From: ZAHNISER_S%CUBLDR.Colorado.EDU@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu
Subject: "Mexico: A Human Rights Emergency" (351 lines)
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: daemon@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: ?
Resent-From: "Rich Winkel" <MATHRICH@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu>
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 00:42:32 GMT

"Mexico:  A Human Rights Emergency?," Forty-Fifth Annual Conference on World
Affairs Conference, Boulder, Colorado, Series XXII, April 8, 1992.

FILE LENGTH:  351 LINES

This file contains my notes from this series of presentations.  The notes are
not perfect but I believe they reflect the gist of what was discussed.  Often
I was unable to write down precisely some Spanish language names.  Also, I was
less attentive during Mr. Bonpane's presentation, so my notes from his
presentation are a bit sketchy.  Nevertheless I hope that my notes assist
those persons interested in Mexico.  Eventually I hope to obtain a transcript
from this series of presentation or, at the very least, to construct a
transcript myself from the recording made by the conference.

                                        Steven Zahniser
                                        zahniser_s@cubldr.colorado.edu
                                        Boulder, Colorado
                                        14 August 1992

Andrew Reding, Hemispheric Affairs Analyst, World Policy Institute, New York.

        Mexico presents itself as a democracy but it is not.  "Not!"

        August 1990.  Mario Vargas Llosa was invited to Mexico City to
appear on Televisa (private TV monopoly and PRI-mouthpiece) to celebrate
the ascendancy of neo-liberal economic policy.  Vargas Llosa surprised his
hosts over live TV by describing Mexico as "the perfect dictatorship."
Mexico is not Communist, is not Cuba, but instead is a camouflage dictatorship
that allows sufficient freedom and criticism of the political system so that
the Mexican government can portray itself as a democracy.

        Labor.  In December 1989, Ford Motor Co. workers struck for backpay.
In January 1990, CTM buses carrying armed goons entered Ford Motor offices,
received accreditation, and went on a shooting spree of sit-down strikers.
Seven strikers were injured, one was killed.  Elections were held at Ford.
There was no opposition slate and workers were forced to cast an up or down
slate vote in public and without secret ballots.

        Matamoros, January 1992.  A local union headed by Agatito Gonza'lez
(sic) went amok causing strikes in maquiladoras.  Matamoros maquila workforce
is 100 percent unionized.  Gonza'lez was arrested without cause.

        Freedom of the press.  Victor Manuel Oropeza (sic?) of Ciudad Jua'rez,
a long-time suffrage activist was questioned, denounced corruption of the
judicial police, and was murdered in his office (he was a medical doctor).
Money in the office was left alone.  Federal government sent in a high-level
group of investigators who accused Oropeza of being homosexual and a child
molester.  But no one would testify against Oropeza.  Street kids were tortured
into confessing that Oropeza had molested them, but the kids later recanted
their story.

        Monterrey, Nuevo Leon.  Two main newspapers:  El Norte and El Porvenir.
El Porvenir editor Jesus Cantu' published anti-Salinas editorials, especially
regarding the use of the army in civilian cases (ex. the arrest of La Quina)
in violation of the Constitution.  Cantu' was warned that criticism of the
President and the Presidency is taboo.  Government cut off the accreditation
of El Porvenir's reporters.  Late last year, Cantu' resigned from the paper.

        National Human Rights Commission.  Created by Salinas, reports to the
President, is barred from hearing labor and political petitions from citizens.
Is part of the Secretari'a de Gobernacio'n.

El Fisgo'n, political cartoonist, La Jornada, Mexico City.

        Joked that he had taken an informal poll of two persons in the Mexico
City Judicial Police building regarding whether police torture was a problem
in Mexico.  The first person, holding a cigarette, said no, it was not a prob-
lem.  The second person, whose flesh had recently been burned by a cigarette,
said yes, it is a problem.

        Mexican police are very experienced in not only the use of torture
technology but also have developed and even exported their own torture tech-
nology.  The Fountain (La Fuente), mineral water with chile peppers poured
down the throat of the victim in copious amounts.  All mucous membranes from
nose to lungs are severely irritated and victim experiences sensation of
nearly (usually) drowning.

