TITLE: MEXICO HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES, 1994 AUTHOR: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE DATE: FEBRUARY 1995 MEXICO The United Mexican States is a federal republic with a President elected to a 6-year term, a bicameral Congress, and a constitutionally mandated independent judicial branch. The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) has won every presidential election in the last 65 years, many of which involved credible allegations of fraudulent practices. However, the August 21 elections and the January 1 uprising in Chiapas were unparalleled events for human rights in Mexico. Both highlighted progress and underscored issues still needing to be addressed in human rights practices. In Chiapas the Government initially reacted with force, but in a significant departure from historical practice, it soon adopted a plan which rejected a military solution to end the insurrection of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN). With intense domestic and international media attention focussed on Chiapas, the Government declared a unilateral cease-fire 2 weeks after hostilities began, and undertook face-to-face peace talks with the rebels in February. The military perpetrated many human rights abuses during the earliest phase of the conflict, and, as of year's end, authorities had prosecuted no one for those abuses. The talks broke off in mid-May; the Government, however, continued its offer to reestablish a dialog with the EZLN. At year's end, hostilities had not resumed. President Ernesto Zedillo, who took office on December 1, renewed the call for negotiations and accepted a mediation role for the National Mediation Commission (CONAI). Direct talks resumed on January 15, 1995. The August 21 elections were a significant step forward for Mexico's democratic process. 35.5 million people--nearly 78 percent of registered voters--cast ballots in the August 21 elections. Despite widespread irregularities and the ruling PRI's ability to benefit from government resources and privileged access to the news media, numerous independent observer groups, including the highly critical nongovernmental umbrella group Civic Alliance and a joint delegation from the National Democratic Institute, the International Republican Institute, and the Carter Center, determined that these factors did not alter the outcome. The elections featured several innovations in the electoral system, including participation of more than 80,000 accredited domestic observers, government- invited foreign witnesses, and electoral organs under the control of nonpartisan, civilian directors. Mexican security forces, including the military, the federal and state judicial police, federal highway police, and local police are under the control of elected civilian officials. However, the security forces, especially the police, continued to commit human rights abuses. Although economic reforms succeeded in reducing inflation and restructuring the economy, a currency devaluation and financial liquidity crisis at year's end will likely have a sharply negative impact on economic performance in 1995, including a fall in real wages. Serious income disparities and areas of severe poverty remain. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between the United States, Canada, and Mexico went into effect at the beginning of the year. Major human rights abuses included the violence and killings in Chiapas, as well as extrajudicial killings by the police, torture, and illegal arrests. Other abuses include glaring prison deficiencies, discrimination and violence against women, and extensive illegal child labor in the informal economy. The Government attempted to end the "culture of impunity" surrounding the security forces through reforms in the Office of the Attorney General (PGR), continued support to the National Commission for Human Rights (CNDH), and establishment of state-level commissions for human rights. By year's end, however, it had tried and punished few human rights abusers, and abuses remained widespread. Fulfilling his pledges to implement political and judicial reforms, President Zedillo appointed a respected member of the opposition National Action Party (PAN), Antonio Lozano, as Attorney General with a mandate to implement reforms in law enforcement. Zedillo also succeeded in enacting a package of judicial reforms designed to improve the performance and accountability of the Attorney General's office and the Supreme Court. RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS Section 1 Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom from: a. Political and Other Extrajudicial Killings A number of political activists were killed in 1994, but a political motive was not clearly established in any of these killings. A lone gunman murdered Luis Donaldo Colosio, the ruling PRI's presidential candidate, at a political rally in Tijuana in March. The authorities arrested, tried, and convicted the gunman of murder at a trial held in a federal prison, out of public view. The public prosecutor, Miguel Montes, at one point declared that the murder was the result of a conspiracy. He later recanted this statement and