Under Pressure, Salinas Shuffles Mexico Cabinet

In an effort to improve the government’s human rights image--and possibly its record--President Carlos Salinas de Gortari on Monday replaced his attorney general and his interior secretary, the official who oversees elections and political reform.

Salinas also named one of his oldest friends, Emilio Lozoya Thalmann, as secretary of energy and mines, immediately raising speculation about the race to succeed the president in 1994. The outgoing president names the ruling party’s candidate for president from among members of his Cabinet.

Government officials said the Cabinet changes are a response to internal pressures for continued democratic reforms. But the announcement comes just days before Salinas is scheduled to meet with President-elect Bill Clinton and appears intended to appease potential U.S. concerns over human rights in Mexico. The leaders are to meet in Austin, Tex., on Friday.

The new attorney general, Jorge Carpizo MacGregor, has been president of the National Human Rights Commission since Salinas formed that government agency in June, 1990. He has no police experience but has a good reputation for his human rights work.

“The message is very clear,” said a presidential spokesman. “Carpizo has been consistent on human rights. He will fight against immunity (from punishment) within an institution that has been questioned.”

The attorney general’s office oversees the federal judicial police, who the spokesman said “have had this problem of immunity.” The attorney general also is charged with combatting narcotics trafficking and works closely with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Carpizo replaces Ignacio Moralez Lechuga, who will be sent to Europe as an ambassador.

A more controversial appointment was the naming of Chiapas state Gov. Jose Patrocinio Gonzalez Blanco Garrido as interior secretary in place of Fernando Gutierrez Barrios. During Gutierrez Barrios’ term, many state and local elections have resulted in opposition charges of fraud and have led to violence.

In April, the government will introduce electoral reform measures in Congress that will set the stage for the 1994 presidential election, and Gonzalez will help shape those reforms. But Gonzalez comes from a state with a high instance of political violence and has a mixed reputation. He is said to be a fair negotiator but has been quick to use police to put down land disputes and has been heavy-handed with the local press.