        Mexican regime has never respected human rights.

        Tlalteloco, January 1971.  Famous example.

        Solomon (last name?), mayor of Aguilerilla (sic?), Michoacan.  Member,
Partido de la Revolucio'n Democra'tica (PRD).  Lost one testicle to a beating,
was falsely accused by the police of murder, was released after two years in
custody without an apology.

        Major human rights problems in the states of Veracruz, Puebla, and
especially Chiapas.  In Chiapas, local landowners and bosses (caciques) hire
armed goons to repress peasant population, often with government complicity.
Governor of Chiapas, is known as "the Butcher," a very brutal man.  Peasants
are in the process of making a three week march to the D.F.  El Fisgo'n hopes
that their demands will be met.

        Mexican police often torture their suspects.  An estimated 90 percent
of those incarcerated in Mexican jails have been tortured.

        Ricardo Lo'pez Jua'rez.  Accused of kidnapping a child.  Upon interro-
gation, confessed to the kidnapping to avoid being tortured.  Interrogators
wanted to know where the child was.  Lo'pez Jua'rez could not answer and was
tortured to death.  Beaten, flooded, torched, had his feet broken, was forced
to stay awake for a week.  His mother was tortured in front of him.

        Mari'a Elisa Sa'nchez Cortez.  Accused of murdering her boyfriend.  Her
nipples were pulled off with pliers while in police custody.

        National Human Rights Commission.  Source of prestige for Salinas.
Has solved the cases of Lo'pez Jua'rez and Aguilerilla.  Has been limited
in its effectiveness.  Commission published facts on the Lo'pez Jua'rez case
only after international human rights organizations had publicized the facts
of the case.

        "What kind of regime would tolerate such behavior?  A cruel regime....
Torture is not an accident in the Mexican political scheme.  It is a need."

        Minimum wage in Mexico:  $4.00 a day.  El Fisgo'n argues that this
itself is a human rights violation.

Julie Fisher, International Development Consultant, Fisher, Peck Associates,
New Haven, Conn.; visiting fellow, Yale University; non-profit organizations
researcher; Amnesty International (AI) member.

        Curiously there is a Carlos Salinas from Chile who is an AI member.

        AI focuses on torture.  An estimated 80 to 95 percent of those picked
up by the Mexican police are tortured.  Methods of torture:  often leave no
visible signs, being dunked in a latrine or hung upside down.  Even police
officers who are arrested for human rights violations have been tortured.

        Right after AI report on Mexico, the National Human Rights Commission
published a similar report about the same cases.

        1990:  95 Americans arrested in Mexico on drug trafficking charges
were tortured.

        With respect to fast track and the FTA, the Bush Administration is not
going to allow anything to get in its way.  But human rights should be an issue
with respect to free trade and not just certain sectors of the U.S. economy.

        Fisher's son participated in the Amigos program in Mexico during
the time of the 1988 election.  Spoke with a woman who counted the number of
voters who had visited one particular polling place.  The official tally of
total voters greatly exceeded this woman's tally.

        The Mexican political system is illegitimate.  Historically, it has been
very good at coopting independent movements.  Nevertheless, the independent,
non-governmental sector offers a ray of hope in Mexico.  Even in Mexico, non-
governmental organizations (NGOs) are beginning to enlarge political space.
Hundreds of NGOs are working in Mexico.  Those NGOs working in the area of
human rights are possibly in danger, but usually NGOs do not directly threaten
the political system and thus are not subject to repression.  There are 11
NGOs in Mexico working in the area of women's rights.

        In most of the Third World, NGOs are aware of the need to stay auto-
nomous, at least for a while, before they start to link up with those policy-
makers who want change.  This model will probably not hold in Mexico.  Autonomy
will be maintained much longer.  If this is indeed the case, this facet of
Mexican NGOs will be very important to the development of democratic civil
society in Mexico.

Verne Lyon, Director, Des Moines (Iowa) Hispanic Ministry.

