
There were no developments during the year related to the June 2000 ambush in El Bosque that left seven Chiapas state policemen dead. In 2000, the PGR arrested PRI supporter Alberto Patishtan Gomez and EZLN supporter Salvador Lopez Gonzalez in connection with the ambush, on charges of murder, robbery, and possession of illegal weapons. The PGR charged that Patishtan and Lopez were part of an armed 10-person group that carried out the attack. Patishtan later was released for lack of evidence and the Fray Bartolome de Las Casas Human Rights Center continued to maintain Lopez's innocence, claiming there was insufficient proof against him as well. He remained in custody at year's end.
In August Omar Alberto Morales Patino, former head of the federal police in Casas Grandes and Parral, Chihuahua, was arrested in the state of Mexico and charged with the murders of several informants in Chihuahua in 2000.
There were incidents of vigilante justice. In January a crowd in Puebla killed Silvestre Portillo as he tried to escape after robbing money that was destined for an education, health, and nutrition program. In June a crowd in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, presuming that Domingo Santiz Diaz and Pascual N. (last name unknown) were responsible for the death of Diego Gomez Gomez, treasurer of the La Candelaria community education committee, lynched them and severely beat two other persons. On December 5, two thieves caught in the act of trying to rob a taxi were lynched in the Milpa Alta area on the outskirts of Mexico City.
b. Disappearance
There continued to be credible reports of disappearances. NGO sources continued to report that many disappearance cases were in fact cases of prolonged detention by security forces (see Section 1.d.)
On June 3, the CDHDF concluded that at least two members of the Federal District Judicial Police, Leticia Cordero Becerra and Luis Jaffet Rodriguez Jasso, were involved in the March 14 disappearance of Jesus Angel Gutierrez Olvera who was forced into a waiting automobile. Witnesses identified Ricardo Sanchez Vascoy, another judicial policeman, as having demanded money from Gutierrez the day before the disappearance occurred. The implicated police officers were questioned but denied any involvement. The investigation continued at year’s end. On October 11, the Interamerican Human Rights Commission requested protection for Gutierrez’ mother, Leonor Olvera.
On March 14, the Guerrero state Human Rights Commission (CEDH) called on the state Attorney General's office (PGJE) to process judicially a number of police suspected of being involved in the June 2001 disappearance of Faustino Jimenez Alvarez. The report criticized the PGJE for failing to forward a copy of the investigation and for denying the CEDH permission to participate in the preliminary investigation. The CEDH also requested protection for the wife of Jimenez Alvarez, stating that she could be the subject of reprisals. At year’s end, members of the Peace Brigades International provided her with an escort.
In July Jose Luis Soberanes, President of the CNDH, criticized the Government for not acting upon the recommendations contained in the November 2001 CNDH’s Special Program on the Presumed Disappeared (PREDES) report on the presumed forced disappearances of 532 persons, the majority dating from the 1970s. He alleged that although the Government had accepted the report’s recommendations by creating a Special Prosecutor For Investigating Acts Committed Directly or Indirectly by Public Servants that Probably Constitute Federal Crimes Against Persons Associated with Social and Political Movements of the Past (Special Prosecutor), it had failed to act upon them.
Ignacio Carrillo Prieto, the Special Prosecutor, continued his investigations into the disappearances of 532 persons and the killings in October 1968 and June 1971. His office created a national register for indigents to verify if anyone related to the disappearances during the "dirty war" of the 1960s and 1970s may have been released, but with deteriorated mental faculties. The office also produced a DNA data bank with 112 blood samples to be used to identify remains found in clandestine cemeteries.
In an unprecedented move, the Special Prosecutor called former President Luis Echeverria to testify on his involvement in the October 1968 killings in Tlatelolco when he was Secretary of Government and the June 1971 "Jueves de Corpus" killings during his presidency. On July 9, Echeverria appeared before the Special Prosecutor to hear more than 150 questions; however, he failed to reappear later to answer the questions, even though his attorneys had been granted an extension of 40 days.
On November 6, Alfonso Martinez Dominguez, Head of Federal District Government during the events in 1971, died without answering questions posed to him during an August 22 questioning by Carrillo Prieto. On November 11, the special prosecutor called retired General Luis Gutierrez Oropeza, head of the Presidential Security (EMP) during 1968, to testify. Oropeza requested an extension of time to answer in written form 36 questions posed by the special prosecutor’s office. On December 12, Oropeza answered most of the questions in written form. He admitted that he had sent elements of the Army to the plaza, but denied posting sharpshooters on roofs.
On March 14, the Guerrero CEDH published a recommendation against 16 members of the state judicial police for arbitrary detention and forced disappearance in the 2000 disappearance of Maximo Marcial Jaimes.
On September 26, the Attorney General of Military Justice (PGJM) indicted Generals Francisco Quiros Hermosillo and Arturo Acosta Chaparro on charges of aggravated homicide during the so-called "Dirty War". The generals are accused of the death and disappearance of over 130 persons in the state of Guerrero during the period 1971-78. On November 1, an all-military panel found the generals guilty of crimes against public health (narcotics-related), but innocent on charges of conspiracy and bribery. The generals received sentences of 16 and 15 years respectively, were stripped of their rank and benefits, and received fines of approximately $150 (1,500 pesos). The generals immediately appealed their convictions. They will remain in custody until the trial for the human rights-related charges concludes.
The Specialized Unit for Combating Organized Crime (UEDO) announced that there were 350 kidnapings for ransom during the first 8 months of the year compared with 732 kidnapings in 2001; however, many kidnapings were not reported. The UEDO also reported that it had broken up 20 kidnaping rings and arrested 75 persons.
c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
The Constitution and the law prohibit torture; however, it continued to be a serious problem. The Constitution excludes as evidence confessions obtained in the absence of the accused person's defense attorney, and the law excludes coerced confessions, including those extracted under torture (see Section 1.e.). To be admissible as evidence, confessions must be made to the Public Ministry or a judge and in the presence of a defense attorney. However, the police regularly obtain information through torture, prosecutors use this evidence in courts, and the courts continue to admit as evidence confessions extracted under torture. The military also has been accused of using torture. According to a July 2001 Amnesty International report, victims and human rights workers who report or criticize the practice of torture often were the targets of intimidation. Many victims were afraid to report or follow through on complaints against the police, thereby hampering prosecution of the perpetrators.
The CDHDF reported that it had received 87 complaints of torture in the Federal District during the year. In 23 cases, the victims did not pursue their complaints. In August the Secretariat of Foreign Relations stated that torture is a common practice in the country; however, the lack of a law that provides a legal definition of torture has made it difficult to identify and eradicate. It is classified as abuse of authority or injury and therefore, a crime.
In August Roberto Garreton, the representative for Latin America to the UNHCHR, stated that torture continued in the country; however, he stated that he had seen positive changes since he last visited the country in 1998.
The Miguel Agustin Pro Center for Human Rights (PRODH) documented 16 cases of torture in the first 6 months of the year. The police or the military in Colima, Guerrero, Chiapas, the Federal District, Jalisco, Sinaloa, Queretaro and Nuevo Leon tortured a total of 35 persons, with involvement by the judicial police in 12 cases.
In April the CNDH reported that the PGR had the most complaints of torture among federal agencies. On October 10, the PGR inaugurated new "Units for the Protection of Human Rights," which are responsible for overseeing that the PGR as an agency respects human rights.
The authorities rarely punish officials for torture, which continues to occur in large part because confessions are the primary evidence in many criminal convictions. Many human rights groups link torture to the prevalence of arbitrary detention and claim that torture often follows an arbitrary arrest, sometimes without a warrant, as police or prosecutors attempt to justify the detention by securing a confession to a crime (see Section 1.d.). Poorly trained and inadequately equipped to investigate crimes, police officers often attempted to solve crimes by rounding up likely suspects and then extracting confessions from them by force. In July 2001, Amnesty International alleged that as a result those responsible for 95 percent of recorded crimes never are apprehended and brought to justice.
By year’s end, no official results of the PGR internal investigation into the April 2001 federal police beating of Angel Abel Duran had been released.
During the year, the Mexico state CEDH closed its investigation into the 2001 beating of Alvaro Rayon because it was unable to locate him at the address that he provided, and he failed to provide more information on the incident.
There were no developments in the February 2001 torture of Norberto Jesus Suarez Gomez, the head of the PGR's Chihuahua state office. The PGR had accepted the CNDH's recommendations and suspended 16 officials pending criminal and administrative investigations. Suarez remained in custody on illegal enrichment charges.
