By law, 15% of the Merida funds are withheld until the State Department reports that Mexico has met all four human rights conditions included in the aid package. Since the State Department report does not show that Mexico is meeting the condition that requires that "civilian authorities are investigating and prosecuting army abuses, in accordance with Mexican and international law," it should not be considered a sufficient justification for the release of the withheld Merida funds.

The Aug. 13 editorial "Mexico's Drug War" asserted that it would be "counterproductive" for the United States to let human rights concerns hold up the release of funds to support Mexico's fight against drug cartels. In fact, the opposite is true.

The claim by President Felipe Calderón of Mexico today that army abuse cases are effectively prosecuted in Mexico flies in the face of all available evidence.

The US State Department should not certify Mexico's compliance with the Merida Initiative's human rights requirements so long as Mexican army abuses continue to be tried in military rather than civilian courts, Human Rights Watch said in a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton released today.

Based on the findings of a Human Rights Watch report that documents the country's persistent failure to ensure that a rapidly growing number of serious abuses committed by the military are investigated and prosecuted, as well as multiple meetings with senior Mexican officials, Mexico is currently not meeting one of the Merida Initiative's key conditions: that army abuses be investigated and prosecuted by civilian rather than military authorities.

Human Rights Watch writes to the Minister of the Interior to ask for information about military investigations of abuses against civilians, as a follow-up to the report entitled “Uniform Impunity: Mexico's Misuse of Military Justice to Prosecute Abuses in Counternarcotics and Public Security Operations.”

The government has failed to adequately implement basic security measures it agreed with the Tlachinollan Human Rights Center, the Guerrero-based NGO that took these cases to the Inter-American system. These include providing cellular and satellite phones to some beneficiaries, and police protection through twice-daily visits to the homes of the widows of Mr. Ponce Rosas and Mr. Lucas Lucía and police escorts upon request.

The UPR was an important opportunity for Mexico to acknowledge that one of the most significant human rights problems the country is facing today is the failure of accountability for serious human rights violations committed by its military. It is extremely disappointing that recommendations issued by states during Mexico's UPR about this pressing issue did not enjoy the support of Mexico.