Here is the full Mexico: Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2007
Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
March 11, 2008

The report underscores why Plan Mexico is a terrible idea and should be rejected. Not only is the $1.4 billion price tag exorbitant at a time of record deficits. Not only is the violence already unleashed by the military interdiction model being pursued by the Mexican President Calderon just a taste of what is to come as decapitated drug cartels fight for dominance and as more military units defect to the cartels which happen to offer a higher pay grade.

This Bush security initiative would be horrible - and has already been rejected by the United Steelworkers, Global Exchange, Friends of Brad Will, Witness for Peace and Laura Carlsen the Americas Programs Director for Center for International Policy, because it would reward the impunity with which Mexican government security forces abuse the human rights of Mexicans at a time when an unpopular Mexican President is trying to push through unpopular economic (NAFTA +) and security (the SPP or Security and Prosperity Partnership) policies.

And Mexicans are organizing in huge numbers and are threatened by the militarization of Mexican society proposed through Plan Mexico.

Here below are some choice sections of the U.S. State Department’s findings.

While civilian authorities generally maintained effective control of the security forces, there were frequent instances in which elements of the security forces acted independently of government authority.

. . . impunity and corruption remained problems. . .. The following human rights problems were reported: unlawful killings by security forces; kidnappings, including by police; physical abuse; poor and overcrowded prison conditions; arbitrary arrests and detention; corruption, inefficiency, and lack of transparency in the judicial system; confessions coerced through physical abuse permitted as evidence in trials; . . . corruption at all levels of government; . . . violence, including killings, against women; trafficking in persons, sometimes allegedly with official involvement; . . ..

RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS. . .

Section 1 Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom From:

a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life

The government or its agents did not commit any politically motivated killings; however, there were reports that security forces acting both within and outside the line of duty killed several persons during the year.

. . .

There were no developments in the official investigation of two killings resulting from the April 2006 intervention by state and federal police in a miners strike in the state of Michoacan. In October 2006 the CNDH and local human rights NGOs accused state and federal security forces of excessive force.

At year’s end there was no government action in response to an October 2006 CNDH investigation which concluded that authorities were responsible for the deaths of 14-year-old Javier Cortes Santiago and Ollin Alexis Behumea in May and June of 2006, during a clash between police and armed protesters in San Salvador Atenco. The state attorney general’s office made no conclusions in its investigations of the confrontations by year’s end.

The political conflict in the state of Oaxaca, which directly or indirectly caused an estimated 20 civilian deaths in 2006, stabilized early in the year; however, state and federal investigations had not resolved any of the allegations of official abuses or killings related to the 2006 violence. The government made no progress in investigating the October 2006 murder of American journalist Bradley Will, who was covering the Oaxaca disturbances when an unknown assailant shot and killed him.
. . .
There were no new developments in the Office of the Attorney General’s (PGR) investigation of the 2005 killing of three university students in Tamaulipas by Federal Preventative Police (PFP) officers.

b. Disappearance
. . .
As in previous years, there were credible reports of police involvement in kidnappings for ransom, primarily at the state and local level.
. . .
There were no developments in the case against a PGR agent and two counternarcotics agents accused in the 2005 kidnapping and extortion of a nightclub manager in Mexico City.

Kidnapping remained a serious problem for persons of all socioeconomic levels. Many cases continued to go unreported, as families negotiated directly with kidnappers. The number of reported cases to authorities was believed to be far less than the actual number of kidnappings.
. . .

c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading ` Treatment or Punishment

. . .The CNDH and other human rights groups charged that authorities employed sophisticated techniques involving psychological torture as well as traditional methods to extract confessions. Confessions continued to be used as the primary evidence in many criminal cases, which encouraged the police to use physical abuse to extract testimony from defendants. Many citizens distrusted law enforcement officials and the justice system in general and were reluctant to register official complaints or to appear as witnesses. . …
. . .
Human rights groups also linked physical abuse to the pervasiveness of arbitrary detention: police and prosecutors often attempted to justify an arrest by forcibly securing a confession to a crime.
. . .
On May 2 and 3 . . . According to the CNDH and NGOs, soldiers arbitrarily detained, then beat and burned with cigarette lighters an undetermined number of family members, submerged one person in a well, and raped four women, two of them minors. Soldiers allegedly detained 10 individuals at a local military base where they continued to beat and torture them.
(The above occurred in context of military operations vs. alleged drug trafficking)

The CNDH reported that on May 7, also following a clash with four alleged drug traffickers, a second army unit arbitrarily detained and allegedly tortured seven adults and one child at a military base.
. . .

On June 22, the National Supreme Court (SCJN) created a commission of judges to conduct a nonjudicial investigation into alleged abuses and use of force by federal and state police forces during the 2006 confrontation in Oaxaca, but by year’s end this commission had not completed its investigation.

On August 17, the Supreme Court agreed to investigate the alleged human rights violations that occurred in the May 2006 confrontations in San Salvador Atenco. The CNDH reported receiving 211 complaints of abuse, confirming complaints of sexual assault and torture against 26 detainees during and after the Atenco confrontation. By year’s end the Supreme Court Commission had not completed its investigation. . . .

d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention

The law prohibits arbitrary arrest and detention as well as sponsoring or covering up an illegal detention; however, police often ignored these provisions.

Role of the Police and Security Apparatus

The federal, state, and municipal police forces included approximately 500,000 officers. The federal and state police are divided into preventive and judicial police. Preventive police maintain order and public security and generally do not investigate crimes. Judicial police serve as the investigative force under the authority and command of the public ministries (prosecutor’s offices). The military is responsible for external security but also has significant domestic security responsibilities, particularly in combating drug trafficking and maintaining order.

Corruption continued to be a problem, as many police were involved in kidnapping, extortion, or providing protection for, or acting directly on behalf of organized crime and drug traffickers. Impunity was pervasive to an extent that victims often refused to file complaints. . . .. Between January and October, in conjunction with the CNDH, the National Defense Secretariat SEDENA trained more than 13,500 employees, and the Secretariat for Public Security (SSP) trained more than 18,000 employees in human rights issues.
. . .
The CNDH expressed concern about alleged human rights abuses committed by some military units deployed in counternarcotics and other law enforcement operations.
. . .
In December 2006 the PFP raided the Oaxaca ministerial police headquarters, confiscating more than 340 guns to investigate whether any had been used in attacks against protesters. There were no developments in the investigation at year’s end.

Arrest and Detention
. . .
Police arbitrarily arrested and detained persons suspected of crimes, in many cases without a warrant. . . .

e. Denial of Fair Public Trial

Although the law provides for an independent judiciary, government authorities occasionally influenced court decisions, particularly at the state and local level. Corruption, inefficiency, and lack of transparency continued to be major problems in the justice system. . . .

Trial Procedures

. . .. According to Amnesty International, most criminal suspects did not receive representation until after they were placed under judicial authority, thus making individuals vulnerable to coercion to sign false statements while in pretrial detention.

Although the law provides for translation services from Spanish to indigenous languages to be available at all stages of the criminal process, this generally was not done. Consequently, indigenous defendants who did not speak Spanish sometimes were unaware of the status of their cases, and suspects frequently were convicted without fully understanding the documents they were required to sign.

Judges reportedly continued to allow statements coerced through torture to be used as evidence against the accused, a practice particularly subject to abuse because confessions were the primary evidence in nearly all criminal convictions.
. . .
The law provides for military jurisdiction for crimes or offenses involving any violation of military discipline. In cases in which a member of the military commits a crime and is arrested by civil authorities, the military has the right to request the immediate transfer of the case to military jurisdiction, a practice condemned by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

Section 2 Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:

a. Freedom of Speech and Press

According to Reporters Without Borders, six journalists who disappeared in recent years remained missing; no investigations were being conducted, and none were expected. The Special Prosecutor for Crimes Committed Against Journalists noted that, since 1982, more than 50 journalists have been murdered or disappeared because of their profession, 28 of whom were killed since 2001.

. . .

Government Corruption and Transparency

The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption; however, corruption remained a problem at all levels of government. . .

Section 4 Governmental Attitude Regarding International and Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human Rights

… Although federal government officials often were cooperative and responsive to their views, some state and municipal authorities harassed human rights defenders.

. . . The CNDH won praise from the NGO community for its wide coverage of and extensive reports on human rights abuses but has been criticized for not pressuring the government sufficiently to comply with its recommendations.

Section 5 Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons

The law prohibits discrimination based on race, gender, disability, or religion. While the government continued to make progress enforcing these provisions, significant problems, particularly violence against women, persisted.

