Mexico's human rights situation decried 


Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit


	WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 (UPI) -- Members of Congress and human
rights groups are calling on President Clinton to speak out about the 
``alarming situation in Mexico'' while Mexican President Ernesto
Zedillo pays a visit to Washington. 
	In a letter to Clinton today, Republican and Democratic
lawmakers pointed to ``an alarming increase in disappearances and 
extra-judicial executions'' in Mexico. 
	The Inter-American Human Rights Commission has recommended the
Mexican government conduct a thorough investigation of recent killings
of peasants by police in the Mexican states of Guerrero and Chiapas. 
	The killings and disappearances ``often occur in the context
of counter-insurgency and counter-narcotics operations,'' said the
letter, signed by 17 House members. 
	``Closer ties between the militaries of the United States and
of Mexico will prove counter-productive if they are not accompanied by
the protection of basic human rights,'' they said. 
	Pierre Sanne, secretary general of Amnesty International, said
``there is a human rights crisis en Mexico.'' 
	Sanne said, ``Today, the citizens of Mexico have no effective
recourse before the law to seek redress and compensation when their 
rights are violated.'' 
	He said the failure to punish those who violate the rights of
citizens has progressively eroded Mexican institutions responsible for
security. 
 
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