MEXICO CRITICIZED FOR RIGHTS RECORD

MEXICO CITY (AP) Mexicans accused of crimes face torture at the hands of
police and a justice system that commonly ignores their complaints or even
cooperates in the violation of their rights, a watchdog group says.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said a two-year investigation found that
prosecutors, judges and law enforcement officers perpetuate an "ends justify
the means" approach to capturing and convicting suspects.

"Despite reforms that have been made this decade in Mexico ... these
violations continue," said Joel Solomon, who researched and wrote the
122-page report "Systemic Injustice," which was released Thursday.

"Prosecutors do not worry about human rights violations committed by
police," Solomon said, referring to illegally prolonged detentions, torture,
abuse, and disappearances. "At times, they also fabricate evidence."

He said judges sometimes reject such evidence, "but not always."

Human Rights Watch did praise Mexico's agreement to respect rulings by the
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, improved cooperation with the
United Nations and work by Mexico's National Human Rights Commission.

The study was presented to Foreign Secretary Rosario Green and other Mexican
officials this week.

A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, speaking on customary condition of
anonymity, said Thursday that Mexico has taken steps to strengthen human
rights and is committed to "the fight against torture and impunity."

He said a commission would study the report.

Researchers looked at abuses by soldiers, state and federal police,
investigators and other authorities in five states: Baja California and
Tamaulipas on the U.S.-Mexico border; Morelos and Jalisco in the center, and
Oaxaca in the south.

The report said that in Oaxaca, where the leftist Popular Revolutionary Army
has mounted attacks, state and federal police have arbitrarily detained
suspected guerrilla sympathizers and tortured people into signing blank
pieces of paper later used as statements against their friends and
neighbors.

In one 1996 case, authorities claimed three Oaxaca men accused another of
rebel activity. A judge did throw out the Spanish-language statements when
it was found that the men spoke only an indigenous language and not Spanish.

Human Rights Watch said a 1997 case showed how violation complaints often
are handled: Investigation of the shooting death of an Oaxaca man was
assigned to the very group of police accused of killing him.

Zealous efforts to catch drug traffickers have resulted in confessions
elicited by torture, and disappearances, the group said. In 1996, soldiers
detained a U.S. citizen, Alejandro Hodoyan, in Jalisco and accused him of
being a bodyguard for the Arellano Felix drug cartel.

Hodoyan told his family that soldiers tortured him for weeks. A U.S. law
enforcement agent called in to question Hodoyan realized he was being held
illegally and reported the case to the U.S. Embassy, which failed to act,
Human Rights Watch said.

U.S. officials were allowed to take Hodoyan to San Diego for further
questioning. Hodoyan escaped and fled back to Mexico, where he was abducted
by armed men allegedly led by a Mexican anti-drug agent in March 1997, Human
Rights Watch said. He is still missing.

The group also urged the United Nations, the Organization of American States
and the European Union to demand greater human rights enforcement from
Mexico. It especially called on the United States to do so since it aids and
trains Mexican soldiers and police.