On September 18, the Michoacan state human rights office reversed its March 2001 dismissal of allegations made by Ivan Ramirez and Israel Molina that they were tortured in 2000 in Nueva Italia because it determined that its original investigation had not been conducted properly.
There were no developments in the 2000 case of Jose Luis Mendez Briano and Fernando Martinez Beltran, who allegedly were tortured after being arrested while making their getaway from a robbery.
There were no developments in the case of the former president of the Guerrero state PRD, David Molina Francisco, who alleged that he was held hostage for 40 hours by military personnel in April 2000. In June 2000, the Guerrero CEDH forwarded the case to the CNDH for further investigation.
A 1998 report by the IACHR described a definite pattern of rape and sexual assault against women committed by members of the security forces. The Commission stated that some women had been assaulted sexually by law enforcement officials, particularly those in detention, or had been assaulted by others with the officials' consent.
On February 16, in Acatepec, Guerrero members of the 41st Infantry Battalion allegedly raped 17-year-old Valentina Rosendo Cantu when she was washing clothes by a creek. On March 22, in Ayutla, Guerrero three soldiers from the 41st Infantry Battalion allegedly raped Ines Hernandez Ortega in her home. Eight other soldiers stole some meat she had in the house. CNDH officials were investigating these rapes. SEDENA denied the accusations; however, it promised to assist civil authorities in the investigations.
Many citizens distrust the justice system, including law enforcement officials, and are reluctant to register official complaints.
By year’s end, the PGR had not finished preparing a manual called "Procedure Model for the Detection of Torture" based on the UNHCHR’s manual for training on the investigation and documentation of torture, based on the Istanbul Protocol.
Police abuse and inefficiency hamper investigations. In November 2001, the bodies of eight young women who had been raped and killed were found in an empty lot adjacent to a busy intersection in Ciudad Juarez. State authorities arrested two bus drivers accused of the crimes within 3 days but the drivers alleged their confessions were obtained under torture. Their attorney was subsequently shot and killed by the State Police following a high-speed car chase during which the attorney called his father and reported that he was being pursued. The police originally alleged that he had died of injuries received when his car crashed but were forced to retract that information when it was revealed that he had been shot in the head. The officers involved in the case were questioned but never charged nor disciplined. As of September, they continued in their official capacity. The bus drivers remain jailed pending sentencing (see Section 5). There have been 325 women killed in Ciudad Juarez since 1993.
Police corruption is a problem. Police have been involved in kidnapings, armed robbery, and extortion, as well as protection of criminals and drug traffickers. There have been more arrests of security forces this year. For example, the Public Safety Secretary for the Federal District (SSP), Marcelo Ebrard Casaubon, cracked down during the year on police corruption and abuses. At year's end, 72 SSP officers had been incarcerated, 26 for homicide and the remainder for other violations including robbery. Police corruption is a problem. On April 10, troops from the Army and agents from the AFI supervised by the Special Branches of the PRG lured over 150 municipal and state police officers from throughout northern Baja California for a meeting, then arrested more than 50 officers for corruption. Several of those arrested were high-ranking police officials, including the police chief of Tijuana. Military aircraft flew a number of these officers to Mexico City. Many were later released by the authorities.
During the year, the Internal Affairs Division of the Chihuahua state Judicial Police investigated approximately 104 complaints against police officials for corruption, bribery, threats, abuse, murder, and kidnaping. Among the cases being investigated was the murder of a former state police officer by a member of the special Joint Federal-State Anti-Organized Crime Unit called Grupo Orion. In January the interim mayor of Ciudad Juarez dismissed 140 city police for drug abuse, theft, and running protection rackets for drug smugglers.
In the past, there were reports that police extorted money from street children, at times abused homosexuals (see Section 5), and violated the rights of illegal immigrants (see Section 2.d.).
Prison conditions remained poor. Many prisons are staffed by undertrained and corrupt guards. Prisoners complain that they must purchase food, medicine, and other necessities from guards or bribe guards to allow the goods to be brought in from outside. In many prisons inmates exercise authority, displacing prison officials. Influence peddling, drug and arms trafficking, coercion, violence, sexual abuse, and protection payoffs are the chief methods of control used by prisoners against their fellow inmates. Prisons vary widely in their ability to meet basic needs of life, keep prisoners safe and healthy, and provide opportunities for work and education; however, almost all fall short of these aspirations.
The penal system consists of 448 facilities: 5 federal penitentiaries, 8 federal district prisons, 336 state prisons, and 99 municipal and regional jails. According to the Public Security Secretariat, as of July, there were 174,057 prisoners; 101,485 were serving their sentence, and 62,572 were awaiting sentence. Although the Constitution calls for separation of convicted criminals from detainees held in custody, in practice these requirements were disregarded routinely as a result of overcrowding. Prison overcrowding continued to be a common problem, despite an early release program endorsed by the CNDH, legal reforms that reduced the number of crimes that carry mandatory prison sentences, and the construction of new prisons. According to the Secretariat for Public Security, the country's 446 penal facilities are overpopulated by approximately 28 percent; 174,057 prisoners are being held in facilities that have a capacity of 136,447 prisoners. In July the Secretariat announced that Baja California at 189 percent and Sonora at 130 percent, were the most overpopulated state prison systems; in Nayarit the rate of overpopulation is 75 percent, in Chiapas 98 percent, in Sonora 82 percent, in Tamaulipas 66 percent, in Oaxaca 21 percent, in Puebla 25 percent, and in the Federal District 53 percent. The prisons with the largest overpopulation are: Reclusorio Norte, Reclusorio Oriente, and Reclusorio Sur in Mexico City, the state prison in Ciudad Juarez, and La Mesa prison in Tijuana. In July the Secretariat reported that the total capacity of existing facilities in Mexico City is 14,864; however, they held slightly more than 22,814 inmates.
At year's end, the population of the prisons in Ciudad Juarez was 3,628. In August the director of the state penitentiary stated that 1,537 inmates slept in the corridors of the prison because there were neither beds nor cells for them as a result of overcrowding. A new prison originally scheduled for completion in 2000 may be completed by late 2003.
Health and sanitary conditions are poor. In 2000, doctors at a prison in Nuevo Laredo resigned, citing unhealthy conditions such as inadequate food and water as the reason for their resignations. They stated that conditions such as mange, HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis are known to the authorities who fail to take any action to treat and segregate sick inmates. In March 2001, the CNDH reported that HIV/AIDS and associated illnesses were the leading cause of death among inmates in the Federal District. The deaths of 20 inmates from HIV/AIDS-related complications in 2000 underlined the need for awareness, prevention, and treatment programs. The CNDH also noted that HIV-positive prisoners are subject to mistreatment and discrimination in prisons (see Section 5). For example, the Multisectoral Group of Citizens with HIV/AIDS claimed in 2001 that 30 HIV-infected inmates in the state prison in Merida, Yucatan suffered discriminatory treatment and insufficient access to health care. There were no developments in the case of Eugenio Almaraz Garcia, who died in 2000 from presumed neglect by the director of the Pochutla, Oaxaca prison.
In August approximately 2,000 federal, state, and municipal police agents, as well as military elements, participated in a surprise dawn raid to transfer 2,200 inmates from La Mesa prison in Tijuana, Baja California to a new prison at El Hongo, Tecate, Baja California and other installations. La Mesa housed 6,400 inmates in a facility designed for 1,800. The CNDH has labeled it the worst detention facility in the country. Cells were converted into apartments and sold for $300 (3,000 pesos) per month in a facility where 4,500 prisoners had neither a cell nor bed in which to sleep. An entire city existed within the prison complete with 150 commercial enterprises, such as stores, taco stands, and restaurants, all run by inmates. Prisoners’ spouses and children (100 women and 220 children) lived with them within the prison.
Female prisoners are held separately from men. Women make up approximately 4.5 percent or 7,841 of the 174,057 total prison population. Of the 448 prison facilities in the country, 230 of them house female prisoners. A new prison for men was under construction in Mexico City during the year and expected to be completed in March of 2003. The prison will have the capacity to house 2,346, thereby alleviating some of the prison overcrowding in the Federal District.
In April the Director of the State Penitentiary (CERESO) in Ciudad Juarez announced that the authorities had dismantled a prostitution ring in the CERESO. In addition, prison authorities discovered that prostitutes from the outside were operating within the prison walls during visiting hours.
