Mexico says done all it could for dirty war trials
Mexican President Vicente Fox’s government on Friday admitted there was little else it could do to punish former officials for their past repression of leftist dissidents after a court dealt the administration another legal setback this week.
A judge this week refused to issue arrest orders for former Mexican President Luis Echeverria and seven others for a 1968 student massacre by police and soldiers.
It was the latest setback to Fox’s attempts to bring to justice former members of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, who committed atrocities against leftists for decades. The PRI ruled Mexico for most of the 20th century.
“The federal government has done what was in its power to investigate and find the facts, identify those responsible and open the way for the application of justice,” Fox’s spokesman Ruben Aguilar said.
“Now it is up to the law courts to rule on the case,” he said, referring to the Echeverria accusations.
More: alertnet.org
Mexico 'dirty war' crimes alleged
The Mexican government and military committed "crimes against humanity" in the so-called "dirty war" against left-wing rebels, a leaked report says.
The report was prepared for current President Vicente Fox but has not been released. A US NGO has printed material saying Mexicans had a right to know.
The army kidnapped, tortured and killed hundreds of rebel suspects, says the report, which covers 1964 to 1982.
Mexico's special prosecutor says the report is biased and has been revised.
More: news.bbc.co.uk
Mexico Did A Poor Job of "Dirty Work" for the US
Mexican diplomacy is at its nadir because it is not just doing the US' "dirty work", but is doing it badly, political analysts assert.
Well-known analyst Gabriel Guerra said Mexico's foreign policy is in a very serious situation, stressing that the crisis with Argentina at the Summit of the Americas is far from accidental.
Guerra explained this is the result of a series of mistakes, a lack of strategy, experience and a median and long term plan giving Latin America its rightful place.
Mexico should be the country demonstrating the least interest
AP , MEXICO CITY
Tuesday, Jun 21, 2005,Page 7
Advertising A Mexican court has issued four new arrest warrants against former government officials wanted in the forced disappearance of dissidents in the 1970s, special prosecutor Ignacio Carrillo announced on Sunday.
Six members of the Brigada Campesina de los Lacandones were arrested in central Mexican state of Hidalgo in 1974 and turned over illegally to the now-dissolved Federal Security Directorate, never to be seen again, according to prosecutors.
The new arrest orders in the Hidalgo case bring to 16 the number of warrants issued as prosecutors pursue crimes of the so-called "dirty
Mexico arrests 8 agents in filmed drug execution
Mexico said on Thursday it had arrested 10 people, including eight federal agents, in the kidnapping of four suspected drug gang hitmen and the filmed execution of at least one of them.
The case has thrown the spotlight on the often cosy relations between Mexican authorities and organised crime. Drug gangs routinely bribe police, officials and judges to protect them or carry out their dirty work.
Four men, beaten and bruised, were shown on a homemade DVD confessing to being members of the infamous Gulf Cartel of drug traffickers. One of them was then
T-shirt said to be offensive to Mexico
The Urban Outfitters retail chain is once again upsetting some people with a T-shirt it's selling.
The shirt reads: "New Mexico, Cleaner than Regular Mexico."
An official with the Anti-Defamation League wants the retailer to stop selling the shirt -- because it suggests that "Mexico is a dirty place."
Urban Outfitters has run into similar controversy before. Two years ago, it stopped selling a game called "Ghettopoly" after black civil rights leaders protested. Last year, it stopped sales of a T-shirt that read, "Everyone Loves a Jewish Girl," surrounded by dollar signs. The Anti-Defamation League objected to
Mexicos Calderon next target of election attacks
Mexican presidential candidate Felipe Calderon expects rivals to make him the focus of sniping and negative campaign ads now that he has taken the lead in a closely watched poll, his campaign chief said.
Calderon, a conservative, knocked leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador out of first place in the poll on Tuesday and gained more ground with a winning performance in a televised debate that Lopez Obrador opted out of.
The shift could make Calderon the new target of mudslinging that has previously seen the two main challengers call Lopez Obrador a dangerous populist
Tucson teen wanted in murder case arrested in Mexico
A teenager sought in a slaying has been taken into custody by authorities in Mexico and turned over to U.S. officers in Douglas.
Authorities said Robert C. "Manny" Garcia, 16, was booked Friday into the Pima County Jail on a charge of first-degree murder in the May 14 death of 18-year-old Jimmy Lee Rose of Tucson, who was shot numerous times after a fight.
A murder warrant had been issued for Garcia's arrest.
Garcia was ordered held in lieu of $1 million bail on the murder charge and was held without bail on a
Will Mexico come clean?
PRESIDENT VICENTE FOX of Mexico took office in 2000 vowing to finally prosecute officials responsible for the deaths, "disappearing" and torturing of hundreds in that nation's "dirty war" of the 1970s. Victims' families have waited for decades to uncover what happened to their loved ones. Although plenty of new findings have come to light, disappointingly little has been done to prosecute those responsible for the illegal repression.
One reason to hope that this might change is a draft of a new report prepared by President Fox's special prosecutor's office. It documents the kidnapping and torturing of hundreds of
Mexico election race turns as conservative surges
Mexicos ruling party presidential candidate appears to be pulling away from his leftist rival after aggressive TV ads propelled his dramatic surge in an election race being fought on economic policies.
A closely watched poll in the Reforma newspaper on Wednesday showed Felipe Calderon, a conservative, with 40-percent support among probable voters and his left-wing challenger Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador trailing at 33 percent.
Lopez Obrador, a former Mexico City mayor who promises to put the poor first, had been Mexicos most popular politician for three years and was the clear election front-runner until
Mexico's 1968 massacre heads for big screen
As Mexico struggles for justice in a 1968 massacre of students, the darkest chapter of political violence in its recent history, American and Mexican filmmakers are taking the bloodshed to the big screen.
"Tlatelolco: Mexico 68" focuses on the student protest in Mexico City that ended in slaughter just days before Mexico hosted the 1968 Olympic Games.
Government security forces opened fire on protesters on Oct. 2, 1968, marking the start of a long and violent campaign against dissidents.
The attack has inspired books, documentaries and local low-budget films, but this is the first time a
