Mexicans want their president tried for human rights violations

MEXICAN human rights activists want the International Criminal Court to investigate President Felipe Calderon, top officials and the country’s most wanted drug trafficker, accusing them of allowing subordinates to kill, torture and kidnap civilians.

Netzai Sandoval, a Mexican human rights lawyer, filed a complaint with the ICC in The Hague, requesting an investigation into the deaths of hundreds of civilians at the hands of the military and drug traffickers in Mexico, where more than 45,000 have died in drug-related violence since 2006.

“The violence in Mexico is bigger than the violence in Afghanistan, the violence in Mexico is bigger than in Colombia,” Sandoval said.

“We want the prosecutor to tell us if war crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed in Mexico, and if the president and other top officials are responsible.”

Signed by 23,000 Mexican citizens, the complaint names Sinaloa drug cartel boss Joaquin “Shorty” Guzman, who has a $5 million (€3.77m) bounty on his head, as well as public security minister Genaro Garcia Luna and the commanders of Mexico’s army and navy.

The lawyers asked the ICC, the world’s first permanent war crimes court, to open a formal investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity in Mexico.

A decision by ICC prosecutors on whether to launch an investigation could take months or even years, legal experts say.

The ICC has investigated crimes including genocide, murder, conscription of child soldiers and rape, mostly in Africa.

The Mexican government has denied the accusations and said security policy cannot constitute an international crime.

“In our country, society is not the victim of an authoritarian government or of systematic abuses by the armed forces,” the foreign ministry said in a statement in October, when the petition was made public.

“In Mexico there is a rule of law in which crime and impunity are fought without exception,” the statement said.

The office of the prosecutor said in a statement it had received the request, would study it, and “make a decision in due course.”

The ICC tries cases of war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity in states that are unwilling or unable to prosecute these crimes on their own.

“There are a large number of boxes that the prosecutor would need to check off before he could actually open an investigation,” said Richard Dicker, an international justice expert with Human Rights Watch.

“It’s possible ... but I think you want to be clear on what the challenges and obstacles are.”

Activists claim Calderon has systematically allowed Mexican troops to commit abuses against the civilian population since the military was deployed to fight Mexican drug traffickers in 2006.