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 Editorials | Issues | February 2007 
Mexico Court Confirms Police Violations in Atenco
 El Universal
| | Police were involved in riot conditions in Atenco and the nearby city of Texcoco. |
The Supreme Court Monday announced its determination that law enforcement officials committed "serious violations" of individual rights during and after the arrests made in the State of Mexico town of San Salvador Atenco on May 3 and 4, 2006.
That finding will be the starting point for a special court-appointed investigating committee that will look into police behavior during the events.
Police were involved in riot conditions in Atenco and the nearby city of Texcoco, and then executed a door-to-door sweep of Atenco the next day.
Residents and observers charged authorities with rights abuses, including torture and sexual violation. The National Human Rights Commission presented evidence of such abuse.
The court agreed on Feb. 6 to investigate the charges, appointing two lower court judges - Jorge Mario Pardo Rebolledo and Alejandro Sergio González Bernabé - to head the committee. The findings announced Monday serve as guidelines for the committee´s scope of investigation, known in Spanish as "alcances."
"In this case it is esteemed creditable that there existed serious violations of individual guarantees and fundamental rights by the police authorities who participated in the events," the court statement reads.
That finding is significant, because it allows the committee to proceed directly to the specifics of the case - who abused whom and how.
"The committee need not concentrate on determining whether or not such violations existed, since they have already been demonstrated," the court said.
The committee will begin its work Wednesday. Some areas it will investigate include why the abuses were carried out, whether they were ordered by higher-ups, if they conformed to a planned strategy or were the result of excess zeal, and whether the officers had training deficiencies that might have facilitated the abuses |
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