Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Thursday faced criticism over the newly appointed head of the country’s human rights agency.
Lopez Obrador vowed respect for human rights when he took office nearly a year ago, but he has criticized the Mexican National Human Rights Commission in crude terms and brushed aside its recommendations, calling it a “pimp” and a “front” organization.
This week, his Morena party pushed through the Mexican Congress the appointment of a new head for the agency who critics say is neither impartial nor familiar with the country’s problems.
Rosario Piedra Ibarra was confirmed by the Senate on Tuesday in a vote marred by allegations of miscounts and double-voting, ending in a scuffle among legislators.
Moments after she was sworn in as head of the agency — whose recommendations are not binding, but are usually accepted by government agencies — Piedra Ibarra expressed disbelief when asked about the killing of journalists.
“Are they killing journalists?” she asked.
Almost a dozen have been killed since Lopez Obrador took office.
Piedra Ibarra was a Morena member until this week, and a member of the party’s national leadership council until the beginning of the month.
Critics say that regulations require the head of the commission to have resigned from any party posts at least a year in advance of being named to the post.
Lopez Obrador had previously faced criticism for his use of the military in police work and for using the militarized National Guard to prevent Central American migrants from traveling through Mexico.
However, his policy has also been to hold the military back from open confrontation, to the point of praising units that backed down in the face of angry townspeople or drug gangs.
On Thursday, the president stood behind Piedra Ibarra’s appointment and said those who did not like to could file complaints with international organizations such as the Organization of American States.
He harshly criticized non-governmental organizations that objected to Piedra Ibarra’s marred election, saying they had done little to fight the excesses of past administrations.
“They disguised themselves as civic groups, when in reality they were acting, openly or clandestinely, in favor the ruling regime,” he said.
The president railed against independent regulatory agencies that have sought to limit some of the president’s projects.
“These are all agencies that were created to act as if they were protecting human rights,” he said.
Lopez Obrador’s natural instinct of austerity abhors the high paychecks that government regulatory agencies have long received.
“They talk about defending democracy, but it was all about their pocketbooks,” Federico Estevez, a political science professor at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico, said of some regulatory agencies.
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