Fox Should Step Up on Rights Issue

Vicente Fox, Mexico’s new president, has promised to make human rights a cornerstone of his administration. The time has come to match words with deeds, starting with opening access for international observers.

This week, officials of the watchdog organization Human Rights Watch called on Mexican officials to eliminate restrictive visa requirements that have blocked rights advocates from investigating reports of official repression. The government imposed the visa requirements in the aftermath of a December 1997 slaughter of 45 people, including 15 children, in a church in the village of Acteal in the restive state of Chiapas.

The atrocity was an international scandal, but President Ernesto Zedillo, instead of taking action against the gunmen, delivered a fiery tirade against outside investigations and announced that his government would no longer tolerate foreign intervention in Mexican affairs. He ordered army units back to areas they had abandoned and expelled a number of foreign advocates of human rights.

Shortly thereafter, authorities required all foreign monitors to apply for visas at least a month before entering the country. The monitors also must present a work plan detailing what they will be doing in Mexico, whom they intend to interview and which towns and cities they will visit. These restrictions render rights missions all but useless.

Fox must quash the visa requirements, which are clearly intended to block legitimate aid and observation in Chiapas, Mexico’s most troubled region.