IPS-English MEXICO: Drug Violence, the Army and Human Rights Abuses
 
Date: Thu, 29 May 2008 16:09:06 -0700

 
Diego Cevallos

MEXICO CITY, May 29   (IPS)  - The Mexican government says the 4,200
drug-related murders committed since December 2006 and the growing
brutality of drug traffickers are a sign that the war on drugs is
working.

But observers and human rights groups argue that what is winning
out are violence, fear and human rights violations, and that no end
is in sight.

Since conservative President Felipe Calderón took office in December
2006, 20,000 army troops and more than 5,000 federal police officers
have been deployed around the country to help state police forces
fight drug trafficking. ”We are at war,” the president has stated
on several occasions.

According to official figures, 10 percent of the 4,200 people killed
in drug gang-related murders since the start of Calderón's term were
members of the military and the police.

The number of violent confrontations between the security forces
and criminals has gone up under the Calderón administration. A number
of drug lords have been captured, although they are quickly replaced,
according to the authorities.

But reports of arbitrary arrests, torture, rape and murder by members
of the military have also increased.

In its annual report on the state of human rights in the world, released
Wednesday, Amnesty International reported that members of the security
forces in Mexico committed serious violations of human rights in 2007.
The London-based rights watchdog also criticised the practice of trying
soldiers in military rather than civilian courts.

”The government claims it is winning the war, but there is no sign
or indication that this is actually occurring, or that the official
strategy is leading anywhere. I believe the situation is alarming,”
José Nieto, an expert in security matters, told IPS.

After the murder of several police officers and the appearance of
human heads and bodies showing signs of torture, Attorney General
Eduardo Medina said this week that contrary to what it might look
like, the increase in violence was a sign that the government was
”winning the war,” and that the drug trafficking gangs are becoming
”desperate” because of the blows dealt by the authorities.

”The attorney general's claim is disturbing: the clearest demonstration
that the state is incapable of imposing order in the national territory
-- the spectacle of the most savage violence -- is interpreted as
a good omen,” wrote columnist Jesús Silva in the Reforma newspaper.

Nieto, a security adviser to private companies, said it's time for
the government to revise its strategy.

”It is not working, because other aspects must also be addressed,
like the professionalisation of the police force, an all-out crackdown
on money laundering, and the fight against corruption among low and
high-level authorities,” he said.

Edgar Cortez, head of the ”All Rights For All” National Civil Human
Rights Organisations Network, made up of 55 groups, said Calderón
is not fulfilling his role of guaranteeing security and human rights,
elements that he said are inseparable.

”The government's security strategy, based on the army, is flawed
and in urgent need of revision,” Cortez told IPS.

Since the 2000-2006 term of President Vicente Fox, a member of the
National Action Party (PAN) like Calderón, drug trafficking has been
on the rise -- according to the authorities, in response to the increased
public security.

Under Fox, who also deployed the army in the fight against drug trafficking,
9,000 people were murdered in drug-related killings.

Although the Mexican constitution states that in peace time, no military
authority shall exercise functions beyond those strictly related to
military discipline, a 1996 Supreme Court ruling approved the use
of the army for other purposes in the case of grave internal security
problems.

”It is not clear what the government is seeking, nor how the effect
of its (anti-drug) strategy can be evaluated, nor how it will be gauged
whether the war is being won or lost,” wrote Silva.

Seven federal police officers were shot to death and four were seriously
injured in a firefight with suspected drug traffickers in the northern
state of Sinaloa Tuesday. In no other single incident have so many
police been killed since Calderón took office.

And early this month, Mexico's acting federal police chief, Edgar
Millán, was gunned down outside his home -- the highest level police
official killed in over a year.

Congress voted on May 21 to demand that the president ”redefine”
his anti-crime strategies to ”restore the calm and the rule of law
in the face of the open challenge posed by organised crime groups.”

”No one can be opposed to the government's exercising its obligation
to restore security and curb the power of drug traffickers, but at
this point it is clear that the strategy it is using is not working,”
said Nieto.

Deputy Attorney General José Luis Santiago Vasconcelos said drug
trafficking and organised crime in Mexico take in some 10 billion
dollars a year through criminal activity related to the sale of drugs
in the United States, the world's largest market for narcotics.

He reported that Mexico, the main supplier of drugs to the U.S. market,
spends some 3.9 billion dollars a year to fight organised crime.

Opinion polls show that public safety is one of the most pressing
concerns of Mexicans, and that there is a high level of support for
and confidence in the military, but not in the police, which have
a bad reputation.


*****
+ DRUGS-MEXICO:  Army to Continue Policing Until 2012 (http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41099)
+ RIGHTS-MEXICO: Armed Forces Accused in Civilian Courts (http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39530)
+ DRUGS-MEXICO:  Police Caught Between Low Wages, Threats and Bribes
(http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=38075)
+ MEXICO: War on Crime Triggers Activists' Suspicions (http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35866)


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