By IPS Correspondents
MEXICO CITY, Nov 14 2006 (IPS)

A double discourse and contradictory stances have characterised Mexico’s Vicente Fox administration in the field of human rights, as demonstrated by the government’s decisive support for human rights causes abroad while impunity remains the norm in Mexico, according to leading human rights organisations.

“Mexico has taken on a leadership role at the international level and that merits respect, but on the domestic front, there have been serious violations of human rights which the government has neither acknowledged nor addressed,” Liliana Velásquez, the head of the Mexican chapter of the London-based rights watchdog Amnesty International, told IPS.

The Fox administration has refuted the results of a well-documented report by the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), an autonomous government body.

The CNDH accused the federal police of committing serious human rights abuses in May during an operation to evict street vendors from an unauthorised area of the town of San Salvador Atenco, 15 km east of the capital.

But Secretary of Public Security Eduardo Medina said the CNDH report does not faithfully reflect reality, because it mentions incidents that did not occur. The official said the commission’s recommendations will not be taken into consideration by the government.

Medina did acknowledge that “excesses” were committed by the police in San Salvador Atenco. But he said the officers involved had already been punished, and he denied that there were any cases of torture or sexual abuse.

“It’s infuriating that the authorities deny the abuses that were committed and haven’t punished the perpetrators, when there is so much evidence. I hope the world realises that this government was a violator of human rights,” added the woman, who preferred to remain anonymous.

In San Salvador Atenco, local and federal police cracked down brutally on protesters who had blocked streets and confronted the police when they attempted to evict the street vendors.

During the police crackdown, more than 200 demonstrators were arrested, homes were searched without a warrant, protesters were beaten by groups of officers, and women were sexually abused, according to the CNDH, Amnesty International and the local Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Human Rights Centre.

Velázquez noted that the reaction by the Fox administration was similar to the stance it took with respect to an earlier CNDH report on excesses committed by the police in May 2004 in the city of Guadalajara, which hosted the third European Union-Latin America/Caribbean summit.

During the summit, the police brutally charged hundreds of young demonstrators. According to the CNDH, 73 protesters were illegally detained, at least 19 of them were subjected to mistreatment and even torture, and 55 suffered degrading treatment.

Both the earlier and the current CNDH reports were based on multiple testimonies and abundant evidence.

But as it did this week, the government denied the allegations at the time and said the incidents were blown out of proportion.

The Fox administration took a similar attitude towards accusations against police who attempted in May to evict a group of miners who had occupied a factory in the state of Michoacán, east of Mexico City. Two men were killed during the eviction attempt.

“There has definitely been a double discourse during the Fox administration, which has committed itself to respect for human rights in international forums and even exercised leadership in that area, while major shortcomings have continued to be seen at the local level,” said Velázquez.

CNDH chairman José Luis Soberanes said Fox is leaving his successor Felipe Calderón – also a member of the ruling National Action Party – a “cursed inheritance” in the area of human rights, including “grave pending issues” like torture and impunity.

Américo Incalcaterra, representative in Mexico of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said Monday that during the Fox administration major advances have been made in human rights, although he added that there are serious problems that have not been addressed, like the incidents in San Salvador Atenco.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) expressed a similar view in its May report, “Lost in Transition: Bold Ambitions, Limited Results for Human Rights Under Fox”.

The Fox administration, which ends on Dec. 1, marked “a major difference from the governments of the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party, which ruled Mexico from 1929 to 2000),” Tamara Taraciuk, one of the authors of the HRW report, told IPS.

“The change is dramatic, because ‘national sovereignty’ is no longer invoked to avoid scrutiny in human rights or to hide information, as occurred under the PRI,” she said.

Since Fox took office in December 2000, Mexico has thrown itself open to scrutiny by the United Nations and human rights groups.

And it has presided over the new U.N. Human Rights Council since June, when it was unanimously elected by the members of the Council, which replaced the U.N. Commission on Human Rights.

But although it acknowledged the Fox administration’s new openness to scrutiny, Human Rights Watch reported that the police continue to be guilty of serious human rights violations.

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