Women

The law prohibits rape, including spousal rape, imposing penalties of up to 20 years. However, rape victims rarely filed complaints with police, in part because of ineffective and unsupportive responses by the authorities toward victims, fear of publicity, and a perception that cases were unlikely to be prosecuted.

Domestic violence was pervasive and vastly underreported. The law prohibits domestic violence, including spousal abuse, and stipulates fines equal to 30 to 180 days’ pay and detention for up to 36 hours; however, actual sentences were normally lenient.

. . .Prostitution is legal for adults, and it continued to be practiced widely. While pimping and prostitution of minors under age 18 are illegal, these offenses also were practiced widely, often with the collaboration or knowledge of police. The country is a destination for sexual tourists and pedophiles, particularly from the United States.
. ..

Children
. . .
Public education is offered through the university level, including advanced degrees. Nine years of education are compulsory, and parents are legally responsible for their children’s attendance. The 2002 INEGI census showed that 91 percent of children between ages six and 14 attended school, but only 68 percent of all children entering the first grade completed all nine years of compulsory education. In 2003 average educational attainment among the population 15 years of age and older was 7.9 years.

Trafficking in Persons

While the law prohibits aspects of trafficking in persons, persons were trafficked to, from, or within the country.

There were credible reports that individual local, state, and federal police, immigration, and customs officials were involved in facilitating trafficking. On August 16, two INM officials, Oscar Manuel Navarrete Orozco and Maria America Maldonado Alfaro, were arrested and accused by PGR of leading an organized criminal group that trafficked persons, including undocumented workers. By year’s end INM reported that it issued nine humanitarian visas to allow trafficking victims to remain in the country pending investigation of their cases.

Other Societal Abuses and Discrimination

While homosexuals experienced a growing social acceptance, the National Center to Prevent and Control HIV/AIDS stated that discrimination persisted. Homophobic beliefs and practices were common, reflected principally in entertainment media programs and everyday attitudes. Reports of attacks against homosexuals and transsexuals were frequent.

The law prohibits several types of discrimination, including bias based on sexuality, and requires federal agencies to promote tolerance.
. . .
There were credible reports that police, immigration, and customs officials frequently violated the rights of undocumented migrants, including committing rape. In July media and human rights groups reported that military units raided migrant camps in Chiapas and abused residents. Military and government officials denied these reports, and no investigations were conducted at year’s end. Undocumented migrants rarely filed charges in such cases because the authorities generally deported such persons who came to their attention.
. . .

On January 10, Jose Alejandro Solalinde, a priest, and 18 Central American migrants were beaten and detained for seven hours by eight police officers in Ixtepec, Oaxaca. . ..

During the year CNDH issued more than 15 recommendations to government agencies regarding Central American migrants and received 388 complaints of violations of migrant rights by federal and local level government officials.

Section 6 Worker Rights

b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively

Management in the maquila (in-bond export) sector and elsewhere sometimes used protection contracts to discourage workers from forming authentic unions at a company, in contravention of freedom of association principles. Such contracts were collective bargaining agreements negotiated by management and a representative of a so-called labor organization without the knowledge of the workforce, sometimes even prior to hiring a single worker in a new factory. Human Rights Watch attributed the problem to the lack of legally recognized independent unions that could negotiate strong and fair collective bargaining agreements.

c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor

Although the law prohibits forced or compulsory labor, including by children, such practices commonly persisted in both rural and industrial sectors. Migrants and children were the most vulnerable. There were numerous anecdotal reports of mistreatment and exploitation of Guatemalan and other migrant workers.

d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment

The law protects children from exploitation in the workplace, including a prohibition of forced or compulsory labor; however, the government did not effectively enforce such prohibitions

The Secretariat of Labor (STPS) is charged with protecting worker rights. However, the STPS specifically and publicly stated that its mandate does not extend to the area of child labor. The Secretariats for Labor and Social Development, the Attorney General’s Office, and The Family Development Institute each have responsibility for enforcement of child labor laws or intervening in cases where such laws are violated. Government enforcement was inadequate at many small companies and in the agriculture and construction sectors, and it was nearly absent in the informal sector in which most children worked.

During the year STPS, the Secretariat of Social Development, and DIF carried out programs to prevent child labor abuses and promote child labor rights, including specific efforts to combat the commercial sexual exploitation of children.

It was not uncommon to find girls under the age of 15 working in prostitution. Trafficking in children for sexual exploitation was a problem.