Mexico Under Siege

SOME IN MEXICO WANT THE DEATH PENALTY REINSTATED

The Increase in Slayings and Kidnappings Related to the Nation's War
on Drug Traffickers Has Created a Climate of Fear. Legal Experts See
Too Many Obstacles to Restoring Capital Punishment.

Anger and frustration over rampant killings and kidnappings have
ignited an improbable debate here over legalizing the death penalty, a
punishment that has been effectively banned in Mexico for nearly half
a century.

Lawmakers agreed Thursday to hear arguments next week on a proposal to
amend the Mexican Constitution to allow for capital punishment in a
narrow number of cases.

The initiative from Humberto Moreira, governor of the northern border
state of Coahuila, would allow the death penalty for convicted
kidnappers who killed or mutilated their victims. He said as far as
the people of his state were concerned, the only issue was how to
execute convicts, not whether to do so.

It is highly unlikely, if not impossible, that the death penalty could
be reinstated because of legal obstacles, experts said. But that is
almost beside the point. Moreira has tapped into public panic over
soaring crime, a climate of fear that has made law and order the
country's No. 1 worry.

Much of the bloodshed is related to Mexico's drug war, as government
forces crack down on powerful traffickers and traffickers battle one
another over pieces of the lucrative trade.

But violence is spilling into ordinary society. Two recent kidnappings
of children of affluent Mexicans -- one turned up dead and the other
has not been found -- underlined the public's vulnerability. As much
as the crimes themselves, the fact that there are few prosecutions --
impunity and no justice -- riles Mexican society.

"If 98% of criminals escape prosecution for their crimes, it is clear
that the population feels wounded and tends to support capital
punishment," Gerardo Priego, a legislator from the ruling National
Action Party, or PAN, told reporters.

Moreira's initiative received quick support from several state
governors from his Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.

But critics accused Moreira of demagoguery and of taking advantage of
the public mood for political gain. Mexico City's Human Rights
Commission said a return to state-administered executions would set
the country back 200 years.

"Behind this call [for the death penalty] is society's desperation
over the climate of insecurity we are living in," said Alberto
Herrera, head of the Mexico chapter of Amnesty International. "But the
risk is it leads to calls for revenge. Times of desperation are the
worst times to go for facile solutions."

Reinstatement of the death penalty is unlikely for legal and political
reasons. The last execution in Mexico was in 1961, coincidentally in
Coahuila, the state where the current initiative originated. Capital
punishment remained on the books, primarily within the military
judicial system, but was unused and abolished in 2005.

In 1981, Mexico signed a human rights treaty as part of the
Organization of American States that dictated the death penalty, once
eliminated, could not be revived.

Furthermore, the PAN, which holds sway in Congress, says it opposes
changing the constitution to allow capital punishment.

Recent polls showed support for the death penalty surging to as much
as two-thirds of the surveyed population.

Miguel Carbonell, a constitutional law expert at Mexico's National
Autonomous University, said that despite public outcry, the chance of
imposing the death penalty, given the international treaties that
Mexico signed, was "nil."

"We are all very worried about the security situation and want strong
measures," he said. "But the state cannot fall into the same criminal
behavior as the criminals."

In separate action Thursday, the lower house of Mexico's Congress
approved a package of state security measures aimed at strengthening
the government's ability to fight drug traffickers and organized
crime. Key among the measures were provisions to prevent the
infiltration of police forces by criminals.