VZCZCXRO5543
RR RUEHCD RUEHGD RUEHHO RUEHMC RUEHNG RUEHNL RUEHRD RUEHRS RUEHTM
DE RUEHME #0585 0582157
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 272157Z FEB 09
FM AMEMBASSY MEXICO
TO RUEHXC/ALL US CONSULATES IN MEXICO COLLECTIVE
RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5369
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 1067
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 0286
RUEHUNV/USMISSION UNVIE VIENNA 0316

UNCLAS MEXICO 000585 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM KCRM KCOR SNAR MX
SUBJECT: HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT ON MEXICO DRAWS ATTENTION, 
CRITICISM 
 
¶1.  Summary.  The Mexican press and political class focused 
on concerns expressed in the 2008 Human Right Report on 
Mexico regarding corruption and impunity as well as abuses 
committed in the course of the government's efforts to combat 
organized crime.  Most commentators, including opposition 
politicians took little exception with the substance of 
report which touched on a range of human rights issues. 
Instead, several politicians called into question the right 
of the U.S. to stand in judgment of Mexico given its 
"failure" to address adequately the trafficking of arms and 
drug money into Mexico.  Mexico's Foreign Ministry offered no 
immediate comment but informed us that it was reviewing the 
report and requested a meeting for the coming week to discuss 
it.  End Summary. 
 
¶2.  Three of Mexico's leading dailies provided front-page 
coverage of the 2008 Human Rights Report on Mexico.  Centrist 
dailies El Universal and El Economista assumed a generally 
objective stance in reporting that the report had focused on 
concerns relating to corruption and impunity and crimes 
committed by the security forces in the course of the 
government's efforts to combat organized crime.  They drew 
attention to the report's positive assessment that the 
government "respects and promotes" human rights.  El 
Universal, however, went on to note that the report speaks to 
many of the same abuses reported by the National Human Rights 
Commission including physical abuse, torture, and unlawful 
killings. 
 
¶3.  La Jornada, a left of center daily, offered more 
provocative reporting on the report focusing on criticism of 
the report lodged by opposition politicians from the 
Revolutionary Institution Party (PRI) and Democratic 
Revolutionary Party (PRD).  This criticism had more to do 
with the "right" of the U.S. to criticize Mexico's human 
rights record than with the substance of the report itself. 
PRD diputado Juan Guerra, for example lamented but did not 
necessarily reject the perception of Mexico as suffering from 
high levels of corruption.  Instead, he objected to U.S. 
making this criticism in view of the fact that it is 
benefiting from this corruption, explicitly suggesting the 
U.S. is complicit in corrupt activities particularly as 
relate to the failure of U.S. customs official to address 
adequately arms trafficking, trafficking in persons, and 
narco-trafficking.  PRI deputy Samuel Aguilar took a similar 
tack in criticizing U.S. customs officials for not doing 
anything to stop the flow of "dirty" money into Mexico. 
 
¶4.  Surprisingly, PRD leader Lopez Obrador offered one of the 
more balanced assessments remarking that while Mexicans don't 
appreciate the "foreign interference" the report represents, 
he found that the U.S. report "corresponds with what is 
happening in Mexico."  Luciano Pascoe, Vice President of the 
Social Democratic Party (PSD) welcomed greater international 
focus on the problem of corruption and impunity but then 
couldn't pass up the opportunity to criticize the U.S. for 
not stopping the flow of weapons into Mexico.  Interesting 
enough, Raul Vera Lopez, the Catholic bishop of the state of 
Saltillo acknowledged that the U.S. has as much a right to 
criticize in Mexico about corruption and impunity as Mexico 
has to criticize the U.S. on immigration issues.  He went on 
to describe the Mexican Government's strategy against the 
cartels as "inefficient" and maintain that as long as Mexico 
did not "take its gloves off" in going after corrupt 
politicians and senior government officials, violence and 
insecurity would increase. 
 
¶5.  Comment:  Mexico's political elite strongly object to the 
U.S. assuming the role of judge in assessing the state of 
human rights in Mexico.  Sensitivity over criticism rendered 
in this report is sharpened by a perception the U.S. is not 
meeting its responsibilities in particularly as relates to 
the trafficking of weapons into Mexico from the U.S. 
Notwithstanding angry complaints about the public nature of 
the report, no commentator quoted in the press took issue 
with substance of the report.  In fact, almost all agreed 
corruption and impunity and abuses by the security forces 
were serious problems with some moving quickly to utilize the 
report as fodder to criticize the Calderon administration. 
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 / 
BASSETT