Pubdate: Fri, 15 Jan 1999 Source: The Washington Post Copyright: 1999 The Washington Post Company Page: A25 Contact: http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/edit/letters/letterform.htm Website: http://washingtonpost.com/ Author: John Ward Anderson, Washington Post Foreign Service Human Rights Group Says Mexican Reform Efforts Failing MEXICO CITY, Jan. 14—Legal reforms designed to strengthen the rule of law and end deep-seated corruption in Mexico's justice system are largely failing, according to a new report. The 123-page report released today by Human Rights Watch, an international human rights group, says that the use of illegal arrests and detentions, torture, forced confessions and fabricated evidence are still widespread and that top government officials and judges deliberately look the other way. Numerous judicial reforms implemented by Mexico in recent years have provided a framework for a cleaner, more accountable judicial system, the group acknowledged. But instead of being used to bring about real change, they are being used to quiet domestic and international criticism of a system that still tolerates abuses. "Mexico's continuing human rights problems can be attributed to the government's preference for rhetoric designed to mollify . . . critics over action that would resolve specific human rights problems," the report said. "Through willful ignorance of abuses or purposeful fabrication of evidence, prosecutors routinely prosecute victims using evidence obtained through human rights violations, including torture and illegal detention, and judges avail themselves of permissive law and legal precedent to condemn victims while ignoring abuses." The Mexican government, which in the past has responded to international criticism of its rights record with blanket denials and denunciations of meddling in its internal affairs, was more conciliatory this time, saying it would forward the report to a special commission. Legal experts and political analysts in Mexico and abroad frequently cite Mexico's corrupt justice system as a fundamental barrier to the country's democratic evolution. The problem has become acute in recent years, with drug traffickers spending billions of dollars on bribes to infiltrate every level of Mexico's legal system. The key problem, the report says, is the government's refusal to follow through with concrete actions in specific cases of rights violations, even though it generally concedes that serious problems exist. The report says that officials justify excesses as necessary to counter the country's violent rebel insurgencies, soaring crime rates and growing drug problem. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake