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http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/c...e-for-the-u.s.-to-pull-the-plug-on-mexico.ece
Why it’s time for the U.S. to pull the plug on Mexico
By JOHN M. ACKERMAN
Published: 28 April 2016 03:24 PM
Updated: 28 April 2016 03:35 PM
Comments 6
Ackerman is a professor at the Institute for Legal Research of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Editor-in-Chief of The Mexican Law Review, and a columnist for La Jornada newspaper and Proceso magazine. Reach him at www.johnackerman.blogspot.com. Twitter: @JohnMAckerman.
Mexico has struggled for a long time to construct transparent and effective public institutions, but it has now reached a new low.
Last weekend, a panel of five experts who had been hired by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to help investigate the forced disappearance of dozens of student activists from the Ayotzinapa Teachers College in the State of Guerrero, left the country in disgust. They denounced the Enrique Peña Nieto administration for obstructing justice, stonewalling their requests for documents and interviews, as well as for orchestrating a sustained campaign of harassment and intimidation in the media and the courts.
“The obstruction of an investigation of this kind has very serious repercussions for the future,” Angela Buitrago, one of the international experts, told the international press. “The Mexican system is unique of its kind in the world. It is particularly corrupt and dysfunctional in all its forms and we have been battling against this all these months.”
For another of the experts, Carlos Beristain, “there are sectors within the government that don’t want certain things to be questioned ... These sectors within the government looked at us as a threat and this hardened their view towards us, which actually reinforces the impunity that stops things from changing in this country.”
Those of us who live and work in Mexico are accustomed to the trials and tribulations of dealing with the “justice” system here. It is usually a complete waste of time to report crimes to the authorities. It takes hours to file a report, the police rarely investigate, and when they do get around to it they are highly inefficient and often ask for kickbacks.
No wonder less than 10 percent of crimes are ever brought to the attention of the authorities, according to official statistics. Of those, only two-thirds are investigated, a small fraction are brought to court, and almost none actually lead to convictions. Mexico is consistently ranked as one of the countries with the highest impunity rates in the world.
But the case of the 43 student activists missing from the Ayotzinapa teacher’s college since Sept. 26, 2014 was supposed to be different. The forced disappearance of these students led to an historic uprising of the Mexican people that sent tremors throughout the world.
Not since the uprising led by the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) in Chiapas in 1994 had Mexico been convulsed by such a powerful independent citizen movement. On various occasions, hundreds of thousands of people took the streets in Mexico and in dozens of cities abroad. Students suspended classes in dozens of schools throughout the country in solidarity.
Parents of the kidnapped students went so far as to shut down Acapulco’s international airport. Banks, shopping centers, government buildings and highways throughout the country were targeted by the continuous, spontaneous protests which gripped the nation.
The government responded to this uprising with both hard and soft tactics. On the one hand, it stepped up the infiltration and repression of marches and public meetings as well as the censorship of the media. The beating of dozens of protesters, including women and children, and the arbitrary detention of 11 innocent students during the peaceful protests of Nov. 20, 2014, were particularly symbolic in this regard and sent a chill throughout Mexican society. And the firing of Mexico’s most popular radio news anchor, Carmen Aristegui, in March 2015 signaled the end of tolerance of the regime for critical journalism.
On the other hand, the government simultaneously made a public show of signing an agreement with the IACHR, inviting it to supervise and to accompany the investigation into the disappearance of the 43 students. Peña Nieto also paid a visit to President Barack Obama at the White House in January 2015 to assure that everything was under control. The international community was told that the Guerrero disappearances were strictly a local issue, a problem of a corrupt mayor in the hands of regional drug cartels, and that the federal government was doing its best to get to the bottom of the case and to clean up the justice system in the entire country.
It turns out that the Mexican government was just buying time.
The IACHR panel has discovered that many of the key witnesses in the case were tortured, key evidence was likely planted on the scene of the crime, and the government’s story about what happened to the students (their bodies were supposedly incinerated at a garbage dump) is scientifically impossible.
Significantly, the panel also has discovered the complicity of federal forces with the disappearances. During the night of Sept. 26, the Federal Police and the Army, which has two large military bases in the vicinity, were constantly tracking the students’ movements in real time and even made themselves physically present on various occasions.
The evidence points to an intentional act of aggression by government forces — local, state and federal — against the group of student dissidents. Just as occurred frequently during the “dirty war” of the 1970s, the government took advantage of the relative isolation of the mountains of Guerrero to eliminate its political opponents. The good news is that this time someone was watching.
In the light of government repression and cover-ups like this one, it should come as no surprise that the public approval ratings for Peña Nieto have reached the lowest point for any Mexican president in recent history. Only 30 percent approve of his performance and only 13 percent believe that Mexico is today “on the right track,” according to a recent independent poll.
Regardless, the U.S. government irresponsibly continues to cover the back of the Peña Nieto administration. In its most recent Human Rights Report, the State Department claims that during 2015 “there were no reports of political prisoners or detainees” and that the Mexican government “generally respected” freedom of speech and the press. Congress also continues to funnel millions of dollars of support to Mexican law enforcement through the Merida Initiative.
It is time for the American people and its government to open their eyes to the fact that Mexico is not a functioning democracy but an authoritarian enclave.
The United States should pull the plug on a regime that has turned its back on its people. Instead, it should extend a helping hand to Mexico’s increasing active community of human rights defenders, investigative journalists and community activists struggling in the trenches to bring peace and justice to this embattled nation.
The DMN Contributors Network includes subject-matter experts on a wide range of topics, from across Texas and elsewhere, who provide smart, in-the-know insights and perspectives for readers of dallasnews.com and The Dallas Morning News. To submit content or to apply to become part of the network, email dmnnetwork@dallasnews.com.
