PERSPECTIVE ON MEXICO : Don’t Seize on Human Rights as a Bar to Mexican Trade

Human-rights abuses are not new in Mexico, but impunity and corruption of the police have dramatically increased lately. This has resulted, in my view, largely because traditional forms of controlling the police have eroded, yet new democratic and accountable forms of control have not emerged. Also, there has been growing violence on the part of security forces who are either out of official control or have become deliberately transformed into a rogue machinery that by its very nature is beyond the reach of the law and accountable institutions.

Human-rights violations, which include murder, torture, extortion and widespread intimidation, have been amply documented by Mexican organizations and are now finally being reported by foreign entities like Americas Watch. It is very hard to believe that this violence could occur without the knowledge of those at the top of the pyramid of Mexican authority.

International public opinion, particularly in the United States, has been under the impression that Mexico is going through an ambitious program of reforms aimed at modernizing the economy and catching up with world political trends. Now, however, the world is beginning to see that economic change is not being accompanied by political liberalization.

The beginning of the debate in the United States regarding a free-trade agreement with Mexico has coincided with this new awareness of human-rights abuses. However, it would be a mistake to make the situation a central issue in the U.S. debate on free trade; it should not be made a partisan issue, for example, by labor unions or particular industries with the purpose of preventing Mexican access to the U.S. market.

Such policies will not help democracy and respect for human rights. And they won’t work. Worst of all, they will not endear the United States to the millions of Mexicans who want their country to enter the 21st Century as a modern, democratic, competitive nation where basic human rights are protected--not a country where votes count less than exports and human life less than ideological conformity.