As Mexico battles drug war, soldiers may face civilian trials for abuse

The Christian Science Monitor, 5/1/14

A Mexican congressional decision this week that allows members of its armed forces to be tried in civilian courts for crimes against civilians is a long-awaited win for Mexico’s human rights, advocates say.

Mexico’s lower house unanimously voted 428-0 on Wednesday to change provisions in the military code, including a clause that had given the military courts jurisdiction over any crimes committed by on-duty soldiers. The senate passed the changes last week and the bill is now expected to be signed into law by President Enrique Peña Nieto.

The reform is an important step, because a civilian court, “for all its flaws, is not rigged against” civilians as military courts are, Human Rights Watch senior Americas researcher, Nik Steinberg, told The Associated Press in an email. Mexico’s civilian system is far from perfect: More than 96 percent of crimes are never solved or punished. But the military system is considered opaque, with no public access to trial or prosecution information, and is full of incentives for judges to rule in favor of the military, according to a Human Rights Watch report, “Uniform Impunity.”

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Mexico moves away from secret military tribunals

The Washington Post, 11/12/2012

Brig. Gen. Manuel de Jesus Moreno Avina, commander of the Third Infantry Company, arrived in the spring of 2008 in Ojinaga, across the Rio Grande from tiny Presidio in Texas’s Big Bend country.

The General, as he is known by all here, quickly began what his own officers described in court testimony as a “reign of terror.”

Instead of confronting organized crime, the Mexican soldiers here quickly became outlaws themselves. Then people began to disappear, according to the charges filed against them.

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Mexico seeks to require civilian trials for troops

Los Angeles Times, 10/19/2010

Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Monday sent Congress a proposal that would require troops to be tried in civilian courts for certain human rights abuses, such as torture.

The proposed change is the Calderon administration’s most sweeping response to persistent complaints about excesses byMexico’s military, which has been deployed around the country as part of the government’s crackdown against violent drug cartels.

Though the measure was expected, the move represents a significant concession by the military establishment, which has long resisted efforts to allow troops to be tried in civilian courts. Soldiers have been tried in closed-door military tribunals.

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