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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | May 2007 
Mexico Opposition Wants Army Off Drug Crackdown
 Miguel Angel Gutierrez - Reuters
| | Carlos Navarrete, leader of the PRD in the Senate upper house |
Opposition Mexican lawmakers demanded on Wednesday that soldiers be taken off a joint police and army crackdown on drug trafficking gangs, following a report of rights abuses by some troops.
In a challenge to conservative President Felipe Calderon, lawmakers from the Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD, and the Institutional Revolutionary Party, PRI, told a committee of senators and deputies that troops deployed in the 5-month-old offensive should be sent back to their barracks.
"The army should not be used indiscriminately or in a permanent way in the fight against drug trafficking," said Carlos Navarrete, leader of the PRD in the Senate upper house.
"Arguments, reasons and unfortunate facts are piling up to show that the first negative consequences of the massive and permanent use of the army in fighting organized crime are already appearing," he said.
The drug violence gripping Mexico is by far the biggest challenge facing Calderon, who took office in December.
He won plaudits in Washington by immediately sending thousands of troops and federal police out to northern and western Mexico to combat feuding between rival cartels that is killing some half a dozen people a day.
But a report by Mexico's human rights ombudsman, Jose Luis Soberanes, said some soldiers had been making arbitrary arrests and sexually abusing minors.
The report listed more than 50 complaints against the army, mainly in the western state of Michoacan, that included sexual abuse of underage girls, torture and illegal searches.
"The reports of missing people, torture, bad communication, arbitrary detentions and illegal searches are a clear example of what could happen in many parts of the country," PRD lawmaker Jesus Zazueta told Wednesday's meeting.
VIOLENCE UNABATED
In Mexico - where the bodies of four police officers likely killed by gang members were discovered on Wednesday near the U.S. border - some have applauded military checkpoints and soldiers on the streets in areas controlled by drug cartels.
But others say the job should be left to the police.
Despite the extra firepower, violence has continued unabated from last year, when more than 2,000 people died in gangland killings across the country. With the new crackdown, hitmen are increasingly targeting police and army chiefs.
After the report of rights abuses, PRI deputy Marco Antonio Bernal demanded an investigation, and the defense ministry said soldiers would be punished in any cases that were proved.
Being in the line of fire of cartel hitmen marks a drastic change for Mexico's army, which is more used to low-risk operations like protecting communities from hurricanes.
Some 25,000 soldiers and federal police are deployed in the crackdown, which began in Calderon's home state of Michoacan.
Deputy Attorney General Noe Ramirez said recently that Mexico's police forces were too understaffed to be able to spread out across the country in the way the army could.
Mexico's police are also widely seen as ineffective in the fight against cartels, partly due to widespread corruption.
On Wednesday an official in the attorney general's office said a police chief in Michoacan state had been jailed pending an investigation into suspected links with the Gulf cartel.
(Additional reporting by Monica Medel)
Soldiers Accused of Rape
El Universal
Soldiers fighting drug cartels have been accused of drugging, beating and raping four teenage girls over several days, the director of the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) said Tuesday.
José Luis Soberanes said the CNDH has testimony of the abuse from the girls and their families in Michoacán, where 7,000 soldiers have been battling gangs and burning marijuana crops.
A medical examination confirmed that a 17-year-old girl had been raped, Soberanes said. The other three, ages 16 and 17, still were being examined.
The Defense Secretariat said it will fully cooperate with an investigation and seek the maximum punishment for any soldier found guilty of abuse.
Soberanes said the CNDH has also received complaints that soldiers tortured, beat and arbitrarily arrested another 48 residents in Michoacán, President Calderón´s home state.
Evidence of those abuses will be delivered to the Army and the state prosecutor´s office, with demands for a joint investigation, he said.
"We want the soldiers to know they are being watched and to avoid this behavior," he said.
"In the battle against organized crime, you cannot break the law or violate human rights. It´s possible to fight this battle legally," he added.
The teenagers alleged that on May 2 they were taken to a military base with bags over their heads and forced to inhale a drug that made them sleepy as the soldiers beat and raped them.
They were released three days later with threats that if they went to authorities their families would suffer. It was unclear how many soldiers were involved.
Other residents say they were beaten with rifle butts and had their heads shoved into plastic bags or buckets of water, Soberanes said.
Calderón sent the troops to Michoacán in mid-December shortly after taking office as part of a force of 24,000 soldiers and federal police that have since fanned out across Mexico to fight drug cartels.
On May 1, suspected drug traffickers ambushed and killed five soldiers in Michoacán, one of the Army´s worst losses in a decade.
Soberanes said the Army cannot be immediately pulled out of the fight, but should support police.
"The soldiers are not trained to carry out police work," he said. "If you make them do it, they go overboard and we see these type of cases." |
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