Mexico Won't Give Warrant in Genocide Case

[ConfuZed]

MEXICO CITY - A Mexican court has refused to issue an arrest warrant for a former Mexican president accused of genocide in the 1971 killings of student protesters, a prosecutor's spokesman said Tuesday.

The decision was the latest blow to the government's efforts to build a case against former President Luis Echeverria for his alleged role in the June 10, 1971, killings — known as the Corpus Christi massacre — in Mexico City.

"The court refused to issue the arrest warrants," said Eduardo Maldonado, a spokesman for the office of the special prosecutor appointed by President
Vicente Fox to look into political crimes from the 1960s and 1970s.

"The prosecutor's office is evaluating the ruling, in order to make a formal statement later," Maldonado told The Associated Press. The court also refused to issue a warrant against Echeverria's former interior secretary, Mario Moya.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050726/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/mexico_genocide;_ylt=AkhnAKklXywVBqC7WJk0BCWs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3b3JuZGZhBHNlYwM3MjE-

[phusion]

1. This has happened before...

If Mexico City's mayor is elected, I wonder if he'll clean up some of this? 300-500 students were killed in that massacre. :(



http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/aug2004/mexi-a21_prn.shtml

"On July 22 (2004), the Office of the Special Prosecutor for Past Social and Political Movements (FEMOSPP), headed by Ignacio Carrillo, ordered the arrest of former Mexican president Luis Echeverría and 11 others, charging them with genocide. Specifically, the indictment accused them of ordering an illegal paramilitary squad to shoot down dozens of students on June 10, 1971, in Mexico City, in what became known as the Corpus Christi Massacre.

"Less than 48 hours later, on July 24, a Mexico City judge ruled the arrest warrants invalid, citing a 30-year statute of limitations under Mexican law. Carrillo promised to appeal the ruling quashing the warrants to the Mexican Supreme Court on the grounds that the statute of limitations does not apply to the crime of genocide, which, under Mexican law, includes mass killings of students. The prosecutor pointed out that international conventions on genocide require that such crimes be investigated and the culprits punished."

[struggle4progress]

2. May Echeverria's bones rot. eom