Juveniles are held separately from adults.
Drug use continued to be a major problem in the Ciudad Juarez prison, with over 70 percent of the prisoners suffering some form of addiction. A new rehabilitation program in the prison can accommodate only 70 prisoners at a time. On March 23 and 24, prisoners in Ciudad Juarez rioted, demanding drugs and protesting an attempt by prison authorities to slow the flow of drugs into the prison. Major structural damage, including looting of the infirmary, occurred. In September 130 prisoners suffering from withdrawal symptoms in the prison in Chihuahua City rioted, destroying part of the cellblocks and damaging the infirmary. In the aftermath of the riots, prisoners who participated in the violence, as well as some who did not, were transferred to other prisons. Families of the transferred prisoners were unable to locate them. In April and September, inmates in the Ciudad Juarez prison were killed, reportedly for drug-related business. In May the authorities found a tunnel that went from outside the walls of the prison into the area of the prison in which most drug traffickers are held. The juvenile detention center in Ciudad Juarez suffered two riots during the year. On June 22, juveniles rioted, severely damaging one of the buildings, after a guard allegedly beat a detainee. On February 7, several members of a gang started a disturbance to cover their plans for an escape. Others joined in and by the time state police had quelled the riot, over 100 juveniles had taken part.
There is no specific law or regulation that prohibits human rights organizations or other NGOs from visiting prisons, and some do; however, in practice, the CNDH and state human rights commissions conduct the majority of prison visits focused on human rights issues. In July the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) regional office in San Cristobal de la Casas and the Government agreed that the ICRC could visit prisoners in Chiapas, Queretaro, and Tabasco with only prior notification of the visit to prison authorities. The ICRC notifies the Ministry of Foreign Relations and receives prior permission to make prison visits to other areas of the country.
d. Arbitrary Arrest, Detention, or Exile
The Constitution prohibits arbitrary arrest and detention; however, the police continued to arrest and detain citizens arbitrarily (see Section 1.b.). Arbitrary arrest and detention continued to be among the most common human rights abuses. Legally, a prosecutor may hold a detainee no more than 48 hours before he must present the accused to a judge, except when the accused is caught in the act or within 72 hours of committing a crime. In June 2001, the federal legislature criminalized forced disappearance, including illegal detentions; the law also prohibits sponsoring or covering up an illegal detention (see Section 1.b.).
NGO sources report that a great number of disappearances eventually are found to be cases of arbitrary detention by security forces (see Section 1.b.). Many human rights groups link torture to the prevalence of arbitrary detention and claim that torture often follows an arbitrary arrest, sometimes without a warrant, as police or prosecutors attempt to justify the detention by securing a confession to a crime (see Section 1.c.). According to PRODH, incommunicado detention is a frequent practice (see Section 1.c.).
Reports of arbitrary detention occurred with greatest frequency in Chiapas, Oaxaca, Guerrero, the Federal District, and Tabasco. The states' attorney general personnel, state police, and the army were the most frequent abusers of detention laws. In June 2001, the newspaper La Jornada reported that between January and June 2001, the Attorney General's office had received 62 complaints for arbitrary detention and an equal number for detentions longer than the legal limit. During the year, the CNDH reported that it had received 293 complaints, 18 for alleged torture, against the PGR, making it the government agency with the most complaints lodged against it.
From October 26 to November 6, a U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention visited the states of Guerrero, Oaxaca, Jalisco, Mexico, and the Federal District. The group concluded that arbitrary arrest in the country was generated by corruption and the notorious impunity enjoyed by those who commit it--police and military--and by the tolerance of this practice within the police structure.
In February Amnesty International reported the continued use of arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment by government authorities, especially state government authorities, carrying out policing operations.
In June 2001, the CNDH reported that arbitrary detentions constituted a common practice of the Federal Judicial Police (since reorganized and renamed as the AFI) as well as of other police bodies, and urged the PRG and the SSP to expand human rights training concerning arbitrary detention; to issue specific orders to their police forces to halt arbitrary detentions immediately; and to instruct prosecutors to protect persons who may have been detained arbitrarily.
In February the UNHRC declared illegal and arbitrary the 1999 capture of four suspected members of the Revolutionary Army of the Insurgent People (ERPI)--Jacobo Silva Nogales, Carlos Gracia Rosales, Gloria Arana Agis and Felicitas Padilla Navas--accused of organized crime, storing firearms, and possession of ammunition. The Commission stated that the Universal Human Rights Declaration and the Treaty on International Civil and Political Rights had been violated. However, the four remained in detention at year’s end pending the decision of the first district judge in Toluca.
In February the Mexico state human rights commission (CDHEM) recommended that the mayor of Atizapan take action against Rosendo Rojas, a municipal police officer, who took a minor from his classroom and detained him illegally following a fight with another student outside the school grounds. The CDHEM also recommended that the municipal police receive training regarding arrest and detention. The police officer in question was being held on charges of murdering another minor at year's end.
In July the CNDH issued a recommendation with respect to the arbitrary detention and abuse of 69 members of the San Jose community in Chiapas. At least 40 were injured during a July 2001 Judicial Police operation to rescue 6 government employees who were being held by local sympathizers of the Regional Independent Campesino Movement-National Ayala Plan Coordinator (MOCRI-CNPA) as a form of protest. Judges often failed to sentence indigenous detainees within legally mandated periods (see Section 1.e.). In 1996 the CNDH reviewed 8,661 files of indigenous persons who were detained and recommended the immediate release of 1,727 persons. In 1999 the CNDH signed an accord with the Secretariat of Government, the PGR, the Federal Institute of the Public Defense office, and the National Indigenous Institute (INI) to develop a program for the early release of indigenous prisoners in federal prisons. INI intervention resulted in the early release of 802 indigenous prisoners in 1998, 1,197 in 1999, 596 in 2000, and the preliminary figure of 531 in 2001.
In September President Fox reported that 107 prisoners associated with the EZLN had been freed as a result of coordinated efforts of the Commission for Peace (COCOPA) and federal and local authorities. Under the National Indigenous Institute’s (INI) Program for the Procurement of Justice for the Indigenous Peoples, the Federal Government, through the PGR, SSP, CNDH and the Federal Institute of Public Defenders, 1,105 local and federal prisoners have been released in the past 18 months. The PGR, through its Special Prosecutor for the Attention of Indigenous Affairs, was working on 1,300 cases to request minimum sentences or transfers to social readaptation centers.
Federal prosecutors continued to adhere to the INI's recommendation that they drop charges against indigenous first-time offenders accused of drug cultivation, as drug traffickers often forced indigenous defendants, who were not aware of the legal significance of their actions, to grow the crops. The INI also supports programs to provide translators for indigenous defendants and to assist them in obtaining bail bonds.
Some human rights groups have claimed that activists arrested in connection with civil disobedience activities are in fact political detainees. The Government asserts that the system fairly prosecutes those charged in sometimes violent land invasions for common crimes, such as homicide and damage to property.
The law does not permit forced exile, and it is not practiced.
e. Denial of Fair Public Trial
The judiciary is generally independent; however, on occasion, especially at the state level, it has been influenced by government authorities. Corruption, inefficiency, impunity, disregard of the law, and lack of training continue to be major problems. Judicial reforms have begun to address some of these problems, but full resolution of these problems requires significant additional time and effort. In 1999 the Congress and the states passed constitutional reforms designed to streamline the administration of justice and repeal archaic laws. Human rights groups criticized these reforms, claiming that they effectively allow prosecutors to disregard defendants' allegations of violation of due process during criminal proceedings.
In April U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, Dato Param Cumaraswamy, issued a 52-page report regarding the evaluation mission that he conducted in May 2001. In his report, he questioned the independence and effectiveness of judicial power in the country. He expressed concern about the lack of knowledge that judges have regarding international law, particularly human rights, and their ignorance of indigenous uses and customs. He wrote that 50-70 percent of the judges in the country were corrupt. In reply, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court questioned how the Special Rapporteur could reach his conclusions when he only visited two states and the Federal District.
