Collateral Damage: Reform in Mexico Fails to Deliver for Victims of Military Abuses

An analysis of Calderon's proposal for civilian trials of some military abuses of human rights, from our colleagues at the Latin American Working Group

Reform in Mexico Fails to Deliver for Victims of Military Abuses | Just the Facts: "Mounting pressure from rights groups in Mexico and the Obama Administration, and a ticking clock on an order by the Inter-American Court, spurred President Calderon to unveil his long-anticipated proposal to reform Mexico’s military justice code. But while reform is desperately needed to end the historic impunity for members of the Mexican military that have committed human rights abuses, Mexican and international human rights groups agree that President Calderon’s proposal doesn’t do nearly enough. 

As the Washington Office on Latin America recently noted, “a reform that is truly progressive will require that all human rights violations committed against civilians be tried in civil courts, not in the military system.”" Oct. 21, 2010