        Twenty-three years ago, Lyon made his first visit to Mexico.  His driver
had to made a detour due to a student-tank confrontation.  This was in 1968,
just before the Olympic Games, and Lyon was then a CIA employee.  At that time,
Lyon was not concerned with human rights.  He thought that Mexicans already
enjoyed life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to the same extent as in the
United States.

        Up until Echeverri'a, the CIA would deliver $250 million to each of the
Mexican presidents via courier "to pave the way for our will to be done in
Mexico."  (It was not clear whether this was $250 million per year or per
"sexenio.")

        Mexico is "a good cheap labor pool, ... for multinationals and now U.S.
companies."

        Any party in power as long as the PRI has to have maintained power
corruptly.  The Mexican government is corrupt from the top down.  Example:
recent shootout between the Mexican military and the federal drug police over
who would take possession of a drug load.

        Former CIA colleagues instructed Mexican in torture techniques.  "That
was U.S. government policy, to stand by and watch, and to correct when mistakes
were made."

        At Des Moines Hispanic Ministry, many people who stop by are from
Mexico.  They are processed similarly by the ministry as Central American
refugess.  The Mexicans are usually impoverished and speak of lack of work,
large families, and torture.  They are beaten by coyotes, who charge high prices
for their services, and then turned over by the coyotes to the INS.  Often
entire families are in transit, and the coyotes steal all of their possessions.

        "We (the U.S.) are responsible for the economic crisis in Mexico.  We
feed it, we maintain it.  I don't know what the answer is....  There is a cri-
sis.  It is not a new one.  It is documented more and more."

        "All we can do in Des Moines is provide Band-Aids and hope and a few
dollars."

Blaise A. Bonpane, Director, Office of the Americas, Santa Monica, Calif.

        During the Carter Administration, treatment of foreign countries was
conditioned on their respect of human rights.  Carter was thanked by the
Argentine people for his efforts.  Reagan abandoned this policy.

        With respect to cheap labor, there is only one perspective to take:
no more cheap labor anywhere.  The richest elements of the U.S. bring in
undocumented workers and tell them:  When we say work 12 hours, not eight,
you work and if you don't we'll call the INS in to arrest you.

        The Mexican people know that Cuauthe'moc Ca'rdenas is their president.
Mexicans consume more soft drinks per capita than any country in the world
because of lack of potable water.  18,000 cases of leprosy, 200,000 cases of
typhoid (no time frame given)--these are the results of institutionalized
violence.

        The dismantling of the ejidos is a human rights violation.  Until
recently, the Banco Ejidatario did not deliver credits to (small farmers?).

        30 percent unemployment, 60 percent underemployment.

        50 percent of primary children drop out of school.

        The wealthiest 10 percent of Mexicans possess 33 percent of the
country's wealth.

        1990 and 1991.  Undocumented migration up 90 percent.  1,460,000
persons detained by INS, 96 percent Mexicans.

        In recent months, 810 disappearances, 120 political prisoners.

        Mexican Constitution of 1917.  A wonderful document, torn to pieces.
Said that the riches of the earth were to be the property of the people.

        Wall Street Journal depicts Mexico as a political democracy.  U.S.
apathy with respect to Mexico is equal to total disgust.

        Article 27 altered to destroy the ejidos.

        Universal Declaration of Human Rights signed (by U.S.?).  Here in
the U.S., people decompose in our jails.

        Police beating of Rodney King.  Expert on police training.  "Is it
policy to is a prisoner who is lying on the ground 56 times with a metal
stick?"  "Yes, sir, that's our training."

Question and Answer Time

        Q. to El Fisgo'n:  Why has La Jornada been able to survive?

        A. (El Fisgo'n):  1.  Luck.  2.  Public demand.  3.  La Jornada
generally plays by the rules.

        Also, there are always five ways of telling the truth.  The most
important rule is not to attack the president directly but instead to
criticize what he does.  "It is a good deal, we think."

        Reding:  Newspapers have a limited circulation.  Mostly among
intellectuals.  The government points to La Jornada as evidence of press
freedom.  Reding was invited to write an op-ed piece by La Jornada's editor
on the new electoral law.  Reding was harshly critical of the law.  His op-ed
piece violated one of the key precepts of Mexican journalism:  criticizing
the president by name.  The piece was never published.

