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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | January 2006 
Mexican Supreme Court Reject Case Against Echeverria
 VOA News
| | Former Mexican President Luis Echeverria makes a face as he tries to make a statement outside the offices of the special prosecutor in Mexico City in this July 9, 2002 file photo. (Daniel Aguilar/Reuters) |
Mexico's high court has rejected the latest effort by federal prosecutors to try former President Luis Echeverria in connection with a 1968 massacre of student protesters.
In a 3-2 vote Wednesday, the Supreme Court ruled not to hear an appeal of a lower court ruling which threw out criminal charges against former President Echeverria.
Federal prosecutors had sought charges of genocide against him in connection with the 1968 incident in which soldiers and police fired on student protesters, killing as many as 30.
Echeverria was Mexico's interior minister at the time.
He was president from 1970 until 1976. Authorities have also alleged he was responsible for the June 1971 murder of dozens of young protesters who were beaten to death during a march through Mexico City.
Judges last year rejected those charges for insufficient evidence.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.
Supreme Court Will Not Hear ´68 Case
Newswire
In a divided ruling, the high court decided it will not hear the genocide case against former President Luis Echeverría. The matter will be decided by a lower appeals court judge.
Mexico´s high court Wednesday rejected the latest attempt by special prosecutors to try former President Luis Echeverría for genocide in the massacre of students during a 1968 demonstration.
In a 3-2 vote, the Supreme Court decided not to hear appeals of judge Arnulfo Castillo´s September ruling throwing out criminal charges against Echeverría and six members of his government linked to the killings.
Special prosecutor Ignacio Carrillo was assigned by President Vicente Fox to investigate the country´s so-called "dirty war" against leftist activists, hundreds of whom were killed, jailed or vanished without a trace in the 1960s and 70s.
Wednesday´s ruling, which decreed that an appeals court should decide the matter, is yet another setback for Carrillo´s office, which has largely failed in its effort to bring government officials responsible for past crimes to justice.
In the original decision that prompted Wednesday´s appeal, Castillo found there was insufficient evidence to try the 82-year-old Echeverría and other officials for genocide after killings during the Oct. 2, 1968 demonstration in Mexico City´s Tlatelolco Square, which lead up to the capital´s hosting of the Olympic games.
Carrillo has accused Echeverría, who was interior secretary at the time, of masterminding a calculated government effort to attack and kill students who took to the streets that day. Exactly how many died remains unclear. Echeverria denies the charge.
Castillo´s initial ruling came a bit more than a month after another judge refused to issue arrest warrants against the former president in a separate case, this one involving the killing of protesters during Echeverría´s presidency in 1971.
Supporters of Carrillo´s efforts cheered last summer when the Supreme Court ruled that, for technical reasons, a 30-year-old statute of limitations had not expired in the 1971 case - thus opening the door for arrest warrants against Echeverría and others.
But efforts to move forward with the criminal investigations into the mass killings in 1968 and 1971 following that ruling have been blocked by lower court decisions. Supreme Court justices were reluctant to weigh in on the issue again Wednesday, in part because they already had released an opinion on the statute of limitations last summer.
The special prosecutor alleges that Echeverría ordered government thugs to attack protesters on June 10, 1971 and that dozens of students died in what has become known as the "Corpus Christi massacre."
Echeverría, who governed Mexico from 1970-76, has denied involvement in both attacks. |
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