A long-awaited Mexican government report blames "the highest command levels" of three former presidencies for the massacres, tortures and slayings of hundreds of leftists from the 1960s to the early 1980s.
Based partly on declassified Mexican military documents, the report posted on the Internet on Saturday ends a five-year investigation by a special prosecutor named by President Vicente Fox to shed light on past crimes, including a 1968 student massacre and the disappearance of hundreds of leftist activists in the 1970s and early 1980s.
The report states that "the authoritarian regime, at the highest command levels," broke the law and "committed crimes against humanity" that resulted in "massacres, forced disappearances, systematic torture and genocide to try to destroy a sector of society that it considered ideologically to be its enemy."
Special prosecutor Ignacio Carrillo, who was appointed in November 2001, handed his report to Mexico's Attorney General's Office late on Friday. The report was later posted on the Internet for the public, and Carrillo said it would presented at a ceremony with Fox before he leaves office.
The incidents occurred during the administrations of presidents Gustavo Diaz Ordaz, Jose Lopez Portillo and Luis Echeverria.
Asked by reporters if the presidents knew of the atrocities but did nothing, Carrillo replied, "Yes."
Carrillo said the report is only the beginning -- that the Mexican government must prosecute those responsible if it is to prevent such atrocities from occurring in the future. The state also must compensate victims' families, he said.
"This was not about the behavior of certain individuals," Carrillo said. "It was the consequence of an authorized plan to do away with political dissidents."
Until now, many of the cases consisted of little more than witnesses' accounts.
Kate Doyle, a Mexico expert at the Washington-based National Security Archive, a private, nonpartisan research group, said the report is a "powerful development" because for the first time the government "officially lays the blame at the feet of three Mexican presidents."
It "clearly describes in detail how the authoritarian regime" of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, "used violence to silence the opposition," while painting an image to the world that it was running a democracy, she said.
Fox vowed to prosecute Mexico's past crimes when he was elected in 2000, ending 71 years of PRI rule.
But the courts have repeatedly blocked Carrillo's efforts to detain Echeverria, the only implicated president who is still living.
Carrillo denounced "the bad conduct of legislators and judges over the years who have promoted impunity with their false distortions of the law and reforms."
In July, a federal judge threw out genocide charges against Echeverria, ruling that a 30-year statute of limitations had run out. Echeverria, 84, had been under house arrest for more than a week on charges that he organized a student massacre as interior secretary in 1968. The charges were the first to have been filed against a former president.
The massacre took place in Mexico City's Tlatelolco Plaza on Oct. 2, just before the capital hosted the Olympics. Officials said 25 people were killed, though human rights activists say as many as 350 may have died. The attack is considered one of the darkest moments of PRI rule.
Carrillo also has attempted to bring charges against Echeverria, president from 1970 to 1976, for a 1971 student massacre and for the disappearance of leftist activists in the southern state of Guerrero.
Echeverria has denied any wrongdoing.
Carrillo's report found the most brutal period allegedly occurred under Echeverria's so-called "Friendship Operation" launched by the military in 1970 in Guerrero.
The report says it has evidence the army conducted illegal searches, arbitrary detentions, torture and burned down villages.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was