During the year, the Federal Judicial Council continued to strengthen administrative control over the judiciary, investigated cases of corruption, and removed some corrupt judges. In 2000, the Institute for Professional Training of the Mexico City Attorney General's office initiated workshops and courses directed at officials who deal with prosecutions, including the prosecutor's office, official secretaries, judicial police, and police group leaders. The course material encompassed case management, scientific investigation techniques, legal framework, and evidence collection. These workshops and courses continued through year's end. However, at year's end, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported that little had been done to remedy the systemic problems of the justice system, which allowed human rights abuses to go uninvestigated and unpunished. In December 2000, HRW asserted that deficiencies in the administration of justice still were a major concern, and repeated its 1999 statement that judicial reforms have done little to improve the problems that plague the justice system. The December 2000 report stated that prosecutors not only ignored abuses by police but also fabricated evidence. Judicial oversight was seriously inadequate as the courts accepted evidence obtained through human rights violations (see Section 1.c.), and judges cited legal precedents that weakened human rights protections.
By year’s end, six judges or magistrates had been dismissed since January 2000, only one of these for corruption. In February 3 employees of the Federal District Superior Court were sentenced to 63 months in prison for aggravated extortion. In June Fernando Alonso Lopez Murillo, a federal judge, was suspended from his duties while being investigated for a series of irregular findings in high profile narcotics trafficking cases. In the most prominent case, Lopez Murillo reduced the sentence imposed on and dismissed some of the weapons charges against Hector Luis Palma, a major drug trafficking figure. Eventually Palma paid a fine rather than go to jail. Lopez Murillo also dismissed charges against another known trafficker, Oscar Malherbe.
The federal court system consists of a Supreme Court, 91 circuit courts of appeal, 49 courts of appeal, and 185 district courts.
Based on the Napoleonic Code, the trial system consists of a series of fact-gathering hearings at which the court receives documentary evidence or testimony. However, in July 2001 Amnesty International alleged that judges often are not present at hearings when defendants give testimony. Court officials may add notarized documents that are not authenticated into the case file. A judge in chambers reviews the case file and then issues a final, written ruling. The record of the proceeding is not available to the general public; only the parties have access to the official file, although by special motion the victim may have access to it.
The Constitution provides for the right of the accused to attend the hearings and challenge the evidence or testimony presented, and the Government generally respected these rights in practice. In general court hearings are open to the public, and it is common to find not only the accused, but also relatives of the accused and journalists in the courtroom. However, human rights groups complained that many hearings take place in busy judicial offices where the public generally must stand at a distance and often cannot hear the proceedings well. In some courtrooms glass or plastic panels have been placed between the tables where the proceedings take place and the public.
While there is a constitutional right to an attorney at all stages of criminal proceedings, in practice the authorities often did not ensure adequate representation for many poor defendants. Moreover, the public defender system is not adequate to meet the demand, although improvements in salaries and benefits have ameliorated this situation. Attorneys are not always available during the questioning of defendants; in some instances a defense attorney may attempt to represent several clients simultaneously by entering different rooms to certify formally that he was present, although he did not actually attend the full proceedings. Prosecutor salaries and benefits vary by region and agency. Federal prosecutors usually are paid better than state prosecutors.
In the case of indigenous defendants, many of whom do not speak Spanish, the situation is often worse. The law calls for translation services to be available at all stages of the criminal process; however, the courts do not routinely furnish translators for indigenous defendants at all stages of criminal proceedings, and thus defendants may be unaware of the status of their cases. Provision of translators to non-Spanish speaking defendants, including indigenous ones, is provided for but poorly implemented, resulting in prisoners being convicted without fully understanding the documents they have been required to sign. The CNDH, through the Fourth Inspector General's office, has a program to assist incarcerated indigenous defendants. The INI also has judicial assistance programs for indigenous defendants and provides counsel on their behalf. The INI also distributes legal, educational, and informational material in indigenous languages.
A particularly serious abuse of due process is the prosecution's ability to base its case on evidence gathered by means of torture. While torture itself is a criminal act, judges allow statements coerced through torture to be used as evidence against the accused (see Section 1.c.) and confessions are the primary evidence in many criminal convictions. A number of NGOs declared that judges give greater evidentiary value to the first declaration of a defendant, thus providing prosecutors an incentive to obtain an incriminating first confession and making it difficult for defendants to overturn such declarations.
The law does not require civil trials of soldiers involved in civil crimes, and the military continued to handle such cases. The Constitution provides for military jurisdiction for crimes or offenses involving any violation of military discipline. In cases in which a member of the military commits a crime and is arrested by civil authorities, the military has the right to request the immediate transfer of the case to military jurisdiction. In August the judicial branch reaffirmed that members of the military assigned to the PFP would be tried by military courts unless a civilian was involved. The ruling came as the result of a court case involving an active duty military member of the PFP. A military judge declared that he was not competent to hear the case because "military commissioned into the PFP are temporarily separated from the armed services and work for a civilian entity". A civilian judge who received the case declared that the perpetrator was military and was under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of Defense. The case was returned to the military court. In this instance the court ruled that because the PFP member was considered on active duty--obeying military orders and technically dependent on the Military Police--and therefore, administratively under the Secretary of Defense, and the victim was also active duty military, the military court had jurisdiction over the case.
On September 26, the PGJM indicted Generals Humberto Quiros Hermosillo and Arturo Acosta, on charges of aggravated homicide during the "Dirty War". The generals are accused of the death and disappearance of over 130 individuals in the state of Guerrero during the period 1971-78. Human rights organizations called into question the indictment and the fact that the generals would not be tried by civilian courts, but rather in military courts. The generals remained in custody as an investigation into charges of narcotics trafficking and assisting the Ciudad Juarez-based Amado Carrillo drug cartel continued.
In December 2001, Human Rights Watch issued a report that called on the Government to end military jurisdiction over all cases involving human rights violations. The report found that the military justice system lacks transparency because civilians are barred from monitoring the progress of investigations. In addition, investigations by the military are not accountable to civilian authorities.
On February 7, the Government released General Jose Francisco Gallardo Rodriguez. His sentence was reduced under the Code of Military Justice to 8 years, the minimum time to be served under his two nonconcurrent sentences of 14 years each, which Gallardo completed in November 2001. During the year, Gallardo continued to maintain his innocence and worked to clear his name.
f. Arbitrary Interference with Privacy, Family, Home, or Correspondence
The Constitution provides for the protection of privacy, family, home, and correspondence, and the law requires search warrants; however, in the past there were credible reports that unlawful searches without warrants were common, and there were reports of such searches during the year (see Section 1.c.).
The law allows for electronic surveillance with a judicial order. The law prohibits electronic surveillance for electoral, civil, commercial, labor, or administrative purposes. However, there were reports of illegal surveillance during the year.
In January police arrested three persons when they were replacing a tape recorder in a telephone switch in Polanco, an affluent sector of the Federal District. The three persons initially claimed to be employees of the local telephone company and then claimed to be working for a private law firm. No reason was given for the placement of a recorder at the switch. Investigation into the case was ongoing at year's end. Two days earlier, two persons were seen placing a tape recorder at a TELMEX drop in Lomas de Chapultepec, an area of Mexico City where many affluent families live.
In February the Queretaro state human rights ombudsman Bernardo Romero accused the state’s governor of intimidation through telephonic espionage. The governor denied the claims and demanded presentation of evidence. Romero said he also had received telephonic threats and sent a letter to the PRODH director requesting the intervention of the IAHCR.
In May microphones were found in the office of the Federal District Secretary of Finance. Federal District Head of Government Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador demanded that the Federal Government investigate. Wiretapping is a federal crime.
In July the Congress of the state of Mexico approved a law that would allow the Attorney General to solicit permission from a federal judge to wiretap and to have access to bank accounts as part of the investigative process against organized crime. The Federal District Attorney General supported the measure calling the current process bureaucratic and slow. The Constitution states that all persons have the right to make free, responsible, and informed decisions on the number of children they choose to have. The 1984 General Health Law provides for criminal action against those who pressure a woman to undergo sterilization procedures or perform such procedures without a woman's consent. In September 2001, Rodrigo Aguilar Martinez, president of the Episcopal Commission for the Family of the Roman Catholic Church, told the press that public health institutions "frequently" performed sterilizations in marginalized communities, especially indigenous areas. Aguilar claimed that priests and religious workers working in these areas were familiar with the problem, but that it was difficult to prove these cases if individuals decided to present their complaint to judicial authorities. Aguilar's claims have not been corroborated by government sources, but various social welfare observers believed that forced sterilization occurred, although the incidence of these procedures is difficult to quantify. Women may not realize that procedures have been performed until after the fact, and many victims allegedly were reluctant to file complaints, although there are mechanisms for filing formal complaints with the National Medical Arbitration Commission and with national and state human rights commissions. In 2000 the CNDH office in Chiapas reported that in some indigenous communities women chose sterilization, but then due to fear of reprisal from their husbands reported that it was forced upon them or that they simply did not understand the nature of the procedure. In compliance with a CNDH recommendation, in April state authorities provided compensation of $2,040 (20,000 pesos) each to 16 persons who were sterilized by state health officials in Guerrero in 1998. There were numerous allegations of the use of excessive force and the violation of international humanitarian law. During much of the year, the Government maintained approximately 14,000 to 20,000 troops in selected areas of Chiapas, and a smaller number in Guerrero. Two relatively small rebel groups, the Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR) and the Revolutionary Army of the People's Insurgency (ERPI), continued to be problems in Guerrero. Incidents of conflict in Chiapas between security forces and EZLN sympathizers, and in Guerrero between the army and the EPR and the ERPI, led to accusations of the use of excessive force; however, the confused circumstances of these clashes made those allegations difficult to substantiate.