subsequently resigned. In September a gunman shot and killed Jose Francisco Ruiz Massieu, the Secretary General of the PRI, on a Mexico City street. The police arrested and detained a suspect who was jailed pending trial, along with several co-conspirators. However, Manuel Munoz Rocha, a PRI legislator and suspected intellectual author of the killing, was still at large at year's end. Deputy Attorney General Mario Ruiz Massieu, the victim's brother, resigned his post in November, charging that PRI and government officials obstructed his investigation. The Attorney General's investigation into these charges did not find the evidence sufficient for subsequent prosecution. President Zedillo, saying that the Mexican people were not satisfied with the results of the Government's inquiries into the Colosio and Ruiz Massieu killings, or the 1993 murder of Guadalajara's Cardinal Posadas, instructed Attorney General Lozano to intensify efforts to resolve these crimes. In December Lozano appointed a special prosecutor to look into all three murders. The leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), and to a lesser extent other opposition parties, asserted that there were political killings associated with the 1994 election campaign. In July an unidentified car struck and killed a PRD campaign organizer while he was jogging, and fled the scene. In August unidentified gunmen killed another PRD activist in Tapachula, Chiapas. In a possible assassination attempt, the PRD's candidate for the governorship of Chiapas suffered severe injury in August when a trailer truck collided with his minivan. The candidate has fully recovered, but two other PRD officials died in the incident, and two more suffered serious injury. The Attorney General's Office has not determined whether the incident was an accident or an assassination attempt. The PRD claims that, in the past 6 years, 275 party activists or members were the victims of political violence which, in some cases, resulted in death. By mutual agreement with the PRD, the CNDH dismissed 135 claims as unsubstantiated and proceeded to investigate 140 claims. These included 90 involving the murder of 115 persons, and 17 involving serious injury. The CNDH investigation found violations of human rights by Government authorities in 67, or 47.8 percent, of the 140 cases. The CNDH findings included recommendations on redressing abuses. At year's end, the authorities had fully implemented 18 recommendations and partially implemented the remaining 49. Police and vigilantes acting on behalf of local landowners continued to commit extrajudicial killings while dislodging peasant squatters from rural lands in several states. The Government's response to squatter issues, including these killings, has varied from state to state. To expand communal land holdings, peasants for decades have invaded private lands and petitioned for government recognition of the seizures. With recent constitutional agrarian reforms, the Government ceased distributing new lands to "ejidos" (government-owned communes); the invasions continue nonetheless. Police and vigilantes raided the Plan del Encinal community in Ixhuatlan de Madero, Veracruz state, on September 8, forcibly evicting residents and taking two community leaders into custody. The mutilated bodies of the two were found in a nearby river bearing numerous close-range gunshot wounds to the head and chest. The Veracruz state human rights commission and the Attorney General's office are investigating the case. Veracruz state officials blocked an attempt by a team of forensic experts and nongovernmental organizations (NGO's) to conduct autopsies on the victims. The NGO's have appealed to federal authorities for assistance. In January while searching for a suspect involved in another incident, the police allegedly shot and killed two farmers in Jalisco state. The authorities arrested the six police officers involved, pending further investigation. Proceedings continued against a local police officer accused of beating U.S. citizen Mario Amado to death in a Baja California jail in 1992. The Mexican military has not yet made public the resolution of charges against 16 soldiers in the June 1993 killing of 5 suspected narcotics traffickers in Chihuahua. Mexico is one of the countries cited by Amnesty International where gays and lesbians are most likely to be victims of abuse and violence. At least 12 homosexuals and 9 male prostitutes have been killed in Tuxtla Gutierrez since 1991. Gay rights advocates charged that police made little effort to solve these murders. An independent prosecutor was appointed in April, but authorities have not provided the prosecutor with adequate resources to carry out full investigations. b. Disappearance There were no confirmed reports of politically motivated disappearances in 1994. The CNDH's annual report contained 461 cases of missing persons in the Chiapas conflict alone, of whom 432 had been located by May. As of year's end, the CNDH believed no more than 10 persons were still missing, but due to large movements of people caused by the conflict, it was difficult to locate the remaining persons. c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment Torture continues to be a serious human rights problem, although the CNDH reported a 40-percent decline in torture complaints over the previous year. The CNDH has noted that 8 out of 32 jurisdictions (31 states and the Federal District) still do not have specific laws to prevent or punish torture. Poorly trained and equipped to investigate crimes, police officers continued to attempt to solve crimes by rounding up likely suspects and then exacting confession from them. Photographs of detainees with black-eyed, swollen faces still appear in the local press. Even high-profile suspect Mario Aburto, the accused gunman in presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio's assassination, claimed that police beat him; press photos and reports shortly after his arrest lend credence to his claims. CNDH representatives were present during his subsequent interrogations. The authorities punish few officials for torture, which continues to occur mainly because confessions are the primary evidence in many criminal convictions. The CNDH reported that in the period from May 1993 to April 1994, the authorities brought 53 cases against officials for the crime of torture; in 13 cases they declined to execute the arrest warrant, and judges denied or canceled the arrest order in another 25 cases. By law the defendant must prove that a confession was forced; but even a forced confession is not automatically excluded from evidence. Many victims do not report, or do not follow through on, their complaints against the police for fear of reprisals. Three young indigenous women charged that 10 soldiers beat and raped them at a military checkpoint in Chiapas on June 4. The military immediately denied the accusation, but brought seven soldiers before a military court that is investigating the matter. The law does not require civil trial of soldiers involved in civil crimes, and the military continues to handle the case. The CNDH and some human rights advocates agree that the law gives the military jurisdiction over this case. On November 16, various peasant organizations comprised of Ch'ol and Tzeltal Indians organized a demonstration in the main square of Palenque, Chiapas, in connection with a local land dispute. An armed group that reportedly included ranchers, local businessmen, and the Palenque municipal police forced the peasants from the square. The police and vigilantes fired tear gas at the demonstrators, burned their possessions, and transported some of them out of town in trucks. State government officials arrived later the same day and attempted to establish a dialog between the two sides. CNDH investigators arrived on November 18. Although the CNDH received no complaints or reports of any missing persons, Amnesty International reported that approximately 70 persons disappeared. The captors released all the detainees after holding them for a month and after beating all of them severely. On November 20, demonstrations and violence in Comitan, Chiapas, resulted in police tear-gassing demonstrators and the kidnaping of a municipal police officer by protesters. Again, the CNDH did not receive any missing person complaints, but Amnesty International reported that unidentified forces abducted 10 persons and held them approximately a month as well, and then released them after being them. In both of these incidents in Chiapas, no authorities brought any charges of wrongdoing against either side, nor did any officials other than CNDH initiate any investigation. The CNDH continued to investigate these matters. In 1989 an elite group of antinarcotics police was responsible for the kidnaping and rape of at least 19 women in Mexico City. Courts had sentenced only four of the dozen accused officers to prison at the end of 1993. The authorities released the remaining 8 officers after victims could not identify them. In some cases police officers whom one state dismissed find law enforcement employment in another. The CNDH discovered that even when the authorities censured some officers in one law enforcement job, they moved on to other positions and were subsequently charged again with human rights abuses. In an effort to remedy this situation, the CNDH publishes lists of censured public servants in its annual report and monthly newsletters. Many prisons are staffed by undertrained and corrupt guards, lack adequate facilities for prisoners and are overcrowded, despite an early release program endorsed by the CNDH and legal reforms reducing the number of crimes that carry mandatory prison sentences. 