Police Brutality an Institution in Mexico, Study Finds : Human rights: Americas Watch doubts effectiveness of new national commission. U.S. is also criticized.

Killings, torture and other mistreatment by federal and state police have become an “institutionalized part of Mexican society,” a human rights organization charged Wednesday.

In releasing its 114-page report on human rights abuses in Mexico, Americas Watch also expressed doubt that last week’s formation of a high-profile Human Rights Commission by the Mexican government would do much to alter widespread abuses.

“We have a lot of hope, but historically the Mexican government has gone for form over substance when confronted with the facts,” said Ellen Lutz, California director of the New York-based, independent group.

Americas Watch also criticized the U.S. government for long ignoring the violations because of vested political, economic and geographic considerations and blasted the U.S. Border Patrol for “unnecessary violence” against Mexican nationals trying to enter the country illegally.

The report, compiled over the past year, details decades of grisly deaths and tortures by Mexican state and federal law officers, including interrogations in which victims were subjected to electrical shock, near-drownings and having mineral water laced with chili pepper sprayed into their noses.

“Torture is not reserved for intimidating or punishing political opposition,” the report said. “It is a law enforcement technique that is used to extract confessions and extort money from prisoners and their families.”

Mexican government officials acknowledged in an interview Wednesday that “some of the cases detailed in the report are unfortunately true.” However, they insisted that most of the cases are under investigation or have already been investigated and that in many cases the offenders were prosecuted. They would not discuss specific cases.

The report compiled dozens of mostly previously publicized instances of killings by police during criminal investigations, especially in the battle to curb narcotics trafficking. It also took the Mexican government to task for violations of civil liberties in the criminal justice system; for more than 500 disappearances of dissenters; election-related political violence; violence related to land disputes; abuses directed against unions, and violations of freedom of the press.

Publication of the report follows last week’s announcement by President Carlos Salinas de Gortari that he would create a 12-member National Human Rights Commission to investigate abuses. The commission is to be headed by Supreme Court Justice Jorge Carpizo and includes prestigious intellectuals, including author Carlos Fuentes and Carlos Payan, director of the daily newspaper La Jornada, which is often critical of the government.

Mexican government officials said that the present administration is committed to solving the human rights abuse problems. They pointed to the administration’s implementation of an amnesty program for political prisoners; creation of a human rights office under the interior secretary and the newly appointed commission.

In criticizing the United States, Americas Watch said that in addition to failing to blame Mexico for violating the rights of its citizens, it has “committed its own share of human rights violations against Mexican nationals.” It mentioned the Drug Enforcement Agency-supported abduction in April of gynecologist Humberto Alvarez Machain from his office in Guadalajara to stand trial in Los Angeles in the 1985 torture-murder of a DEA agent.

Americas Watch said U.S. Border Patrol agents have committed “serious abuses against Mexican nationals, including unjustified shooting deaths.” The report noted that in 1989, the American Friends Service Committee documented cases of five Mexicans killed and seven wounded by Border Patrol agents in the Tijuana area.

Ron Rogers, spokesman for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, said Wednesday that all the shooting incidents have been investigated.

“We don’t condone violence against illegal aliens,” Rogers said. “In some cases agents have been forced to shoot. And, so far, evidence showed they were justified in protecting themselves.”