Allegations of human and civil rights abuses by the Mexican military and police are on the rise as Mexico deploys ever more troops to bring an end to drug-related violence.
Violence has fallen dramatically in Ciudad Juarez -- where the number of drug-related killings accounted for nearly half of all homicides nationwide in January and February of this year -- Since Mexican President Felipe Calderón deployed in March thousands of soldiers to take over public security in the city, reports the Washington Post. "But the claims of human and civil rights violations have increased," says Gustavo de la Rosa Hickerson, chief investigator of the state's Human Rights Commission. Allegations of abuse range from search and detention without cause to abduction and torture, all at the hands of the military and police forces.

Upon taking office in 2006, President Calderón launched a frontal assault on drug cartels, with the support of the army, to curb rising violence and regain control of parts of the country overtaken by traffickers. Since then, "Calderón has dispatched more than 45,000 soldiers and 5,000 federal police to hot spots around the country," writes the Los Angeles Times. Meanwhile, the number of complaints to Mexico's National Human Rights Commission rose from 182 in 2006 to 1,230 last year, say human rights groups.


In an effort to bolster Calderón's anti-cartel initiative, former U.S. President George W. Bush granted Mexico a $1.4 billion military-based aid package, known as the Merida Initiative, to tackle drug trafficking, states the Guatemala Times. "Congress last year approved the first $400-million installment after softening rights provisions that Mexico had protested," notes the LA Times.


Drug-related violence in Mexico claimed over 1,000 lives in January and February of this year alone, and 6,300 people were killed by the conflict in 2008, according to Mexico's Federal Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora, cited by the independent media organization Link TV.

30/04/2009