LEAHY BLOCKS POSITIVE REPORT ON MEXICO'S RIGHTS RECORD

Skepticism About Conclusions Delays U.S. Anti-Drug Aid

MEXICO CITY -- A key senator rejected a State Department plan to
issue a report this week affirming that Mexico is respecting human
rights in its war against drug traffickers, delaying the release of
millions of dollars in U.S. anti-narcotics assistance, according to
U.S. officials and congressional sources.

The State Department intended to send the favorable report on
Mexico's human rights record to Congress in advance of President
Obama's visit to Guadalajara for a summit of North American leaders
this weekend, U.S. officials familiar with the report said.

That plan was scrapped after aides to Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.),
chairman of the Senate Appropriations foreign operations
subcommittee, told State Department officials that the findings
contradicted reports of human rights violations in Mexico, including
torture and forced disappearances, in connection with the drug war.

At stake is more than $100 million in U.S. aid under the Merida
Initiative, a three-year, $1.4 billion counternarcotics package begun
by President George W. Bush in 2007. The law requires Congress to
withhold 15 percent of most of the funds until the secretary of state
reports that Mexico has made progress on human rights.

"Those requirements have not been met, so it is premature to send the
report to Congress," Leahy said in a statement. "We had good faith
discussions with Mexican and U.S. officials in reaching these
requirements in the law, and I hope we can continue in that spirit."

Soaring Violence

The State Department's failure to push through the report is a
setback for the U.S. and Mexican governments at a time when drug
violence in Mexico continues to soar and President Felipe Calderon
has come under growing pressure to revise his U.S.-backed
anti-narcotics strategy, which relies heavily on the military to
fight the cartels.

State Department officials said they are considering whether to
rewrite the report before submitting it to Congress, probably after
it reconvenes Sept. 7.

Mexico is likely to lose some of the money if it is not released by
Sept. 30, U.S. officials said. U.S. aid under the Merida Initiative
is used to buy helicopters and surveillance aircraft, train police,
and improve intelligence-gathering in the fight against the drug cartels.

But congressional aides and human rights experts expressed doubt that
the State Department would be able to make a compelling case that
Mexico has made sufficient progress.

"In the area of prosecuting human rights abuses and ending the
impunity, I don't believe we have seen any real progress," said
Maureen Meyer, who oversees Mexico for the Washington Office on Latin
America, a human rights group that opposes release of the funds.
"There is no sign that people are being held accountable. Every major
human rights group has opposed releasing the money."

Push for Transparency

Mexican officials acknowledge that human rights violations have
occurred in the fight against traffickers but say the cases are isolated.

The Mexican government is sensitive to U.S. criticism about rights
violations because the military is a respected institution -- and
many Mexican leaders say the U.S. government has not done enough to
reduce consumption of illegal drugs in the United States or stem the
flow of weapons and cash heading south.

In recent weeks, frustrated U.S. officials have pressed the Mexican
government, including Defense Secretary Guillermo Galvan Galvan, to
provide additional information, according to three officials involved
in the campaign.

Late last week, after the report was completed, Mexican officials
disclosed details of a number of cases in which they said soldiers
had been tried on charges of human rights violations, according to a
U.S. official. He said the State Department is trying to verify
whether the soldiers were prosecuted and has not decided whether to
include the new information.

"We are looking for the Mexicans to be as transparent as possible,"
said a U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because
of the sensitivity of the discussions. "We are pushing them to be
more transparent than they think they can be. What happens when
complaints are lodged? What do they do with them? What processes do
they go through? What happens to individuals accused of abuses?"

A spokesman for the Mexican military said it would be unable to
comment. Arturo Sarukhan, Mexico's ambassador to Washington, said
Tuesday: "Mexico is unequivocally committed to ensuring the
protection of human rights in the fight against drug-trafficking
organizations." He added, "We are confident that this will be
recognized by Congress."

140 Complaints a Month

Since Calderon launched his war against the cartels after taking
office in December 2006, human rights complaints against the military
have soared 600 percent, rising to 140 a month this year, according
to government statistics. The National Human Rights Commission has
issued reports on 26 cases involving the military since the beginning
of Calderon's term, and it found evidence of torture in 17 of the cases.

In April, Human Rights Watch issued a report highlighting 17 cases,
including several from 2007 and 2008, involving what it said were
military abuses of more than 70 victims. The alleged abuses include
killings, torture, rapes and arbitrary detentions. According to that
report, "not one of the military investigations into these crimes has
led to a conviction for even a single soldier on human rights violations."

On July 9, The Washington Post reported that the Mexican army had
carried out numerous acts of torture, forced disappearances and
illegal raids in pursuit of traffickers, according to court
documents, political leaders and human rights monitors in Mexico's
most conflicted regions.

With the State Department report imminent, many prominent human
rights organizations in the United States and Mexico released advance
statements saying that Mexico had failed to meet the Merida
Initiative requirements and urging the U.S. government to withhold the money.

"Why is this so important? Because Mexico cannot win this fight
against drug cartels without human rights protections. Human rights
provisions are not a headache. They are absolutely critical to the
success of the whole initiative," said Jose Miguel Vivanco, director
of the Americas program at Human Rights Watch.

Carlos Cepeda, of the Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez Human Rights Center,
said: "Mexico is not fulfilling the human rights requirements of the
initiative and the government does not seem close to fulfilling them,
and so of course it is a bad idea to release the funds. It would be a
green light for further human rights abuses and for continued
impunity for the military."

A Case Not Yet Made

Under Merida, the State Department is required to report to Congress
on Mexico's progress in four areas: improving transparency and
accountability; establishing regular consultations with civil
institutions; ensuring that civilian and judicial authorities are
prosecuting police and military officers credibly accused of
violations; and prohibiting the use of testimony obtained through torture.

The most controversial of the provisions is determining whether the
Mexican government is prosecuting human rights offenders. To date,
the military has handled all allegations of crimes under its own
justice system. U.S. officials and Mexican and international human
rights groups say the Mexican military is secretive and hostile to
scrutiny by outsiders.

Last month, amid growing allegations of abuses, Gen. Jaime Antonio
Lopez Portillo, head of the military's human rights office, held a
news conference and announced that the military had prosecuted seven
human rights cases dating to 1996, in which 12 members of the armed
forces were found guilty of crimes, including homicide and kidnapping.

Only one of the completed cases appeared to date from the Calderon
term. An additional 14 cases involving 53 troops were working their
way through the military's judicial process, according to Lopez Portillo.

The State Department had still intended to argue for the release of
the Merida funds this week, U.S. officials said. But officials with
the department's bureau of Western Hemisphere affairs got a chilly
reception from Leahy's foreign policy expert, Tim Rieser, at a
meeting last week. According to people familiar with the meeting,
Rieser told officials that they had not made the case on any of the
four areas required under Merida.

After receiving the additional information from Mexico, State
Department officials went back to Rieser over the weekend to find out
whether Leahy would support the report. He said he would not.

Next week Mexico's Supreme Court will address whether it is
unconstitutional to try cases of human rights violations in military
courts. The legal challenge, brought by the Miguel Agustin center,
involves four civilians who were shot dead in Sinaloa state last
year, allegedly by Mexican soldiers. Mexico's attorney general
declined to take the case, and the military investigated the deaths instead.