The peace process in Chiapas between the EZLN and the Government remained at a standstill. There has been no communication between the EZLN and the Government since April 2001. In July the PRODH said the impasse demonstrates that the Government lacks a cohesive strategy to attend to the conflict in Chiapas. In August the current president of the Peace Commission (COCOPA), Felipe de Jesus Vicencio Alvarez, said that the commission was working on an initiative to revive the peace process talks.
The Government maintained a military presence in parts of Chiapas. Some NGOs continued to call the military's presence threatening and intimidating to the indigenous population. In July and August, NGOs reported an increased military presence in Chiapas. Military authorities claimed that the perceived increase was due to troop rotations and more patrolling.
On May 14, the International Civil Commission for Observance of Human Rights (CCIODH) reported that military over-flights, along with a gradual increase in military patrols and checkpoints had caused special concern to the indigenous communities in Chiapas. The commission also said the military units harassed and intimidated the indigenous population by improvising checkpoints around towns.
In May the Fray Bartolome de las Casas Human Rights Center (Frayba) released a 245-page report that documented the displacement since 1995 of more than 12,000 persons from 2,400 families in Chiapas. The report accused the Government of being responsible for the displacements and not keeping its constitutional commitment to provide for the security of its citizens as well as its obligation to provide humanitarian assistance to internally displaced persons (IDPs) under international law, including human and humanitarian rights.
In July the PRODH stated that social justice in Chiapas depended in great measure on whether reconciliation process can reconstruct the social fabric that had been deteriorating for 8 years. It said that armed civilian groups constitute a latent threat because they continue to operate and provoke displacements of persons.
Human rights organizations have documented 45 human rights violations in Chiapas during the first 6 months of the year, 20 by the military, 11 by state public security agents, 8 by the state judicial police, 4 by federal judicial police, 1 by municipal police and 1 by the PFP. There were also 14 incursions by the military into communities, 9 patrols, 6 interrogations, 3 incidents of weapon firings, 2 eviction threats, two illegal detentions at checkpoints, 1 intrusive search, and 1 case of destruction of property. In addition, armed civilian groups committed three human rights violations.
Human rights NGOs complained about the intimidation of the indigenous population in Salto de Agua, Palenque, and Masoha Shucja in the northern part of Chiapas. They accused soldiers of entering communities and, in some cases, firing automatic weapons. In one case, in Shucja, a military officer identified as Captain Vincente Ambriz Ronces arrived 30 minutes after the alleged shooting occurred to investigate the incident. Military authorities described the incidents as soldiers’ hunting for iguanas.
SEDENA, in coordination with the CNDH and state human rights commissions, provides its officers with a 4-month human rights course to teach officers to be human rights trainers. These officers (183 so far) are responsible for training at the different unit level within the Army and Air Force. By year’s end, SEDENA had not created a military human rights ombudsman as suggested by UNHCHR Robinson in 1999.
There were credible reports of violent incidents and killings committed by armed civilian groups and local political factions in Chiapas. On March 22, a confrontation between supposed members of PRI and PRD led to the killing of one person and the wounding of three others.
On August 7, Jose Lopez Santiz, an EZLN sympathizer, was killed near the community of August 6, close to the city of Altamirano Chiapas. An 11-year-old witness identified the killer as Baltazar Alfonso, a businessman from Altamirano. Lopez had reportedly received death threats from local members of the PRI. Police opened an investigation into the killing. Chiapas state governor Pablo Salazar Mendiguchia and government secretary Emilio Zebadua Gonzalez traveled to Altamirano to try to defuse tensions caused by the fear that the Lopez’ associates would seek revenge. Salazar promised to bring the killers to justice.
There were violent confrontations between EZLN sympathizers and armed civilian groups during the year. On August 26, two EZLN sympathizers were killed in Amaytik, Ocosingo municipality, in Chiapas. The state Attorney General attributed the killings to an “inter-family” problem.
Human rights NGOs have accused the Salazar administration of tolerating armed civilian groups. In September Salazar called for the PGR to determine if armed civilian groups were present in Chiapas. Salazar said in an interview that he could neither confirm nor deny the existence of armed civilian groups and believed that it was the responsibility of the PGR to investigate.
On September 13, Chiapas state police arrested 26 members of the “Peace and Justice” group. Human rights NGOs attribute more than 300 killings between 1995 and 1998 to the group. Although originally identified as part of the PRI organization, in 2000 the group supported Salazar because the PRI would not give it political positions at the state and local level. The police arrested the members in the group’s stronghold of Tila, in northern Chiapas. Sabelino Torres Martinez, identified by the state Attorney General’s office as one of the leaders of "Peace and Justice", faced charges of homicide, causing bodily harm, and illegal possession of firearms.
On August 26, at least two persons died and seven were injured in a clash between EZLN sympathizers and alleged armed civilian groups near Amaitic, a town in Ocosingo, Chiapas, according to the authorities of the autonomous municipality Ricardo Flores Magon and press reports. The Attorney General’s office attributed the clash to a dispute between families. The report could not be confirmed.
In September Oaxaca Ministerial Police arrested Antonio Roque Cruz, former mayor of Santiago Amiltepec, and 11 other persons who were carrying large caliber weapons. Roque is suspected of being a member of a paramilitary group and responsible for the February 2 deaths of Maria Magdalena Torres Torres and Lorenzo Lopez Jimenez.
On May 30, Erika Zamora and Efren Cortes Chavez were freed from prison after a federal tribunal absolved them of the charge of inciting rebellion and conspiracy, in connection with the 1998 battle in El Charco, Guerrero, between the military and alleged elements of the ERPI guerrilla group that resulted in the killing of 12 persons. In 1998 they were found innocent of organized crime, terrorism, and storing weapons.
Section 2 Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
a. Freedom of Speech and Press
The Constitution provides for freedom of speech and of the press, and the Government generally respected these rights in practice; however, harassment of journalists by various sources, especially by narcotics trafficking organizations in the northern part of country, continued during the year. The mass media are not subject to formal censorship by the Government; however, there were in the past reports of some self-censorship. In addition, violence and threats against journalists primarily by narcotics traffickers and on occasion by the authorities hindered press freedom. Nonetheless the freedom and independence of the media continued to expand. Many observers believe that drug trafficking organizations or corrupt security personnel in their pay carried out most of the attacks on the media.
The traditionally close relationship between the Government and the media that tilted coverage and editorial opinion in the Government's favor during 71 years of PRI rule changed significantly. The Government no longer controls the import and sales of newsprint, but does retain control over broadcasting licensing, which critics claim led some broadcast media to practice self-censorship. However, the two principal television networks, Televisa and TV Azteca, frequently criticized and challenged government actions at the federal, state, and municipal levels. On October 10, the Federal Government, by presidential decree, reduced its right to use 12.5 percent of broadcast time to 18 minutes of television and 35 minutes of radio broadcast time per day. Official advertising in the media continued, but state and municipal governments were more likely to purchase news coverage, via news articles known as “gacetillas,” than the Federal Government. In the past, there were allegations of cash and noncash payments to journalists; however, there were no major allegations during the year.
On June 11, President Fox signed the Law for Transparency and Access to Information, enabling the public to request and receive information from all state entities, as well as from public and private agencies that manage public funds. The law had not been fully implemented throughout the country by year’s end. The opening of previously sealed files caused a reexamination of many painful episodes in the country’s history, such as the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre and the 1971 "Jueves de Corpus" massacre. Past presidents such as Luis Echeverria and Jose Lopez Portillo have been called to testify about their involvement in these massacres (see section 1.b.).
