A Rights Erosion in Mexico? : President Salinas Himself Needs to Monitor This Situation

Mexico is a nation not normally associated with official brutality found in places like El Salvador. This is why the recent report on rights violations in Mexico by the respected human-rights organization Americas Watch is all the more noteworthy. The report merits the personal attention of President Carlos Salinas de Gortari.

Americas Watch concludes that, in their zeal to combat drugs and limit political dissent, some Mexican police officials have “institutionalized” the practice of torturing prisoners. The report also noted that between 1970 and 1988, 51 Mexican journalists were killed pursuing news stories involving official corruption or drug-trafficking.

In a climate like that, the recent threats against Jorge Castaneda, a professor at Mexico’s national university and a regular contributor to The Times, must be regarded seriously. Castaneda’s articles have usually been critical of the Salinas government. His view on Mexican politics, while not often shared by this editorial page, nonetheless deserve a wide audience.

It may be that some Mexicans would rather those views weren’t widely heard, which may have been why four armed men stopped Castaneda’s secretary on a Mexico City street last week, questioned her about him and his family and told her “this is just the first call. If he keeps it up, he’ll really get (obscenity).”

It is not surprising that Salinas defended Castaneda when the incident was made public, saying such a blatant effort to stifle dissent is “unacceptable.” In its report, Americas Watch credited Salinas with trying to improve the climate in Mexico by resurrecting a human-rights office in the federal government and naming a national commission to oversee its work. But the report warns that Salinas must not opt for “form over substance in the promotion and protection of human rights.”

One way for Salinas to prove he won’t is to find, and discipline, the thugs who threatened Castaneda.