Mexico's war on civil rights

Mexico's war on civil rights
Obama must demand an end to abuses linked to President Felipe Calderon's drug crackdown.
By Denise Dresser
August 7, 2009

When President Obama goes to Guadalajara, Mexico, this weekend for the North American Leaders Summit, he will surely praise Mexican President Felipe Calderon for the courage he has displayed fighting the war on drugs. The applause is well deserved. Calderon has turned the crackdown on drug traffickers into the centerpiece of his administration and has pursued organized crime with undeniable zeal. But before Obama becomes too effusive and pats Calderon on the back for a job well done, it's important that the U.S. president remember the cost and the consequences of his counterpart's crusade.

In Mexico today, human rights violations committed by the military and the police in this effort are on the rise, yet punishment for the perpetrators remains elusive. So although Obama should recognize Calderon's efforts, he should also insist that drug lawlessness cannot be combated by breaking the law and that the army must be subjected to the kind of scrutiny it has shunned so far.


Today, more than 45,000 soldiers police the roads of Mexico's main cities and drug-producing areas as part of a strategy designed to confront drug traffickers and contain the violence they wreak. Many ring leaders have been captured, many drug shipments have been confiscated and many smugglers have been imprisoned.

But violence remains unabated, and the unintended consequences of Calderon's efforts have become distressingly clear: The number of cases of human rights violations brought before the Mexican Human Rights Commission has risen by 600% over the last two years.

The war on drugs is turning into a war on the civilian population that can't simply be dismissed as collateral damage. Mexico's military is capturing "capos," but it's also raping, extracting confessions through torture and detaining people arbitrarily. Crime is begetting more crime.

In light of this, U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) was right this week to call "premature" the U.S. State Department's draft report claiming that Mexico has fulfilled its human rights obligations under the so-called Merida Initiative. He is right to remind officials on both sides of the border that in return for Merida's $1.4 billion in counter-narcotics aid from the United States, the Calderon government made promises it has not kept. Key among these are greater transparency and accountability, and the imperative that military officers be tried by civilian courts.

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