A Rights Test for Mexico

Another sickening, all-too-familiar political assassination in Mexico City gives President Vicente Fox the chance to break ranks with his corrupt predecessors and become a true champion of human rights as promised.

Last month, unknown assassins killed Digna Ochoa, a respected Mexico City lawyer who distinguished herself in defending political dissidents and unpopular guerrilleros . Her murder was an ominous reminder of the persistence of the dark side of Mexican politics.

In contrast with killings of human rights advocates during the seven-decade rule of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, no responsible group has suggested that the administration is behind the Ochoa shooting. That alone is progress. Now, to remove any doubt that he has broken with the past, Fox should continue offering federal assistance to Mexico City in its investigation of the murder.

Earlier this month, anonymous cowards threatened five more human rights activists. Wisely, the Mexican federal attorney general has acted to avoid a new tragedy by providing all the activists, and their families, with government protection.

For decades, authoritarian PRI governments carefully avoided criticizing human rights violations abroad, saying that to do so would be interventionist and thus contrary to the Mexican constitution. Likewise, these officials consistently denied charges of human rights violations in Mexico, labeling the outside critics too as interventionist.

Mexico underwent unprecedented political change last year when Fox’s election ended the PRI’s domination. Fox promised to make human rights protection a cornerstone of his administration’s domestic and foreign policies.

The Ochoa assassination is a test for the president, an opportunity to show his nation and the world that Mexico has changed--that human rights advocates can now work freely and safely. The best way to do it is by bringing to justice those responsible for the murder.