        Also Reding (?):  Mexican government's control of television is
very important because there are no alternative networks.  The government
controlled TV networks are watched by millions.  "Presidentialism is the
disease of Mexico.

        Fisgo'n:  La Jornada has great influence because the number of its
readers far exceeds its circulation.  One copy is often shared during political
rallies by many people as the one source of reliable information.

        Q.  Does the 90 percent figure for the proportion of detainees who
are tortured reflect the middle class?  Are there class differences?

        Payne:  The woman who was raped and went public was from the middle
class.

        Fisher:  95 Americans were tortured in the past year.  It can happen
to anybody.

        Reding:  The reason why it happens is that Mexico has not judicial
system.  There is no training of investigators because there is no capability
of obtaining a conviction.  Torture thus becomes a substitute for investiga-
tion in order to obtain information.  Even government officials can be
tortured.

        Fisgo'n:  Mexico's judicial system is completely monopolized by the
government.  Whoever get caught is usually tortured.  What can help prevent
you from being tortured is that Mexico is a very old bureaucracy.  Politicians
are rarely tortured.  The son of a rich person may possibly be treated very
well and receive the red carpet treatment.  Everybody has someone to appeal to.
This does not always spare you from torture, however.

        About the case mentioned by Bonpane:  More and more people are
looking at torture that should not happen in any case.  People once were afraid
to talk.  After being torture, people were afraid to talk.  Personal escorts
of former Mexican Attorney General Javier Pollo Trejo got to an agreement, saw
a nice woman in a car, put her partner in a car, and gang raped the woman at a
distant point.  Woman spoke out in an act of civil courage.  The counsel,
chief investigator, Val Verde, lives in Washington, D.C. and works in the
Mexican consulate.  The perpetrators themselves were tortured by the police.
The lesson:  don't get caught at any price.  The thicker the personal influence,
the less one's chance of getting caught.

        Q. from a Peruvian-American whose documents were stolen in Mexico
and who was nearly raped by five Mexican policemen.  She has worked for AI
and is familiar with the Mexican situation.  The question:  Why do we have to
wait for the situation to get to the extremes of Chile and Argentina?

        Fisher:  It is important to praise the efforts of the Carter Administra-
tion in the area of human rights.  Policy is important.

        Q.  (notes unclear) In light of the FTA, are all foreigners doing
business in Mexico involved in human rights violations?

        Bonpane:  It depends on the entrepreneur.

        Fisgo'n:  Main attraction of the FTA to the U.S. is cheap labor in
Mexico.  The FTA is thus a way of legalizing a natural violation of human
rights.  This is "a cruel element" [of U.S.-Mexico relations?]; it is "a
cruel act.  It is deliberate."

        Q.  Why do we Japan-bash but not Mexico-bash?

        Reding:  Japan has an advanced economy--more advanced than ours.
It is a challenge.  Mexico does not.  It is backward.

        When salaries increase in Japan, so does the domestic market.
Somehow our leaders don't see this.

        Fisher:  Compare the U.S. to Germany prior to 1989.  U.S. is becoming
similar to that (????).

        Fisgo'n:  There should be no Mexico bashing.  The U.S. owes a lot
to Mexico.  Mexico's external debt is a subsidy of the U.S. economy.

        Fisgo'n wishes to tell a joke so that the gathering ends on "a positive
note."  There is a competition among a Mexican judicial policeman, an FBI
agent, and a member of France's L'Securite (sic?).  The judge of the contest
asks each of the officers of the law to bring back a rabbit within 15 minutes.
The FBI agent returns in 14 minutes, 3 seconds with a rabbit.  Next goes the
member from L'Securite.  He returns in 12 minutes flat.  The person from the
judicial police goes last.  He returns in three hours with an elephant who
has a bottle of mineral water stuck in his trunk.  The judge is furious.
"What is this?" he asks of the Mexican policeman.  "Why, it's a rabbit," he
replies.  "This isn't a rabbit!" the judge exclaims.  "Oh yes I am," exclaims
the elephant.

END OF FILE
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