The numerous attacks on journalists constituted the most serious problem for press freedom. The Committee for the Protection of Journalists and Media Communications reported that in 1999 there was a decline in the number of acts of intimidation, including physical attacks, threats, and detentions, against journalists; from 202 in 1998 to 135 in 1999. A 1999 report issued by 4 NGOs recorded 240 attacks of various types against journalists during 1998, compared with 187 during 1997. These numbers included all aggressive acts against the media as reported in the media. According to the report, government institutions (including federal, state, and local police) or officials were responsible for 41 percent of the incidents. However, in August, Juan Francisco Ealy Ortiz, the country's representative on the IAPA's Commission on Freedom of the Press and Information, reported that acts of intimidation against journalists by narcotics traffickers had replaced official harassment by earlier administrations as the most serious threats that journalists face in the country. Francisco Barron, Director of Communication at the National Center of Social Communication, an NGO, added that the Fox Administration was more willing to investigate corrupt government officials alleged to be working in collusion with narcotics traffickers.
Outright attacks and intimidation of journalists are underreported, and there are no comprehensive nationwide studies of these incidents. In addition, the Government has not investigated sufficiently the cases that were reported, such as those included in the “Damages Inventory,” a summary published by the Protection Network of Journalism and Media (PNJM). The PNJM reported that there were 101 incidents of press intimidation and harassment in 2000, down from 135 cases reported in 1999. Abuses against the press included physical assaults, legal complaints against journalists, and threats. Sixty-one percent of these complaints were directed against print journalists. The PNJM observed that direct aggression against the media and journalists was declining; however, pressure groups were increasingly using broadly interpreted or discretional legal maneuvers to work against press freedom.
Forty-eight percent of all acts of harassment against journalists occurred in the Federal District. States reporting the next largest amounts of harassment were Guerrero, with 8 percent of all cases, and Chihuahua, with 5 percent of all cases. Harassment was also reported in the states of San Luis Potosi, Baja California, Campeche, Mexico, Michoacan, Nuevo Leon, and Veracruz.
On May 31, Gustavo Ramos, president of the Fresnillo Autonomous University (UAF) board of directors, and Rector Jesus Bonilla Elizondo assaulted Humberto Casarez from the Imagen newspaper published in Fresnillo, Zacatecas state, after it published information on alleged acts of corruption by the UAF directors. On June 24, officers from the Pachuca, Hidalgo state municipal police assaulted Inving Leftor Magain, a camera operator for Telemundo, while he and 20 other journalists covered a demonstration. Lefor subsequently filed a lawsuit against municipal police.
The International Press Institute reported that three journalists were murdered during the year.
On January 18, two gunmen shot and killed Felix Alonso Fernandez Garcia, editor of the weekly magazine Nueva Opcion, in Miguel Aleman, Tamaulipas state. Shortly before his killing, Fernandez had received death threats for his reporting about alleged links between the city's former mayor and drug traffickers.
On February 1, an unidentified assailant killed Julio Samuel Morales Ferron, columnist for the daily El Sol de Medio Día, in Mexico City.
On October 11, an explosion in his apartment killed Jose Miranda Virgen, journalist and vice president of the daily El Sur de Veracruz. The police stated that a gas leak had caused the explosion; however, local media noted that the apartment’s living room had received more damage than the kitchen when the leak supposedly occurred. Pablo Robles Barajas, the newspaper’s director general noted that Miranda had just written a series of articles linking state police officers to drug traffickers. The Association of Veracruz Journalists (APEV) asked Veracruz Governor Miguel Aleman to order the state attorney general’s office (PJEV) to investigate the case. Aleman issued the order, and the PJEV ruled that the explosion was accidental. The APEV disagreed with the PJEV’s conclusion.
The International Press Institute reported that in May Eduardo López Betancourt, a contributor to the newspapers Excélsior and México Hoy and the magazine La Crisis, was forced to leave the country temporarily after unknown individuals threatened to kill his son.
Tamaulipas authorities continue to investigate whether the March 2001 murder of Saul Martínez of the Matamoros newspaper El Imparcial, was related to articles he wrote on illegal migrant smuggling and government corruption.
There were no new developments in the investigation into the February 2001 killing of Jose Luis Ortega Mata, editor of the weekly Semanario de Ojinaga based in Ojinaga, Chihuahua.
The Interamerican Press Society and the Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) reported that Jose Ramírez Puente, the host of a popular radio news program in Ciudad Juarez who was killed in 2000, was an undercover informant for the Investigation and National Security Center (CISEN). Investigations are underway to determine if his murder was linked to his work as a journalist or as an informant for CISEN. Following his murder, state judicial police found eight bags of marijuana weighing about two pounds each in the trunk of the car. Puente’s relatives claimed the marijuana was planted, and the case was transferred to federal jurisdiction. Since 2001 several members of the federal police force in Chihuahua have been dismissed for corruption.
On May 30, a three-judge appeals panel sentenced two men to a 13-year prison term for the 1998 murder of San Antonio Express-News reporter Philip True. The unanimous ruling overturned an August 2001 verdict acquitting the men.
There are approximately 300 newspapers operating (including local). Of these, there are approximately 10 main national newspapers. None are operated by the Government; however, the Government does operate several radio stations, two national television channels, and some local stations. Public universities run most of the public media.
Television news independence has been enhanced by greater political pluralism, generational change in media leadership, and growing competition for advertisers and viewers which continued to separate government and media interests. Moreover, as much of the national media has developed higher journalistic standards and independence in recent years, government influence has declined. The media showed a high degree of editorial independence, particularly in the capital and other major urban centers. Direct criticism of the Government, especially in radio and the print media, was common.
The CPJ believes that the country's criminal defamation law violates the basic freedom of expression and that no journalist should be jailed for his work. On March 11, the authorities arrested Maria Esther Martinez, of the daily La Union de Morelos for defamation after she had criticized the state Attorney General’s office and the Ministerial Police. On April 1, police arrested Raquel Urban Hernandez of the weekly Reporteros Informando published in Ecatepec, Mexico state for defamation over a November 2001 article that criticized PAN legislator Alejandro Gamino Palacios for his alleged implication in the rape of a minor. She was released on bail. On May 8, Alejandro Junco de la Vega, president and publisher of the Mexico City daily Reforma was charged with defamation over a September 2001 article that charged that the Grand Commission of the Mexico state Chamber of Deputies had issued irregular payments of $101,789 (969,000 pesos) to seven deputies. In April 2001, former Mexico City mayor Rosario Robles Berlanga brought changes of defamation against Junco and Carolina Pavon, a Reforma reporter, over an April 2001 story in which Pavon reported official allegations that almost 10 percent of the mayoral administration’s 2000 budget had disappeared. In May the Writers in Prison Committee, a NGO, noted that the case was still being investigated by the Mexico City Attorney General's Office. Junco continues as Reforma’s owner and Pavon continues to write for the city section of Reforma.
On August 19, the PGJE arrested journalist Isabel Arvide at the airport in Chihuahua City and charged her with criminal defamation, a charge that carries a possible sentence of 6 months to 2 years in prison. In June 2001, Arvide published an article on her web site and in the Mexico City daily Milenio that accused Osvaldo Rodriguez Borunda, owner of the Chihuahua newspaper El Diario, of involvement in drug trafficking and money laundering. Arvide was released on August 20 after posting a bond of $10,000 (100,000 pesos). Arvide alleged that PRI national president Roberto Madrazo lured her to Chihuahua under false pretenses as part of a press contingency, specifically to be arrested, since the charges are state charges not enforceable in another state.
On October 17, Judge Catalina Reuiz Pacheco agreed to consider an application for the arrest of Oscar Cantu Murguia, editor of the daily Norte de Ciudad Juarez, and seven of his journalists; Armando Delgado, Manuel Aguirre, Gaudalupe Salcido, Rosa Isela Perez, Francisco Lujan, Antonio Flores, and Carlos Huertas. In January former Ciudad Juarez mayor Manuel Quevedo Reyes filed a complaint after the newspaper published a series of articles that alleged that the state government had paid an inflated price for land that Quevedo sold it. Arrest warrants were issued for the eight journalists. In November a federal judge granted one of the journalists, Armando Delgado, a legal injunction (amparo) to protect him from arrest and to determine if the state attorney general’s office violated his rights by not permitting him to defend himself against the charges. In October the Inter-American Press Association accused Chihuahua Governor Patricio Martinez of using the state justice system to silence journalists. In October, the CNDH sent an official to Ciudad Juarez to investigate the case.
