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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.