Shortly after coming to power in December 1994, President Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon announced reforms to the administration of justice, including the judiciary and the Republic Attorney General's Office. He declared that the aim of the reforms was to increase the independence and effectiveness of the system and to help end impunity.
Measures included reducing the number of members of the Supreme Court; empowering the Supreme Court to review the constitutionality of laws; and creating a Federal Council of the judiciary to appoint judges , who where previously appointed by the Supreme Court . Some of the measures announced, such as the creation of a special prosecutor's office to guard against abuse by the state prosecutor's office, had not been implemented by the end of the year 1995.
In November 95 Congress approved a bill for the creation of a national Public Security System to coordinate the activities of all public security forces. The incorporation of the army and the navy into the system raised public concern that the militarization of activities normally carried out by the police could increase the number of human rights violations during the law enforcement operations.
Peace talks between the Mexican Government and the Ejercito Zapatista de LIberacion Nacional (EZLN) were temporarily suspended in February, after the government launched a crack-down on EZLN leaders and military operations to recapture territory controlled by the rebels retreated to isolated mountainous regions. Serious human rights violations, including torture and extrajudicial executions by the security forces were reported during and immediately after the operations . Police raids on suspected EZLN members were also carried out in other parts of the country. Dozens of people, including prisoners of conscience, were arrested and many were tortured. Even if peace talks resumed in April and were continuing at the end of the year dozens of prisoners of conscience were arrested for peaceful political or civil rights activities. Hundreds of men, women and children were tortured and ill-treated by the security forces, particularly the state judicial police. The victims included members of ethnic minorities, particularly indigenous communities. The purpose was generally to extract confessions, which continued to be accepted as evidence in most courts.
Torture methods included beatings; near-asphyxiation with plastic bags and water; forcing peppered water into the nose; and electric shocks. Proper medical treatment for detainees who had been tortured was unavailable in detention.
Just one example :
On June '9? 17 unarmed peasants were massacred near Aguas Blancas, Guerrero, by members of the state judicial police, who stopped the truck in which the victims were travelling and shot them at close range. The police operation had been ordered by the state's highest authorities, some of whom participated in the attack, reportedly to prevent the peasants from reaching the town of Atoyac de Alvarez, where they planned a demonstration against the "disappearance" of Gilberto Romero (see below).
Dozens of human rights defenders, including journalist , have been threatened with death for criticizing the human rights situation in the country. These included among many others : David Fernandez Davalos and Jose Lavanderos director and lawyer of the church based organization Centro de Derechos HUmanos Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez (Human Rights centre in Mexico City), Graciela Zavaleta president of the Comision Regional de Derechos Humanos "Mahatma Gandhi" (Regional human rights comission) in Oaxaca state, Lourdes Saenz a member of Ciudadanos en Apoyo a los Derechos Humanos (Citizens in Support of Human Rights) in Guadalupe, Francisco Goitia and Javier NUnez , president and lawyer respectively of the Comite de Derechos Humanos de Tabasco (Human Rights Committee of Tabasco), or Emilia Gonzalez Sandoval journalist and founding member of the human rights group in Chihuahua Comision de Solidaridad y Defensa de los Derechos Humanos.
Some human rights defenders were attacked for their activities. For example Bishop Arturo Lona Reyes survived an armed attack by unindentified individuals on the car in which he was travelling. In September '95Marciana Campos Juarez member of a human rights committee was raped and beaten by an individual who had threatened her in the past for her activities.
Members of grass-roots organisations were also subjected to threats and harassment. Sisters Rocio and Norma Mesino Mesino were forced to leave their community in Guerrero in July, following the death threats, after they complained about the killings of 17 members of their peasant organisation the previous month. Their father Hilario mesino Acosta, a peasant leader, survived a number of assassination attempts.
Santa Manzanares Vazquez, a peasant activist in Guerrero was abducted in September by unidentified individuals. She was interrogated and threatened with death before being freed the next day. Leaders of El Barzon ( a peaceful grass-roots movement opposing the government's economic policy) were repeatedly threatened with death in Mexico City for their activities.
A peasant activist, Gilberto Romero Vazquez, "disappeared" in Guerrero weeks after presenting a series of demands on behalf of his organisation to the state authorities. Cuahutemoc Ornelas Campos, a journalist and human rights defender, "disappeared" after receiving a series of anonymous threats for publicly criticizing human rights abuses by local officials. The fate and whereabouts of these two men remained unknown at the end of 1995.
What happened to the denounced responsible of different human rights violations ? A few examples to describe the colour of this face :
In November 95 seven peasant activist (including one woman, an 85-year-old man, and a physically disabled man) were arrested in their homes in Guerrero state, by members of the state judicial police. They were taken to a secret detention centre where they were allegedly beaten a threatened with death before being released without charge the next day. Those responsible were not brought to justice.
Also in November a 14-year-old girl was abducted by a municipal police commander in Puebla state. She was forced into a cell in the town hall, where she was allegedly raped, under threat of death, by the commander and two other police officers. She was released later the same day, but warned not to complain about the attack. Those responsible had not been taken into custody by the end of the year.
Soldiers responsible for the torture and killings of three peasant leaders from Morelia, Chiapas, in January 1994 and for raping and beating three young Tzeltal Indians in Chiapas in June 1994 had not been brought to justice by the end of 95.
Demetrio Ernesto Hernandez Rojas and Felix Armando Fernandez Estrada, who had been abducted in Mexico City, tortured and imprisoned on false charges in October '94 were released without charge in April and May respectively. However those responsible were not brought to justice.
Soldiers responsible for extrajudicial executions in January '94 in Ocosingo had not been brought to justice by the end of 95.
Two members of the Seguridad Publica (state police) who reportedly participated in the torture and killing of Rolando Hernandez Hernandez in September '94 in Veracruz were brought to justice , but several others remained at large.
The little progress in the investigations of hundreds of "disappearances" of political activists in previous years and the unknown whereabouts of people like Jose Ramon Garcia ("disappeared" in 1988) are more examples of the justice's system effectively.
This report is based on the Amnesty International Report 1996, an annual report on the past year that this organisation prints each year.