UN Investigator Raises Questions about Mexico´s Military Drug War Strategy

Proceso: Gloria Leticia Díaz

While in recent decades Mexico has tried to present itself as a human rights advocate, it is confronted by the current reality, given the large number of extrajudicial killings and attacks against journalists that are staged in its territory. Cautious about the figures and promises of the federal government, the United Nations rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Christof Heyns, believes that one year will be enough to know if the security policy adopted by President Enrique Peña Nieto will be effective in reducing "the alarming rate of murder" which today puts Mexico on "the radar of human rights".

Heyns, who has held the post since August of 2010, argues that an expectation prevails about how Peña Nieto is going to "remove the rate of violence" that has dogged the country since the days of the "dirty war", but especially after 2007, during the government of Felipe Calderón.

Interviewed by Proceso on Thursday, May 2, at the end of his official visit and minutes after he presented a preliminary report of his working tour that began on April 22 and which included visits to Chihuahua, Guerrero and Nuevo León, Heyns summarizes:

"My visit comes at an opportune time, in a time of transition, as there are many institutional changes, many legal changes under the new government; even the rhetoric has changed, which is important."

Based on information provided by the federal government, the preliminary report records that during the presidency of Calderón, 102,696 intentional homicides were committed.

"According to the government at most 70,000 of them were drug-related murders. To this is added a systematic and endemic impunity. Only 1 to 2% of crimes, including homicide, led to convictions," the document indicates.

With this precedent, insists Heyns, who is a native of South Africa, during the interview that took place in the garden of the office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Mexico, a year is long enough to know if the road taken by the Peña Nieto government is the right one for reducing the violence.

"As a very general guideline, I would say that we could wait a year before starting to see solutions, but more important that a consensus is perceived or there is a degree of general recognition that the country is moving in the right direction," he says.

But then he clarifies: in order for the opinions to be considered valid, they must not only be those of politicians, but also those of non-governmental organizations and human rights commissions; and if the journalists also say it, "then we can affirm that certainly the policies are working."

So after confronting the statistics in his meetings with officials and social activists, he says that he prefers to be "very cautious" and "not to give too much credence to this apparent decline in numbers" that come from a "centralized version". The exception is Nuevo León, where he observed that there had been agreement on a reduction in the crime rate.

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A Visiting Professor of Human Rights Law at American University, in Washington, D.C., and Visiting Fellow at Kellogg College, Oxford, Heyns warns that the best strategy for transforming a stage of violence is not to deny its existence.

"If we all agree to say that things are going well, they are going better--with the idea of ​​creating a more positive environment, it is dangerous to accept (this situation) with too much joy," he reflects.

He also warns about the crisis the Mexican press is going through and the concern in the international arena. In connection with the murder of Proceso correspondent Regina Martínez Pérez, the Rapporteur regrets that in some states they cannot practice either print and electronic journalism, or use digital media.

Although he thinks that the reforms toward federalization of crimes against freedom of expression and mechanisms protection are positive, he believes that "they must be strengthened." He says that the implementation of a system of justice and the fight against impunity will not be immediate, so he recommends combining protective measures for the short-term with policies for the longer-term.

"When a police officer is attacked," says Heyns, "his fellow officers communicate by radio and say, 'There's a policeman attacked, we must protect him,' and they do it so because the system of protection depends on them. But the democratic system also depends on the journalists, so this same level of concern and commitment must exist."

While helicopters fly over the area of ​​Polanco, close to the President Hotel, where the U.S. President, Barack Obama, stayed, the reporter asked Heyns what responsibility the government of the United States has for the death and violence that deprives Mexico, including the martyrdom represented by Central American migrants crossing the country in search of the "American Dream".

Thinking a moment before answering, Heyns explains:

"It would be very difficult to locate a specific responsibility. Given Mexico's geographic location between the producers and consumers of drugs and given the high percentage of weapons entering Mexico, I think there is a shared responsibility for the transit of drugs and for the transit of migrants destined for the United States."

After noting that the migrants' home countries also have responsibility for the humanitarian tragedy that migrants are experiencing, Heyns points out that since his visit "is to Mexico and not the United States," the call is to the Mexican government that it

"might reach out beyond the borders and collect all the technical assistance it can, because if it had more technical ability, it would not have to resort to force to such a degree. Definitely, there is shared responsibility for both the United States and for the international community."

Heyns's visit to Mexico comes fourteen years after the visit of the first Special Rapporteur, Asma Jahangir, and five years after the Rapporteur Philip Alston asked to enter the country.

In 2008, Alston already had worrying information about the increase in deaths resulting from the "war on drugs" launched by Felipe Calderón. ...

Heyns explained to the reporter that his visit had been scheduled for 2011, but it was suspended after the death of Secretary of Government Affairs [SEGOB] Francisco Blake, in a plane crash in November of that year.

Heyns had more than 120 meetings with federal officials and the states of Guerrero, Chihuahua and Nuevo León, as well as with dozens of members of non-governmental human rights organizations, relatives of victims and some aggrieved persons.

Even when he admits that during the Calderón administration there were major changes in human rights--constitutional reforms for criminal justice in 2008 and human rights in 2011--Heyns also highlights the "escalating violence" in Mexico, which coincided with the deployment of troops to fight drug trafficking.

"When the Army has an unfettered power to operate, and there are very few mechanisms of accountability, or when such accountability is left to the Army, it produces a situation in which the government takes a position of reinforcing military force. The armed gangs also strengthen their capacity, so then there is an escalation of violence. 

"I think there isn't an adequate policy, let alone when it seeks to reduce the number of deaths. If you want to stabilize the society, you should discourage the use of force, and this implies that the government also restrict its use of force."

Proceso: Was it predictable that sending the Army to the streets would result in this tragedy?

"My own country (South Africa) is an example that it was predictable. In general, a security policy that is framed with the word "war"--whether it is against drug trafficking, terrorism or drug dealing--is a conceptual approach that supports this environment of violence. It is a policy that is very attractive when looking for short-term results, but nevertheless, you can corrupt the Army by putting it in the streets, and it is very possible that will increase human rights violations."

Excerpt from a report published in Proceso magazine now in circulation. Spanish original