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. Drug and alcohol use is rampant in prisons. Frequently, prisoners exercise authority within the prison, displacing prison officials. Conflicts between rival prison groups, often involved in drug trafficking, continued to spark lethal violence. While the authorities prosecuted a few prison officials for abusing prisoners, it was more common to dismiss them or to charge them with only minor offenses. In response to these problems, the CNDH launched a nationwide campaign to improve prison conditions. Federal and state governments have begun to provide funding for the construction of modern installations and to improve existing facilities. Some prisons, contrary to law, do not separate male and female populations. In at least one prison, the authorities allowed male trusties access to women's cells, also a violation of the law. At this prison, officials sometimes encouraged women to form sexual liaisons with male prisoners and guards, as such relationships, according to a state prison official, enhanced the facility's peace and safety. In some cases, officials coerced women into sexual relationships. The CNDH has 20 investigators dedicated to women's issues and has a program to inspect prisons (it has visited 502 jails) and investigate prisoner complaints. d. Arbitrary Arrest, Detention, or Exile Arbitrary arrest and detention continued to be among the most common human rights abuses. The authorities arbitrarily imprisoned 21 persons at the Cerro Hueco prison in March. Only when the prisoners began a hunger strike to call attention to their plight did the CNDH intervene. In the third week of the strike, the authorities acknowledged that they had no grounds for continuing the imprisonment, and released them. A study by the National Indigenous Institute (INI) found that courts had not yet sentenced 70 percent of indigenous prisoners, half of whom the authorities held in pretrial detention for longer than allowed by law. Over the past 5 years, the INI was able to have 8,000 indigenous prisoners released from jails, but with new entrants the current indigenous prison population stands at 5,400. The INI has succeeded in convincing federal prosecutors to drop charges against first-time offenders accused of drug cultivation, arguing that indigenous defendants are often forced by drug traffickers to grow the crops and do not understand the legal significance of their actions. Many detainees report that officials ask them to pay bribes for release before formal arraignment; many of those arrested report that they are able to bribe officials to have them drop charges before they go before a judge. Corruption is rampant throughout the system. Some wealthy drug traffickers have avoided arrests or jail sentences by paying off police officers and judges. In July police officers detained a U.S. citizen and his son and drove them around Mexico City for several hours. The officers released them after they handed over their cash and valuables, warning them not to report the incident as the officers knew where the two lived. The Constitution provides that the authorities must present anyone detained before a judge within 72 hours and must try the person within 4 months if the alleged crime carries a sentence of less than 2 years, or within 1 year if the crime carries a longer sentence. The law requires prisoners awaiting trial to be housed separately from those convicted. In practice, these time limits are frequently ignored. According to the CNDH and NGO's, the authorities often held criminal defendants with convicted prisoners, and for longer than allowed by law before going to trial. To address these problems, the Government established the CNDH in 1990. The overall number of complaints filed with the CNDH increased by 16 percent in 1994, with 6,574 complaints filed from January to August. Its recommendations have resulted in the sanctioning of 1,484 public servants, the vast majority members of public security forces. During the 12-month period from May 1993 to May 1994, CNDH efforts resulted in sanctions against 539 public servants, as follows: 119 penal actions; 54 dismissals; 35 declared incompetent for public service; 86 suspensions; 56 reprimands or warnings; 1 arrest; 1 fine; and 190 investigations pending. The CNDH publishes the names of all sanctioned public servants. In some cases, authorities applied multiple sanctions, but CNDH statistics list cases under the most severe sanction applied. In Chiapas, the Attorney General's office announced the dismissal of 60 percent of all state police officers (510 of 850 agents) for crimes while in uniform or when working as police without proper registration. The law does not permit exile, and it is not practiced. e. Denial of Fair Public Trial Trial in the Mexican judicial system, which is based on the Napoleonic Code, is a series of fact-gathering hearings at which the court receives documentary evidence or testimony. In addition officials may add notarized documents to the official case file without authentication. While these hearings must by law be open to the public, in practice the courts do not admit the public. Journalists covering a judicial proceeding rely on the statements of attorneys outside the courtroom as to what occurred inside. A judge alone in chambers reviews the case file and makes a final written ruling based thereon. The record of the proceeding is not available to the public; only the parties and, by special motion, the victim, may have access to the official file. In his first month in office, President Zedillo moved a package of judicial reforms aimed at improving the performance of the Mexican Supreme Court through the Congress and the 20 state legislatures needed to amend the Constitution. These reforms included Senate confirmation of Supreme Court justices and relieving the Court