VZCZCXRO8431
RR RUEHCD RUEHGD RUEHHO RUEHMC RUEHNG RUEHNL RUEHRD RUEHRS RUEHTM
DE RUEHME #1248/01 1161838
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 251838Z APR 08
FM AMEMBASSY MEXICO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1589
INFO RUEHXC/ALL US CONSULATES IN MEXICO COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 MEXICO 001248 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: CA KCRM MX PGOV PHUM PREL
SUBJECT: MEXICAN AUTHORITIES SEARCH FOR DIRTY WAR VICTIMS 
IN LIGHT OF INVESTIGATIONS 
 
¶1. Summary:  Mexico waged a sporadic campaign against leftist 
groups in the late 60s thru the early 80s that reportedly 
produced the disappearance of hundreds.  Relatives of those 
who disappeared have long insisted on justice and demanded 
the remains of their family members be returned to them. 
After three decades without serious investigations leading to 
successful prosecutions of those responsible for hundreds of 
forced disappearances, Mexico's Attorney General's Office 
(PGR) has touted fresh efforts to conduct investigations into 
disappearances that occurred in the course of the dirty war. 
Non-governmental organizations (NGOS), however, charge that 
the GoM's recent focus on this issue is narrow and stems 
mostly from pressure brought to bear by a case under review 
by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). 
End Summary. 
 
--------------------------------------------- -------------- 
HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION DISCUSSES DIRTY WAR INVESTIGATIONS 
--------------------------------------------- -------------- 
 
¶2.  Over the course of three decades, hundreds of Mexican 
civilians and armed militants were allegedly murdered or 
disappeared by military and security forces seeking to 
contain the "threat" to national security posed by leftist 
groups. In 2001, Mexico's National Human Rights Commission 
(CNDH) published a report that specifically identified 275 
individuals who had allegedly disappeared in the 1970s and 
80s. Thousands more were illegally detained and reportedly 
tortured. 
 
¶3.  Before the Fox administration which took office in 2000, 
no Mexican Government had ever made more than a token effort 
to investigate allegations of abuses during the dirty war. 
In 2002, responding to a CNDH recommendation, President Fox 
created the Special Prosecutor's Office for Social and 
Political Movements of the Past (FEMOSPP) and tasked it with 
investigating human rights abuses committed during Mexico's 
"dirty war."  Before FEMOSPP, no entity existed to 
investigate crimes of the past.  Fox touted the unit as 
reflective of his administration's commitment to address this 
issue and deliver justice to aggrieved family and friends of 
victims. 
 
¶4.  Creation of the unit, however, ultimately failed to live 
up to the expectations of aggrieved friends and family of 
victims.  According to Amnesty International, an unofficial 
February 2006 draft report cited 700 cases of enforced 
disappearances, more than 100 extrajudicial executions and 
more than 2,000 cases of torture committed by the armed 
forces and security agencies.  However, Raul Plascencia, 
Undersecretary for the National Human Rights Commission 
(CNDH), told poloff that the Fox Administration never 
officially published that report.  Plascencia complained that 
many of the prosecutors hired by FEMOSPP had established an 
ineffective record on prior commissions.  Many human rights 
organizations and family members refused to work with FEMOSPP 
alleging some of its members were tied to the Mexican 
military.  FEMOSPP was blamed for not exacting fuller 
cooperation from the military and not challenging the 
military's assertion of jurisdiction over cases.  In November 
2006, Fox closed the office down claiming it had completed 
its work. 
 
¶5. When President Calderon's assumed office in December 2006, 
he decided not to create a new office to replace FEMOSPP. 
Rather it was decided that the Attorney General's office 
would reclaim the lead for investigating crimes committed in 
the course of the dirty war as part of its regular 
responsibilities.  The Secretariat of Government's Director 
of the Human Rights, Carlos Aguilar Suarez stressed the GOM 
commitment to investigating these cases but was not 
optimistic about producing results given the fact that 
decades had elapsed since the time most of the crimes were 
committed.  To date, the GOM has not prosecuted anybody for 
crimes committed during this period nor been able to identify 
the human remains of anybody who reportedly disappeared 
during that time. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
NGOS DESCRIBE RECENT GOM INVESTIGATIONS AS REACTIVE 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
 
¶6. Most NGOs share CNDH's skepticism about the GoM's efforts 
-- past and present -- to investigate crimes committed during 
the dirty war.  Over recent months, the GOM has drawn 
attention to its investigation of disappearances conducting 
excavations in the state of Guerrero, the cite of many 
reported disappearances.  However, Julio Mata Montiel, 
President of the Association of Relatives of the Detained, 
Disappeared and Victims of Human Rights Abuses in Mexico 
(AFADEM), insists this recent activity is more the product of 
pressure brought to bear by a case before the Inter-American 
 
MEXICO 00001248  002 OF 002 
 
 
Commission of Human Rights (IACHR) than its own commitment to 
justice on these cases.  Montiel referred specifically to the 
case of Rosendo Radilla Pacheco, a man who purportedly 
provided support services to the Atoyac community in the 
state of Guerrero and was allegedly detained by the military 
in 1974.  Radilla's daughter, Tita Radilla Martinez and 
AFADEM applied to have the case against Mexico heard at the 
IACHR in 2002 after filing complaints with the State of 
Guerrero, CNDH and the military.  The case was admitted to 
the Commission in 2005 and on April 1, 2008, the IACHR sent 
the case to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights 
(reportedly the first Mexican case ever to go to the 
Inter-American Court on the dirty war) charging the GOM with 
failure to comply with IACHR recommendations in determining 
the whereabouts of the victim, identifying and punishing 
those responsible for the crime. 
 
¶7.  Montiel and others believe the IACHR focus on this case 
is driving the GoM's more active investigation of 
disappearances in Guerrero.  According to Montiel, the IACHR 
decided to send this case to the Inter-American Court for 
Human Rights because of the lack of GoM progress on the case. 
 Meanwhile, GoM maintains the family failed to exhaust all 
domestic appeals before taking the cases to an international 
forum.  To the GOM's credit, Jamie Wick from the Peace 
Brigades International (PBI) agreed that Radilla's case may 
have contributed to the publicity surrounding recent 
investigations but that PGR's efforts to investigate have 
been ongoing over past years. 
 
¶8. Comment:  While members of civil society disagree on the 
motives behind the recent surge in investigations of dirty 
war crimes, government officials from Mexico's Secretary of 
Interior (SEGOB) and CNDH both insist PGR investigations of 
these crimes have been underway since 2002 when the GoM 
created FEMOSPP.  Few parties are optimistic about prospects 
for these investigations producing the kind of closure 
aggrieved family and friends of victims are looking for 
either in the form of recovered remains or prosecutions -- in 
large measure given the time that has elapsed but also 
because of the potential political ramifications.  Civil 
society representatives, however, have signaled a readiness 
to return to the IACHR with more cases in the face of 
continued GOM failure to produce progress on the array of 
outstanding cases. 
 
Visit Mexico City's Classified Web Site at 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/mexicocity and the North American 
Partnership Blog at http://www.intelink.gov/communities/state/nap / 
GARZA