HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT ON MEXICO DRAWS ATTENTION,

UNCLAS MEXICO 000585

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM KCRM KCOR SNAR MX
SUBJECT: HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT ON MEXICO DRAWS ATTENTION,
CRITICISM


1. Summary. The Mexican press and political class focused
on concerns expressed in the 2008 Human Right Report on
Mexico regarding corruption and impunity as well as abuses
committed in the course of the government's efforts to combat
organized crime. Most commentators, including opposition
politicians took little exception with the substance of
report which touched on a range of human rights issues.
Instead, several politicians called into question the right
of the U.S. to stand in judgment of Mexico given its
"failure" to address adequately the trafficking of arms and
drug money into Mexico. Mexico's Foreign Ministry offered no
immediate comment but informed us that it was reviewing the
report and requested a meeting for the coming week to discuss
it. End Summary.


2. Three of Mexico's leading dailies provided front-page
coverage of the 2008 Human Rights Report on Mexico. Centrist
dailies El Universal and El Economista assumed a generally
objective stance in reporting that the report had focused on
concerns relating to corruption and impunity and crimes
committed by the security forces in the course of the
government's efforts to combat organized crime. They drew
attention to the report's positive assessment that the
government "respects and promotes" human rights. El
Universal, however, went on to note that the report speaks to
many of the same abuses reported by the National Human Rights
Commission including physical abuse, torture, and unlawful
killings.


3. La Jornada, a left of center daily, offered more
provocative reporting on the report focusing on criticism of
the report lodged by opposition politicians from the
Revolutionary Institution Party (PRI) and Democratic
Revolutionary Party (PRD). This criticism had more to do
with the "right" of the U.S. to criticize Mexico's human
rights record than with the substance of the report itself.
PRD diputado Juan Guerra, for example lamented but did not
necessarily reject the perception of Mexico as suffering from
high levels of corruption. Instead, he objected to U.S.
making this criticism in view of the fact that it is
benefiting from this corruption, explicitly suggesting the
U.S. is complicit in corrupt activities particularly as
relate to the failure of U.S. customs official to address
adequately arms trafficking, trafficking in persons, and
narco-trafficking. PRI deputy Samuel Aguilar took a similar
tack in criticizing U.S. customs officials for not doing
anything to stop the flow of "dirty" money into Mexico.


4. Surprisingly, PRD leader Lopez Obrador offered one of the
more balanced assessments remarking that while Mexicans don't
appreciate the "foreign interference" the report represents,
he found that the U.S. report "corresponds with what is
happening in Mexico." Luciano Pascoe, Vice President of the
Social Democratic Party (PSD) welcomed greater international
focus on the problem of corruption and impunity but then
couldn't pass up the opportunity to criticize the U.S. for
not stopping the flow of weapons into Mexico. Interesting
enough, Raul Vera Lopez, the Catholic bishop of the state of
Saltillo acknowledged that the U.S. has as much a right to
criticize in Mexico about corruption and impunity as Mexico
has to criticize the U.S. on immigration issues. He went on
to describe the Mexican Government's strategy against the
cartels as "inefficient" and maintain that as long as Mexico
did not "take its gloves off" in going after corrupt
politicians and senior government officials, violence and
insecurity would increase.


5. Comment: Mexico's political elite strongly object to the
U.S. assuming the role of judge in assessing the state of
human rights in Mexico. Sensitivity over criticism rendered
in this report is sharpened by a perception the U.S. is not
meeting its responsibilities in particularly as relates to
the trafficking of weapons into Mexico from the U.S.
Notwithstanding angry complaints about the public nature of
the report, no commentator quoted in the press took issue
with substance of the report. In fact, almost all agreed
corruption and impunity and abuses by the security forces
were serious problems with some moving quickly to utilize the
report as fodder to criticize the Calderon administration.
Visit Mexico City's Classified Web Site at
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/mexicocity and the North American
Partnership Blog at http://www.intelink.gov/communities/state/nap /
BASSETT