The pending arrest of a former police office to face charges for past human rights abuses is a breakthrough for justice in Mexico, Human Rights Watch said today.
A judge in Guerrero today issued an arrest warrant for a former member of the judicial police who is charged with allegedly participating in the forced disappearance of one of the hundreds of people who were "disappeared" in the state of Guerrero in the 1970s. The arrest will be the first to be carried out by the special prosecutor that Mexican President Vicente Fox appointed in November 2001 to investigate and prosecute human rights violations committed under previous governments.
"This arrest marks an important break from three decades of impunity for some of the worst human rights violations in Mexico," said José Miguel Vivanco, executive director of the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch. "After two years of investigating these crimes, the special prosecutor will now begin to prosecute them."
The pending arrest comes in the wake of a landmark Supreme Court ruling earlier this month that overturned a federal judge's decision to reject the special prosecutor's sole previous request for arrest warrants. A unanimous court disagreed with the judge's contention that the time allotted by the statute of limitations for the crime had expired. The court found instead that the statute of limitations on abduction does not begin to run if the victim's body remains missing.
The Supreme Court's ruling opened the possibility for the prosecution of former officials allegedly implicated in the kidnapping of leftist activists in the 1970s. More arrests are expected in the coming weeks.
The Fox administration has repeatedly expressed its commitment to end the climate of impunity that allowed egregious human rights violations to go unpunished in Mexico.
In July, Human Rights Watch released a report, "Justice in Jeopardy," that showed how the functioning of the Special Prosecutor's Office has been seriously undermined by a lack of resources, limited access to declassified documents, and a lack of cooperation by the military. Since the report's release, some of these shortcomings have been addressed.
Human Rights Watch notes that further steps are needed to shore up the work of the Special Prosecutor's Office. The Mexican government should improve access to declassified documents by indexing the archives in which they are held. The authorities should also ensure that these documents are not managed by officials with potential links to persons under criminal investigation.
"A lot still needs to be done in order for President Fox's most important justice initiative to achieve meaningful results," said Vivanco. "The good news is that the special prosecutor is finally making significant headway."
