Hunger Strikers Demanding Justice

Javier Rodriguez Ramirez says he is a casualty of a drug war gone amok. To dramatize his plight, he is engaging in a hunger strike at the state penitentiary here.

Rodriguez says he has been in the custody of Mexican authorities here since Oct. 21, when, according to his account, a group of Federal Judicial Police surrounded his car in the Tijuana seaside community of San Antonio del Mar. They arrested him and a friend and accused both of being “international drug traffickers,” Rodriguez says.

Rodriguez, 29, says he was tortured for days and finally agreed to sign a confession admitting that he trafficked in marijuana, a charge he now denies. If convicted, he and his friend could be in prison for most of the next decade.

Rodriguez is one of about 40 inmates in the Baja California penitentiary in Tijuana who have conducted a six-week hunger strike aimed at ending what they consider unjust imprisonment.

More than half allege they were wrongly imprisoned by overzealous federal police seeking scapegoats for the Mexican government’s much-ballyhooed offensive against drug traffickers.

A smaller group of prisoners has also joined in the hunger strike, contending that they are eligible for parole and should be released.

Both groups of strikers have set up a camp in a two-story gazebo in the midst of the sprawling state penitentiary complex.

The complaints of those who say they were wrongly accused of drug-related crimes have touched a nerve in Mexico. There have been widespread allegations that federal police south of the border have resorted to torture and murder and otherwise violated the civil rights of citizens in their efforts to make drug arrests.

Critics--including Americas Watch, the human rights monitoring group--have accused Mexican authorities of ignoring constitutional protections in their zeal to please the U.S. government, which has put pressure on Mexico to cut down on the northbound drug traffic. U.S. officials have often publicly questioned Mexico’s commitment to fighting drug traffic.

Mexico has long been a production center and shipping point for illegal substances en route to the U.S. market. And Tijuana, situated at the world’s busiest border crossing, has for decades served as an important conduit for illicit, trans-border trade.

Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari has responded in recent months to the fierce national criticism aimed at federal anti-drug agents. He has ordered the dismantling of drug checkpoints nationwide and has created a commission to investigate alleged human rights abuses.

Government officials have denied the alleged abuses, contending that the prisoners in Tijuana and elsewhere in the country have ample opportunities to declare before judges if they were indeed tortured or otherwise mistreated.