In June and December, the NGO Reporters sans frontieres reported that several journalists had been summoned to appear in court to reveal their sources. On June 12, Maribel Gutierrez, of the daily El Sure published in Acapulco, was questioned regarding her sources for articles that she wrote on the murder of Digna Ochoa (see Sections 1.a. and 4.) On November 18, journalists Enrique Mendez, Gustavo Castillo, Ruben Villalpando, Andrea Becerril, Ciro Perez, and Roberto Garduno, of the daily La Jornada, were summoned regarding their sources for an article concerning a corruption scandal in the public petroleum company Pemex. On December 3, Daniel Moreno, news director for the daily El Universal, was questioned regarding his sources for an article published on June 16 regarding the same scandal. On November 17, CNDH President Jose Luis Soberanes affirmed that it is the right and obligation of journalists to refuse to reveal their sources. The CNDH emphasized that the continual summons of journalists intimidated and inhibited those who provide information. On December 4, Attorney General Rafael Macedo said that the purpose of summoning journalists to reveal their sources of information was to prevent public officials from "leaking" information. After public outcry over the PGR’s actions, the PGR stopped summoning journalists to testify about their sources; however, this retreat did not rule out the possibility that the PGR would utilize similar techniques in the future.
On January 20, Ruben Rosas, Zamira Izaguirre, Jose Antonio Tirado and Jose Loya, anchors of a Ciudad Juarez radio station, protested publicly the cancellation of their radio show, allegedly due to pressure by the governor of Chihuahua state. According to the journalists’ statements, the governor pressured the radio station to cancel their show after they harshly criticized the inefficiency of the authorities in solving the women’s homicide cases in Ciudad Juarez (see Section 1.a. and 5). The Chihuahua state government denied all the accusations.
There continued to be no information on the whereabouts of Valentín Davila Martinez, a journalist with Radio Canon, who was reported as missing in Ciudad Juarez in August 2001.
The PGR closed its investigation into the 2000 death of Jose Ramirez Puente, the host of a popular radio news program in Ciudad Juarez as unsolved; however, an investigation by the state PGJ remained open at year’s end but without any leads.
The Government does not restrict Internet access, which is widely available across the nation, especially in major cities. Some segments of the population, predominantly the poor and the elderly, cannot afford to use the Internet or do not possess sufficient computer skills. The Government is attempting to broaden Internet usage in rural areas via the "e-Mexico program."
The Government does not restrict academic freedom.
b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association
The Constitution provides for the right of assembly, and the Government generally respected this right in practice. The only requirement for holding demonstrations is that groups that wish to meet in public areas must inform local police authorities in advance. Organized, peaceful demonstrations occurred frequently throughout the country.
There were many demonstrations during the year. From March 8-13 a group of women marched from Chihuahua City to Ciudad Juarez to protest the continued murders of women in Ciudad Juarez and the lack of interest displayed by authorities. Representatives of NGOs and relatives of murdered women participated in the march. On March 13, when the protesters arrived at the kilometer 38 checkpoint in Ciudad Juarez, a group of approximately 50 persons associated with the PRI party attempted unsuccessfully to stop the marchers from entering the city. However, several marchers were injured.
Until August there were routine demonstrations staged by small land owners from San Salvador Atenco, in Mexico state to protest an October 2001 expropriation decree signed by President Fox to use land in Atenco to build a new airport for Mexico City. Over the course of 10 months, the peasant land owners staged demonstrations to protest the planned expropriation of their properties at the low price of $0.70 (7 pesos) per square meter. On July 11, the landowners seized local government officials and demanded the release of 13 protesters arrested during the riot, including 2 protest leaders. Both the hostages and the detained protestors were eventually released. One arrested protester, who suffered from various medical ailments that were aggravated by injuries sustained during his arrest, died after being transferred from prison to a hospital. The peasants claimed that he had died from lack of prompt medical attention and demanded an investigation into his death. On August 1, the Secretary of Transportation announced that the Government would not proceed with plans to expropriate land to build the airport.
The Constitution provides for freedom of association and the Government generally respected this right in practice. Political parties, opposition groups, and independent associations functioned freely without government interference or restriction. The Federal Electoral Code recognizes national political parties as well as political associations. Political associations can participate in elections through an agreement with a political party; however, they cannot use their names or symbols during the election campaigns. Political parties do not have legal status until they receive their official designation from the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE). The IFE has recognized 10 political parties and 36 political groups. Parties must receive at least 2 percent of the vote in national elections to maintain their registration. In July the IFE announced that political groups had presented 11 requests for formal registration; however, only 2, Mexico Possible and Liberal Progressive Party, had met the requirements for recognition.
Citizens are free to associate and may form private or charitable associations. However, in 1998 the Mexico City legislature passed a law that gave the city government more influence over private charities. According to the Secretariat of Government’s Directorate of Liaison with Social and Civil Organizations, there are 5,339 NGOs active in the country, which play an important and vocal role in the promotion of civil society.
c. Freedom of Religion
The Constitution provides for freedom of religion, and Congress may not enact laws that establish or prohibit any religion. The Government generally respected this right in practice; however, there were some restrictions at the local level. State and municipal governments generally protected this right; however, some village and tribal officials infringed on religious freedom, especially in the South. A generally amicable relationship among the various religions in society contributed to religious freedom; however, in some parts of southern Mexico, political, cultural, and religious tensions continued to limit the free practice of religion within some communities. Most such incidents occurred in the state of Chiapas.
Religious associations must register with the Under Secretariat of Religious Affairs of the Federal Secretariat of Government (SSAR) to operate legally. Although the Government rejects applications because of incomplete documentation, the registration process is routine. An estimated 5,871 religious associations are registered.
To be registered as a religious association, a group must articulate its fundamental doctrines and religious beliefs, must not be organized primarily to make money, and must not promote acts physically harmful or dangerous to its members. Religious groups must be registered to apply for official building permits, to receive tax exemptions, and to hold religious meetings outside of their places of worship.
The SSAR promotes religious tolerance and investigates cases of religious intolerance. All religious associations have equal access to the SSAR for registering complaints.
The Constitution provides that education should not privilege one religion over another. Religious instruction is prohibited in public schools; however, religious associations are free to maintain their own private schools, which receive no public funds.
The Government requires religious groups to apply for a permit to construct new buildings or to convert existing buildings into new churches.
The Constitution bars members of the clergy from holding public office, advocating partisan political views, supporting political candidates, or opposing the laws or institutions of the State.
To visit the country for religious purposes, foreign religious workers must secure Government permission. The Federal Government limits the number of visas each religious group is allowed. However, the Government has granted 33,930 such visas since 1994.
There were incidents of violence between religious groups, principally in Chiapas during the year. The situation in Chiapas is a result of a complex mix of economic, ethnic, political, and religious tensions. There is a history of religious intolerance in, and expulsions from, certain indigenous communities whose residents follow syncretistic (Catholic/Mayan) religious practices and view other religious practices as a threat to indigenous culture. In parts of Chiapas, local leaders of indigenous communities sometimes regard evangelical groups as unwelcome outside influences and potential economic and political threats. As a result, these leaders sometimes acquiesced in, or actually ordered, the harassment or expulsion of individuals belonging primarily, but not exclusively, to Protestant evangelical groups. In many cases, these expulsions involved the burning of homes and crops, closing down of churches, beatings, and, occasionally, killings.
The most common incidents of intolerance arose in connection with traditional community celebrations. Protestant evangelicals often resist making financial donations demanded by community norms that will go partly to local celebrations of Catholic religious holidays and resist participating in festivals involving alcohol. The abuse related to these and other incidents apparently did not occur solely and exclusively on the basis of religion. While religious differences were often a prominent feature of such incidents, ethnic differences, land disputes, and struggles over local political and economic power were most often the basic cause of the problems.
On March 4, traditionalists burned the houses of 4 evangelical families in Mitzinton, where some 30 persons lived. One of the houses also reportedly had 17 bullet marks in it. Two hundred Protestant evangelicals left the community in March, in response to threats of expulsion, but returned on April 3 despite fear of further threats. Protestant community members have been dissatisfied with the Government response to the incidents. The State Attorney General’s office has initiated an investigation.
