Despite positive movement toward the consolidation of political freedoms, human rights violations in Mexico continue to be extremely serious. State and federal police and members of the army continue to engage in torture, arbitrary detention, and other widespread abuses. Prosecutors frequently accept such abuses and judges often fail to question them. In the field of labor rights, in the maquiladora sector, female job seekers are subject to routine forced pregnancy testing. Moreover, the Mexican government still refuses to undertake a much-needed, comprehensive approach to resolving these institutionalized problems.
"The Mexican government must move from human rights rhetoric to human rights action," noted José Miguel Vivanco, executive director of the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch. "Starting with President Ernesto Zedillo, authorities must demonstrate that no human rights violations will go unpunished."
The December 1997 massacre of forty-five people in Acteal, Chiapas, committed by members of an armed civilian group that supports the ruling party, took place within a context of government-supported or officially tolerated violence and widespread impunity. At least thirty-four cases of civilian-on-civilian violence had been reported in Chenalhó municipality (where Acteal is located) in the months prior to the killings, including murders, wholesale expulsions from communities, and kidnappings. Yet the government failed to investigate any of these incidents adequately. At the same time, violence there was not one-sided. Supporters of the ruling party have also suffered similar attacks.
Questions for President Ernesto Zedillo: Only a handful of torturers are in jail for human rights crimes. What does the Zedillo administration plan to do to change the culture of impunity that has been the hallmark of this and prior Mexican administrations? The federal Attorney General's office is making progress in investigating those who carried out the Acteal massacre. What has been done, however, to address the many armed civilian groups that still operate in Chiapas?