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ICTJ Activity

Starting in 2001 the ICTJ developed a holistic approach to transitional justice in Mexico, working closely with various NGO partners, such as the Comisión Mexicana de Derechos Humanos, the Universidad Iberoamericana, and the Subministry of Human Rights, to consider and formulate strategies on truth-telling, prosecutions, reparations, and institutional reform. Networks and Capacity Building Director Louis Bickford and ICTJ program staff organized various seminars and meetings, including a civil society workshop on transitional justice attended by all major human rights organizations in Mexico.

On the basis of extensive consultations and discussions the Center narrowed its focus to provide technical assistance to the Special Prosecutor's Office (SPO), in charge of investigating the repression of dissidents in the 1970s.

In consultation with the special prosecutor, his staff, and political and civil society leaders, in April 2003 the Center undertook a technical assessment of the SPO to suggest ways to increase its ability to achieve its goals. In July 2003 former ICTJ Senior Associate Paul Seils traveled to Mexico. Assisted by staff from Universidad Iberoamericana he carried out a series of interviews with SPO staff, government officials, and civil society representatives. The Center's resulting report, "A Promise Unfulfilled?", was published in June 2004, with updated English and Spanish versions appearing later in the year. The report emphasizes that although the Presidential Accord that created the SPO and its infrastructure offered some grounds for optimism, it was not clear that the office had fully addressed the technical challenges of investigating systematic criminal activity. The report made recommendations to create more effective prosecutorial strategy and structure.

The ICTJ continues to monitor the development of transitional justice initiatives in Mexico. The Center has recently responded to two requests for assistance in strengthening the capacity of a broad coalition of civil society organizations and providing information on truth commissions to a community in the state of Guerrero,   one of the most affected states during the "dirty war" (see explanation below). The Center has been following  recent calls for a state-wide truth commission. 

2008 marks the 40th anniversary of the Tlatelolco massacre.  Commemorations of which will bring to light the legacy of dealing with human rights violations in Mexico. The ICTJ will undertake a thorough evaluation of the impact and unfinished work of the SPO and continue to provide assistance to local groups, notably those involved with the Rosendo Radilla case, which has come before the Inter-American human rights system. 

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Background

Modern Mexico has long been haunted by the contradictory legacies of its past. On the one hand the Mexican Revolution created a proud culture of opposition to autocratic government. On the other hand the revolution gave birth to an entrenched national party and a strong and very personal presidency that was little constrained by the rule of law until recently.

The National Revolutionary Party, later the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), dominated Mexican politics for more than 50 years beginning in 1929. Only in the 1980s did the party lose a state governorship, and even then only after intense lobbying to allow all political parties' participation in state and national elections. The 2000 election of Vincente Fox of the National Action Party as president marked the first time in 71 years that the PRI had lost a national election.

Although the PRI delivered economic prosperity immediately following the Mexican Revolution, political unrest grew in the late 1960s, culminating in the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre. After weeks of student strikes and demonstrations and the occupation of the National Autonomous University of Mexico by the army, 5,000 students and workers rallied in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas in Tlatelolco on the night of October 2, 1968. Heavily armed military and police forces opened fire on the demonstrators and passersby. Estimates of the dead range from hundreds to thousands, and many more were wounded or arrested.

The massacre marked the early stages of Mexico's "dirty war" of the 1970s and 80s, during which the state killed or disappeared thousands of left-wing activists. In 2002 President Fox appointed a special prosecutor to investigate current and former officials named by Mexico's Human Rights Commission as having been responsible for serious human rights violations.

A major focus of investigations was Luis Echeverría Álvarez, interior minister at the time of the Tlatelolco massacre and president during the 1971 Corpus Christi massacre, when up to 50 student demonstrators were killed by government supporters in Mexico City. In June 2005 Mexico's Supreme Court ruled that Echeverría could be charged with genocide in connection with the Corpus Christi massacre; however, the case was ultimately dismissed. Although the Court found sufficient evidence to legally classify the massacre as genocide, the evidence was insufficient to link Echeverria to the act itself.

When President Vicente Fox took office in Mexico in 2000, he promised a reinvigorated commitment to human rights. His administration's record has been mixed. In the Presidential Accord he called for the creation of the SPO to investigate crimes committed by federal agents against social and political groups. The SPO was established in early 2002 with two broad aims: holding perpetrators criminally accountable and determining the truth about past human rights abuses. The government considered but decided against a truth commission.

The SPO closed after investigating only a handful of cases, none of which resulted in sentencing, and produced a historical account of human rights abuse in Mexico that could not be agreed upon by the special prosecutor and the investigators.  A weakened version that SPO's own investigators severely criticized was ultimately released but has not been made widely available. 

Since then local NGOs have taken up the disappearance of Rosendo Radilla Pacheco.  Mr. Radilla was a labor organizer and later mayor of a small town in the state of Guerrero. It is widely believed that he was disappeared in 1974 because of his political activism, and his whereabouts have never been revealed by the Mexican government. Local groups claim that the government has not complied with its legal obligations in investigating the case and have brought it to the attention of the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights. The charges are broad; they include violations of the Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance and the American Convention on Human Rights, specifically the right to life, personal freedom, humane treatment, and judicial protection. The Rosendo Radilla case is pending before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

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(Updated June 2008)