On May 1, approximately 20 Protestant evangelical Tzotzil community members, along with 2 National Action Party (PAN) council members, were harassed and detained by local leaders on charges of "religious and political intolerance." On May 6, in the community of Botatulan, six members of Jehovah’s Witnesses were reputedly stopped by local leaders who demanded $500 (5,000 pesos) in return for releasing them. These detentions have not been verified.
Tension between Catholic/Mayan syncretists and evangelical groups continues to be a problem in the municipality of San Juan Chamula. Approximately 130 children of evangelicals have been denied access to the local public schools in 6 communities every year since 1994. On August 19, a confrontation between traditionalist Catholics and Protestant evangelicals in the community of Tzaljaltetic, in the municipality of San Juan Chamula, left five persons wounded. The incident occurred when Catholics did not allow Protestant parents to register their children at the local school. The Chiapas state Secretariat of Government (SEGOB) initiated a dialogue with both parties to reach an agreement and avoid future confrontations.
In addition, local traditionalist/syncretist leaders in San Juan Chamula suspended services by Roman Catholic clergy in the municipality and later expelled two priests and a deacon from the area. On May 8, police arrested a Roman Catholic teacher after discovering a cache of arms and explosives in his cottage in San Juan Chamula. A Roman Catholic vicar in the community charged that the weapons were planted by Protestant leaders.
In February traditionalist Catholic community members in the community of San Juan Metaltepec Mixes, Oaxaca expelled a group of 20 Protestant evangelical families for their religious beliefs. This report could not be verified.
On November 5, a group of indigenous families who were Jehovah’s Witnesses abandoned their homes in the the communities of Tzajaltetic and Botatulan, in the municipality of San Juan Chamula in Chiapas. The group fled for fear of attacks against them by local bands of Catholics. They have been taken in by family members living in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas.
On November 14, seven indigenous persons were wounded in a clash in the community of Tzetelton, in the municipality of San Juan Chamula in Chiapas. According to press reports, a group of indigenous Protestants attacked a group of Roman Catholics when the Catholics were meeting to plan for the December 12 Feast of the Virgin of Guadalupe.
On November 27, according to press reports four persons were hurt in a confrontation between two groups belonging to the same religion in the community San Pablo Atlazalpa, in Chalco, in Mexico state. The incident occured when a group denominated "liberals" entered the local church of St. Peter and Paul to protest the naming of a new parish priest. The liberals clashed with another group of traditionlists within the church who support the newly named priest.
For more detailed information see the 2002 International Religious Freedom Report.
d. Freedom of Movement Within the Country, Foreign Travel, Emigration, and Repatriation
The Constitution provides for these rights, and the Government generally respected them in practice.
Corrupt police sometimes violated the rights of illegal immigrants. Illegal immigrants rarely file charges in cases of crimes committed against them, because the authorities generally deport immediately such persons who come to their attention; many pending cases brought by illegal immigrants are subject to dismissal because the complainant is no longer present in the country.
From February 25 to March 18, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights of Migrants, Gabriela Rodriguez Pizarro, visited the country to highlight the dangers of commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking in women and unaccompanied minors, many originating from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador.
On July 25-31, Juan Mendez, IACHR President and Special Rapporteur for Migrant Workers and Their Families, visited the country and expressed concern about the security of migrants transiting the country. He also noted problems with overcrowding in migrant detention centers.
There also were credible reports that police, immigration, and customs officials were involved in the trafficking of illegal migrants.
In April local police arrested 4 AFI agents in Chiapas for transporting 26 undocumented Central American migrants. Two other likely agents escaped in an unmarked vehicle with no license plates.
In August 2001, the CNDH opened its first office along the border with Guatemala in Tapachula, Chiapas to receive and attend to complaints of human rights violations from migrants, both documented and undocumented. Although the CNDH office received various complaints by migrants including assault, rape, and extortion, the cases are rarely pursued because the migrant departs the area and does not stay to provide follow-up information. According to the CNDH, the principal points of entry for migrants are Comalapa, Suchiate, and Tuxtla Chico.
Migrants who transit a halfway house in southern Chiapas have complained to the director about the double dangers of extortion by the authorities and robbery and killings by an organized gang called “Maras Salvatruchas” who prey on migrants coming from the south.
Reports of injury to and harassment of undocumented migrants continued around the country during the year (see Section 1.a.).
On August 19-28, the U.N. Special Representative for Internally Displaced Persons, Francis Mading Deng, visited the country to review the situation of internally displaced person. According to different NGOs who met with Deng, there are over 640 families that had been displaced by various conflicts. The 1998 killings in El Charco displaced an estimated 400 families according to the head of the Independent Organization of Mixtec and Tlapanec People. During the year, FRAYBA published a study that found that 2,453 families totaling 12,080 persons were internally displaced from 1994 to 2000. Sporadic violence attributed variously to religious, political, land or economic disputes caused persons to flee their homes for fear for their lives, returning only when they felt that the potential threat had abated.
The law provides for the protection of foreigners who might face political persecution if they were to return to their countries of origin. The law includes provisions for the granting of asylum and refugee status in accordance with the 1951 U.N. Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol. The issue of providing first asylum did not arise during the year. The Government accepts the principle of first asylum and reviews each claim on a case-by-case basis with the assistance of the office of the UNHCR. Since the start of the year, the UNHCR office in Mexico City no longer processes refugee documentation for cases in the country. Government authorities now process all refugee documentation.
There were no reports of the forced return of persons to a country where they feared persecution.
Section 3 Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to Change Their Government
The Constitution provides citizens with the right to change their Government peacefully through periodic elections. As a result of electoral reforms approved and implemented in recent years, the political process and especially the electoral process have become more transparent. While elections are open and generally fair, some abuses continued to occur. Prior to the 2000 presidential election, the PRI had dominated politics, controlled the Federal Government, and won every presidential election since its founding in 1929. However, in 2000, voters elected President Vicente Fox, a member of the National Action Party and candidate of the Alliance for Change Coalition, with 43.3 percent of the vote. Observers, both international and domestic, judged the elections, which ended the PRI's 71-year hold on the presidency, to be generally free and fair.
The legislature amended the Constitution in 2000 to allow eligible citizens who are abroad to vote in presidential elections; however, the Senate failed to act on the necessary implementing legislation that would have made overseas voting possible in the 2000 election due to differences over the costs and requirements for voting. The national debate regarding overseas voting for the 2006 presidential elections continued during the year.
Presidents are elected every 6 years and cannot be reelected.
The IFE, operating with full autonomy, arranged and supervised the 2000 federal elections. It standardized the voter registration list and recruited and trained thousands of civil society volunteers to serve as independent electoral workers at the voting booths. The IFE also provided support to state electoral institutes in running state and local elections and was instrumental in overhauling electoral district boundaries to reflect demographic shifts. In October the IFE announced new security features in voting credentials, including digitized photography and personalized microtext.
In the Chamber of Deputies, the PRI holds 208 seats; the PAN 207; the PRD 54; the Green Ecologist Party (PVEM) 16; the Labor Party (PT) 8; Democracy Convergence (CD) 1; the Nationalist Society Party (PSN) 3; and the Social Alliance Party (PAS) 2. There is one independent in the Chamber. The PRI holds 60 seats in the Senate; the PAN 46; the PRD 16; the PVEM 5; and the CD 1. Legislators can and do on occasion change their party affiliation.
On the state level, the PRI holds governorships in 17 states, the PAN 8, the PRD 2, PRD-PT, PRD-PVEM, and PRD-PAN coalitions 4. On the municipal level, multi-party pluralism is well established. The PRD governs the Federal District, and the PAN governs 13 of the 20 largest cities.
In February and March, all three major political parties held elections for top party posts. Only the party leadership voted in the PAN election. The PRI and PRD held popular elections to elect new party leaders. The PRI elections were open to anyone, regardless of political affiliation. The PRD’s election was open only to registered PRD party members. Both elections were accompanied by accusations of fraud. The PRI candidate won the election by less than one percent of the vote in a contest marked by allegations of fraud on both sides. For example, in 1 town in Oaxaca with 1,200 registered voters, 1,100 persons voted, with 1,099 votes going to 1 candidate. The PRD vote was marked more by disorganization than voter fraud. On election day, many polling places were not installed and others had not received ballots or voting boxes. Elections in one state, Hidalgo, were voided due to irregularities detected by election observers in the state level organization.
There have been controversies over state and municipal elections. In July 2001, the PRI appealed the results of the July 1 Ciudad Juarez mayoral elections, called in favor of the PAN candidate, on the basis of alleged irregularities at polling places and the im |
