Mexico faulted on human rights:New York group says government is failing to halt or prevent abuses

[Judi Lynn]

Feb. 13, 2008, 10:14PM
Mexico faulted on human rights
New York group says government is failing to halt or prevent abuses

By DUDLEY ALTHAUS
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle Mexico City Bureau

MEXICO CITY — A leading international organization charged Wednesday that the Mexican government's human rights commission has proved largely impotent in preventing abuses of its citizens.
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The 128-page report documents the commission's alleged impotence in the investigations of recent abuses — including a police crackdown on leftist radicals in a village near Mexico City, the rapes and killings of villagers by troops in Michoacan and Coahuila states, and the unsolved murders of hundreds of women in Ciudad Juarez.

Too often, the report said, the commission's investigators merely recommend fixes to government agencies and then fail to check whether they are ever implemented. Backroom deals whose details remain obscured from the public are the norm, the study said.

The study did not come as a surprise to human rights advocates here. Indeed, the report merely served as "a well-made confirmation that exposes one of the tragedies of Mexico," said political scientist Sergio Aguayo, a founder of one of Mexico's largest private human rights organizations. "The citizens are defenseless."

More:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/5540358.html