The Guadalajara Reporter

Amnesty International slams government over human rights abuses

President Felipe Calderon has much work to do during his final six months in office if he wants to leave Mexico with a more favorable human rights record, following strong criticism from Amnesty International (AI) in its annual country-by-country report.

The 2011 report highlighted Mexico’s deeply problematic justice system; the many abuses committed with impunity by the military and the police; the widespread discrimination against indigenous people; high levels of violence against women and migrants; and the lack of adequate protection for journalists and human rights observers.

Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement in response, affirming that “the federal government is fully committed to promoting and protecting human rights.”

The government sought to use the nation’s drug cartels as a scapegoat, affirming that it “recognizes the impact on Mexican society of transnational organized crime, which is why it is doing everything in its power to dismantle these groups.” The government claimed that in the fight against organized crime its “response has been focused on expanding human rights.”

The AI report accepted that “there were a number of progressive constitutional human rights reforms” passed in 2011, but also found that “the government did not take effective measures to prevent or investigate widespread grave human rights violations committed by the military and police, including enforced disappearances, extrajudicial executions, torture and arbitrary arrests.” Furthermore, “the government … continued to assert that abuses were exceptional and perpetrators were held to account.”

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