| | |  Editorials | Issues 
US to Aid Mexico's Judicial Reforms
 Brady McCombs - Arizona Daily Star
go to original
September 27, 2010
 |  | You are not going to solve the problem of drug violence in Mexico until you have a legal system that makes it hard for them to operate.
- Andrew Selee |  | | |
The United States has contributed helicopters and armored cars to Mexico's fight against its powerful drug cartels.
The next step is less visible - and far less immediate - but potentially more lasting: helping Mexico overhaul its judicial system.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Arizona will lead upcoming training sessions for about 180 Mexican federal prosecutors, investigators and forensic specialists on how to conduct oral trials and handle evidence. Later, they'll lead workshops on how to better prosecute drug- and firearms-trafficking and money-laundering cases.
The program, expected to cost $500,000 to $700,000, will be funded at least in part by the Mérida Initiative, an ongoing $1.6 billion federal aid program designed to help Mexico and Central America combat organized crime. The rest of the money will come from State Department funds given to the Justice Department for international assistance programs.
"It's some of the best-spent money," said Andrew Selee, director at the Woodrow Wilson Center's Mexico Institute in Washington, D.C. "You are not going to solve the problem of drug violence in Mexico until you have a legal system that makes it hard for them to operate."
Fewer than 25 percent of crimes are reported in Mexico and fewer than 2 percent are prosecuted due to the lack of transparency and efficiency in Mexico's criminal justice, said David Shirk, director of the Trans-Border Institute and a political science professor at the University of San Diego.
Mexico passed a series of reforms in 2008, and states have until 2016 to implement the changes.
"This stuff is way more important than the helicopters," said Shirk, who recently published a 41-page report on the challenges facing Mexico in its judicial reform. "You are talking about trying to strengthen the rule of law in Mexico. That's not something you do overnight."
The training sessions are the latest example of unprecedented cross-border cooperation between the neighboring countries that most attribute to Mexican President Felipe Calderón's decision to take on the drug cartels.
"There's always been communication between the agencies, but we have definitely entered into a new level where we are involved in more concrete actions," Jorge Rodríguez Velásquez, chief of Mexico's Federal Attorney General's Office in Sonora, said in Spanish.
Arizona U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke agreed. "We're in Mexico now more than we've ever been before. There's more trust."
Rodriguez said his office has established closer connections with Immigration and Customs Enforcement; Customs and Border Protection; the Drug Enforcement Administration; the FBI; and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The upcoming training sessions will continue to bolster those relationships, Burke and Rodríguez said.
Rio Rico meeting
The idea for the training sessions came out of a May meeting in Rio Rico between Rodríguez and Burke. Burke asked how his office could help Mexico's battle against the violent cartels. Rodríguez said his office could use help preparing for the transition to its new "oral trial" criminal justice system.
Under Mexico's current system, people are guilty until proven innocent, and attorneys submit evidence in writing. There is no cross-examination of witnesses.
It didn't take Burke long to decide whom he wanted to lead the effort: Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Larson, a Spanish-speaker who has been a legal adviser for the State Department in Colombia and Mexico City.
Burke appointed Larson to head a new team of 10 Spanish-speaking attorneys who form the "Rule of Law" unit. Some of the team's sessions will likely occur in Hermosillo, Sonora, and some in Arizona, Larson said. They hope to bring the Mexican attorneys to Tucson or Phoenix to watch a trial.
The program is the first of its kind between federal agencies in U.S.-Mexico border states. If it's successful, other states could launch similar programs.
Most of the training sessions already held for the oral trial system have been in Mexico City, and Rodriguez's office can only send a few people at a time due to the cost of the trip and the time away from the office. Having sessions closer to home will make it easier for prosecutors, investigators and forensic specialists at the Sonoran office of the Federal Attorney General's Office to attend.
The training sessions and the transition to the new judicial system should help Mexican prosecutors bring down crime, Larson said. "That will, in turn, help society to feel more safe and confident in their legal system," Larson said. "That creates peace."
Fear of justice needed
Until cartel kingpins fear Mexican justice, Mexico is fighting an unwinnable war, said Selee, of the Woodrow Wilson Center. The weakness of Mexico's judicial institutions has made the country an easy target for organized crime, he said.
The same criminal organizations that wreak havoc in Mexico also operate in U.S. cities, but they're much less violent here because they know they're more likely to be caught and prosecuted, he said. They don't have that fear in Mexico, Selee said.
Shirk is blunt in his analysis: "If you want to kill somebody in (Ciudad) Juarez, the odds of your case being investigated and you being held responsible are extremely low."
The success of this transition to a new judicial system is the key to whether Mexico prospers, said Stephen Haber, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. "You can't have a system that allows criminals to walk out the door the day after they are arrested," he said.
But both countries should be patient: It will likely take a decade for changes to take root, Haber said."There are legal and cultural changes that have to take place, and that's a slow process," Haber said.
While it's a daunting task for Mexico, there's some hope. Chile and Colombia have both made the transition. Colombia's success is mixed, but Chile is considered a model, Selee said.
Larson worked in Colombia from 2002 to 2004 and sees some similarities between Mexico's challenges and those Colombia faced. "Mexico started to see some of the same increased criminality that they were experiencing," he said. "Violence, bombings. And as the violence increased, the need for strengthened institutions became more apparent."
Larson and Burke want to help as much as they can. After all, the Mexican drug cartels pose a serious threat to Arizona. But Burke said they realize that this era of open coordination may not last forever. Calderón's six-year term ends in 2012, and Mexican law prohibits him from running again.
"It creates a sense of urgency," Burke said, "for us to see how much we can get done."
Contact reporter Brady McCombs at bmccombs(at)azstarnet.com |
|
| |
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us