of administrative duties. While there is a constitutional right to an attorney at all stages of criminal proceedings, in practice many poor defendants are not adequately represented. Attorneys are not always available during the questioning of defendants; in some instances a defense attorney will attempt to represent several clients simultaneously by entering different rooms to certify that he was present although he did not actually attend the full proceedings. In the case of indigenous defendants, many of whom do not speak Spanish, the situation is often worse. The courts do not routinely furnish translators for them at all stages of criminal proceedings, and thus defendants may be unaware of the status of their case. Some human rights groups claim that activists arrested in connection with land disputes and other civil disobedience activities are in fact political prisoners. The Government asserts that those charged in the sometimes violent land invasions are fairly prosecuted for common crimes, such as homicide and damage to property. f. Arbitrary Interference with Privacy, Family, Home, or Correspondence The Constitution protects the rights to privacy, family, home, and correspondence. The law requires search warrants, but there were credible claims that unlawful searches without warrants are common. There were no known claims of forced political membership and no substantiated claims of surveillance or interference with correspondence. g. Use of Excessive Force and Violations of Humanitarian Law in Internal Conflicts The Chiapas uprising prompted many claims of human rights abuses. The CNDH issued an interim report in May finding that there was reason to believe that the military had injured or killed civilians in aerial attacks, and that there were summary executions, illegal detentions, and torture. The military denied any responsibility, and no military personnel or government officials have been sanctioned. The CNDH has not yet issued its final report on Chiapas. On January 4, army fixed-wing aircraft fired rockets and machine guns into villages around San Cristobal de las Casas, killing and injuring several noncombatant residents. Army personnel on the ground, untrained in managing close air support, made inaccurate target identification and contributed to the civilian casualties. The aircraft also fired on clearly identified journalists in the area who were displaying a white flag. One of the first photographs to come out of the conflict was a picture of five men apparently bound at the wrists and shot point blank in the head. The five were lying in a bloody pool on the floor of the market in the town of Ocosingo, some wearing what appeared to be EZLN uniforms--green pants and brown shirts. The federal Attorney General's Office determined in April that someone had indeed executed the five, but it exonerated the army, finding that the army was not in the market at the time of death. National and international human rights organizations widely criticized the PGR report, which disregarded evidence that the investigators could not have accurately fixed the time of death and that army elements indeed were in the market on the day the five died. Also in Ocosingo, the authorities later determined that 11 bodies found in paupers' graves after the fighting ended included noncombatant hospital patients and visitors; some witnesses said the army gunned them down. Again, the military denied any involvement; the PGR investigated the case but has yet to charge anyone. In Morelia residents reported that the military entered a communal farm of 100 families on January 7, forcing the men to lie face down in the village square while they led some away for questioning and beatings. Witnesses said they saw a military ambulance take away the bodies of three men, two of them in their sixties. Residents discovered the remains of the three on the outskirts of the community on February 10. The army denied any responsibility, claiming that the remains were not human and that no military troops were in Morelia on January 7. The army admitted, however, that troops were there on January 6. U.S. pathologists confirmed the identity of the remains, but the Government did not file charges and closed the case. There were also complaints that the EZLN committed human rights abuses. The CNDH declined to investigate the charges, since the EZLN is not a government entity. The EZLN kidnaped and held for 2 months a former governor of Chiapas, releasing him after a "people's tribunal" found him guilty of crimes against the people. At times the EZLN collected "war taxes" at road blocks in the areas it controlled and confiscated the private property and livestock of ranchers. The EZLN announced in October that it would welcome an investigation by NGO's into allegations that it had committed human rights abuses against civilians. The EZLN also said it was opening an office to train its soldiers and to receive complaints of human rights abuses. Some large landowners in Chiapas established private militias to defend their property from peasant land invasions. Local authorities have not impeded establishment of these militias, which often employ police and military personnel.