From: IQAN0@EBCCUAB1.BITNET
Subject: Lo prometido (Newsweek 2)
Reply-To: Multiple recipients of list MEXICO-L <MEXICO-L@TECMTYVM.BITNET>
Organization: Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 15:59:47 GMT

Raza,
        Aqui les va la parte 2 del reportaje del Newsweek (23/11)
Si no les llego la parte 1 o lo de Bartlett, avisen.

        Legal Limit:  In its present form, the pact (NAFTA) says
nothing explicit about human rights abuses, and it may even have created
pressure to keep quiet about them.  That's the accusation leveled
by the parents of Jennifer Whitt, a 24-year old Texas student who
was arrested in Reynosa, Mexico, last year on charges that she had
bought more than the legal limit of Valium -even though she had a
Mexican doctor's prescription for the medicine as treatment for
her bursitis.  She spent almost 10 months in jail without charge,
while her parents paid $30,000 in "legal fees" to get her bailed
out.  She died of a bronchial attack on Sept. 29, the night she was
released.  Days before Whitt was released from prison, anew judge assigned
to the case ruled that she had broken no law.  WJ Whittm her father,
says that the Bush administration and Texas Sen. Lloyd Bentsen shied
away from intervening out of concern for maintaining good US-Mexican
relations.  (Bentsen aides say they did all they could.) Relatives
of another American "suicide" victim, Peace Corps employee William
Yost, claim that a Peace Corps official told them that government
officials were under orders not to create controversies in Mexico
while the free-trade agreement was being negotiated.  Yost
supposedly shot himself in the mouth last August -while in
jail on suspicion of smuggling illegal immigrants across Mexico.
        Congress may well air such horror stories when it begins
debating the treaty early next year.  There is no shortage
of witnesses. "I saw them treat Mexicans like dogs, and they
treated me the same," says Randy Lee Rogers, 34, a Florida lawyer
(chin es welder no lawyer, Nota del ChN) who spent 15 months
in a Mexico City jail on drug charges.  He says federal police
tortured him 12 days to make him sign a confession. They beat
him in the chest and testicles, shocked him in the abdomen
and used the tehuacanazo -blasts of chilli powder and seltzer
water up the nose, he says.  According to Amnesty International,
another technique is to put a suspect's head inside a bag filled with
ammonia fumes.  Amnesty's latest report on Mexico is entitled
"Torture with impunity".
        Mex. officials will be ready if such charges become an
issue.  Pres. Carlos Salinas de Gortari has pushed broad
judicial reforms; a few cops have been charged, and new rules
make the police subordinate to prosecutors.  The Mex. Congress
last year enacted tougher punishments for torture. (And US cops
themselves have been publicly accused of torturing Mexican
immigrants.)  But laws alone can't change the system.
Critics of Mexico's human-rights record say they hope President Bill
Clinton will insist on tougher enforcement as a price for approving
the free-trade agreement.  otherwise, they say, open borders
with Mexico will only increase the number of Americans at risk.
(Tim Padgett in Tijuana).  FIN

        El Independent de ayer (18/11) no tiene nada sobre Mexico
ni el Gran Lider.  Tampoco el PAIS de hoy.  Seguiremos informando.

        Le pido a Alex que incluya la fecha de su reporte del
Forbes y de Foreign Policy, plis.
        Bueno, Ahi la vemos.
        Un abrazo,

        Francisco Valdes
        iqan0@cc.uab.es

Newsgroups: soc.culture.mexican