For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/c...e-for-the-u.s.-to-pull-the-plug-on-mexico.ece
Why it’s time for the U.S. to pull the plug on Mexico
By JOHN M. ACKERMAN
Published: 28 April 2016 03:24 PM
Updated: 28 April 2016 03:35 PM
Comments 6
Ackerman is a professor at the Institute for Legal Research of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Editor-in-Chief of The Mexican Law Review, and a columnist for La Jornada newspaper and Proceso magazine. Reach him at www.johnackerman.blogspot.com. Twitter: @JohnMAckerman.
Mexico has struggled for a long time to construct transparent and effective public institutions, but it has now reached a new low.
Last weekend, a panel of five experts who had been hired by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to help investigate the forced disappearance of dozens of student activists from the Ayotzinapa Teachers College in the State of Guerrero, left the country in disgust. They denounced the Enrique Peña Nieto administration for obstructing justice, stonewalling their requests for documents and interviews, as well as for orchestrating a sustained campaign of harassment and intimidation in the media and the courts.
“The obstruction of an investigation of this kind has very serious repercussions for the future,” Angela Buitrago, one of the international experts, told the international press. “The Mexican system is unique of its kind in the world. It is particularly corrupt and dysfunctional in all its forms and we have been battling against this all these months.”
For another of the experts, Carlos Beristain, “there are sectors within the government that don’t want certain things to be questioned ... These sectors within the government looked at us as a threat and this hardened their view towards us, which actually reinforces the impunity that stops things from changing in this country.”
Those of us who live and work in Mexico are accustomed to the trials and tribulations of dealing with the “justice” system here. It is usually a complete waste of time to report crimes to the authorities. It takes hours to file a report, the police rarely investigate, and when they do get around to it they are highly inefficient and often ask for kickbacks.
No wonder less than 10 percent of crimes are ever brought to the attention of the authorities, according to official statistics. Of those, only two-thirds are investigated, a small fraction are brought to court, and almost none actually lead to convictions. Mexico is consistently ranked as one of the countries with the highest impunity rates in the world.
But the case of the 43 student activists missing from the Ayotzinapa teacher’s college since Sept. 26, 2014 was supposed to be different. The forced disappearance of these students led to an historic uprising of the Mexican people that sent tremors throughout the world.
Not since the uprising led by the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) in Chiapas in 1994 had Mexico been convulsed by such a powerful independent citizen movement. On various occasions, hundreds of thousands of people took the streets in Mexico and in dozens of cities abroad. Students suspended classes in dozens of schools throughout the country in solidarity.
Parents of the kidnapped students went so far as to shut down Acapulco’s international airport. Banks, shopping centers, government buildings and highways throughout the country were targeted by the continuous, spontaneous protests which gripped the nation.
The government responded to this uprising with both hard and soft tactics. On the one hand, it stepped up the infiltration and repression of marches and public meetings as well as the censorship of the media. The beating of dozens of protesters, including women and children, and the arbitrary detention of 11 innocent students during the peaceful protests of Nov. 20, 2014, were particularly symbolic in this regard and sent a chill throughout Mexican society. And the firing of Mexico’s most popular radio news anchor, Carmen Aristegui, in March 2015 signaled the end of tolerance of the regime for critical journalism.
On the other hand, the government simultaneously made a public show of signing an agreement with the IACHR, inviting it to supervise and to accompany the investigation into the disappearance of the 43 students. Peña Nieto also paid a visit to President Barack Obama at the White House in January 2015 to assure that everything was under control. The international community was told that the Guerrero disappearances were strictly a local issue, a problem of a corrupt mayor in the hands of regional drug cartels, and that the federal government was doing its best to get to the bottom of the case and to clean up the justice system in the entire country.
It turns out that the Mexican government was just buying time.
The IACHR panel has discovered that many of the key witnesses in the case were tortured, key evidence was likely planted on the scene of the crime, and the government’s story about what happened to the students (their bodies were supposedly incinerated at a garbage dump) is scientifically impossible.
Significantly, the panel also has discovered the complicity of federal forces with the disappearances. During the night of Sept. 26, the Federal Police and the Army, which has two large military bases in the vicinity, were constantly tracking the students’ movements in real time and even made themselves physically present on various occasions.
The evidence points to an intentional act of aggression by government forces — local, state and federal — against the group of student dissidents. Just as occurred frequently during the “dirty war” of the 1970s, the government took advantage of the relative isolation of the mountains of Guerrero to eliminate its political opponents. The good news is that this time someone was watching.
In the light of government repression and cover-ups like this one, it should come as no surprise that the public approval ratings for Peña Nieto have reached the lowest point for any Mexican president in recent history. Only 30 percent approve of his performance and only 13 percent believe that Mexico is today “on the right track,” according to a recent independent poll.
Regardless, the U.S. government irresponsibly continues to cover the back of the Peña Nieto administration. In its most recent Human Rights Report, the State Department claims that during 2015 “there were no reports of political prisoners or detainees” and that the Mexican government “generally respected” freedom of speech and the press. Congress also continues to funnel millions of dollars of support to Mexican law enforcement through the Merida Initiative.
It is time for the American people and its government to open their eyes to the fact that Mexico is not a functioning democracy but an authoritarian enclave.
The United States should pull the plug on a regime that has turned its back on its people. Instead, it should extend a helping hand to Mexico’s increasing active community of human rights defenders, investigative journalists and community activists struggling in the trenches to bring peace and justice to this embattled nation.
The DMN Contributors Network includes subject-matter experts on a wide range of topics, from across Texas and elsewhere, who provide smart, in-the-know insights and perspectives for readers of dallasnews.com and The Dallas Morning News. To submit content or to apply to become part of the network, email dmnnetwork@dallasnews.com.
