TOUGH ROAD FOR MEXICO'S TOP LAWMAN

Former Military Man Finds Himself Under Fire Over Rights Cases

MEXICO CITY, Nov. 17 -- He was once a lawyer in a general's uniform.
Then he traded his stars for business suits. Now, nearly a year in
office, Attorney General Rafael Macedo de la Concha has been pushed to
the front lines of political combat.

The assassination of a high-profile human rights lawyer, whose cases
most often focused on crimes by the military, has stirred concern that
Mexico's security forces even now abuse their power under the cover of
impunity.

Human rights activists also charge that Mr. Macedo, a brigadier
general who once served as the chief of military justice, is more
committed to protecting the military than exposing and stopping their
abuses.

Mr. Macedo's military case roster is marked by some of the worst
episodes of violence by soldiers in last decade. But despite
recommendations by the government's National Human Rights Commission
to investigate and discipline soldiers involved in the attacks,
soldiers were regularly protected from prosecution in civilian courts
for human rights violations under Mr. Macedo's watch.

Abandoning the secretive culture ingrained in him by 34 years of army
service, Mr. Macedo responded to the wave of criticism and talked
about his military career in an extensive interview this week.

He said he considered himself a victim of a "campaign of
disinformation." And he lamented, "My rights are violated when these
things happen."

But there is more than Mr. Macedo's reputation at stake. Confidence in
the attorney general's office, where Mr. Macedo once said that even
the walls were corrupt, had begun to rebuild this year and helped
transform Mexico's image abroad.

United States and Mexican law enforcement officials have forged new
joint crime-fighting units, linked by trust, and have shared
intelligence to capture important drug traffickers and to extradite
fugitives.

As Mr. Macedo's commitment to solving human rights disputes is
questioned, so is the credibility of Mexico's first democratically
elected president.

Mr. Macedo is the first military man in almost a century to serve as
the nation's chief civilian law enforcement officer. Political
analysts said that his struggle to emerge from the closed cult of
military life into the scrutiny of civil society mirrored the
conflicted evolution of the Mexican armed forces.

In straight, composed language, Mr. Macedo offered platitudes about
the importance of the Mexico's struggle to establish the rule of law.

"Openness is what this society demands and deserves," Mr. Macedo
said.

"Public scrutiny is crucial for all our institutions -- it is the only
way we will be allowed to participate in this great new society."

In fleeting lapses, however, Mr. Macedo, the son of a general who
entered the military academy at 14, revealed glimpses of his core.
Although he has been called to serve in a world without salutes and
uniforms it seems there is no taking the soldier out of him.

When asked to talk about his own views on some of the important human
rights decisions ahead of the government, Mr. Macedo said such matters
were beyond his authority. His role, he said, was to obey the orders
of the president.

"I am convinced that we must comply openly and plainly with all of the
commitments Mexico has made on international human rights," he said.

"But those decisions are not up to me. It is not up to me to decided
what decisions to make on these matters. It is up to the government of
my country, not the attorney general."

Mr. Macedo, 51, portrayed himself as a dedicated foot soldier in the
democratic transition led by President Vicente Fox, the first
opposition politician to control the government in more than seven
decades.

He said in the hour-long interview that he was a man "committed to the
respect and intense promotion of human rights." He boasted about
charts showing that hundreds of federal agents had been dismissed from
their jobs over the last year for corruption charges, and showing that
the number of complaints filed against the attorney general's office
for unfair treatment by the police had fallen nearly in half.

He talked about his office's significant successes in nabbing members
of the country's most important drug cartels. He also said that nearly
100 accused and convicted criminals had been extradited to the United
States.

"I want to restore the feeling among Mexicans that the attorney
general's office is an institution of good faith," he said, "an
institution that investigates instances of wrongdoing and turns them
over to the courts."

But in the ideologically divided cabinet of a president who promised
Mexico a second revolution, Mr. Macedo's views on human rights seemed
prone to caution. As Mexico struggles to stamp out corruption from
every office of the government, Mr. Macedo expressed faith in Mexican
institutions -- particularly the courts -- and warned against
initiatives that might undermine their authority.

He opposed the idea of establishing an independent truth commission to
investigate the worst government abuses in recent history -- a
principal promise of Mr. Fox's campaign.

Mr. Macedo described the use of torture by law enforcement agents as
isolated incidents by rogues, rather than signs of a systematic
culture of abuse. He also said he supported Mexico's plans to submit
to international courts only if they did not infringe on the
Constitution.

After Mr. Macedo's confirmation by the Senate, a headline in the
weekly magazine Proceso lamented, "Despite it all, Macedo de la Concha
is attorney general." His appointment sparked protests by human rights
groups, who expressed fears that Mr. Macedo would cover up past
military misdeeds and "militarize" the civilian police.

"Although he has committed to defending human rights, Macedo de la
Concha brings with him to the attorney general's office a number of
unresolved matters from his time as chief of military justice," the
Proceso story added, "complaints of torture, illegal arrests and
disappearances conducted by soldiers that he failed to
investigate."

Concerns about Mr. Macedo's human rights record, however, were drowned
out by the world's optimism about Mr. Fox. Analysts said Mr. Fox
believed that Mr. Macedo's efforts against drug trafficking would win
the confidence of the United States law enforcement agencies.

In his former job, Mr. Macedo had been involved in the arrest and
prosecution of three generals linked to drug trafficking, including
the former Mexican antidrug chief, Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, in 1997.
It was believed that Mr. Macedo could end the conflicts that often
erupted between the military and civilian security forces in the fight
against drugs.

Mexico's leading independent security expert, Sergio Aguayo, said
President Fox believed that Mr. Macedo would impose discipline on an
agency plagued by corruption and low-esteem. In the last 12 years,
Mexico has had seven attorney generals. When Mr. Macedo took the job,
he said, the agency had less than half the full complement of 3,500
federal agents.

In the interview, Mr. Macedo said it would take years to make the
agency clean and healthy. And so far he has turned to his army friends
for help; appointing 12 former military officers to high-level
positions in the attorney general's office. In an interview in Proceso
in April, he said he invited civilians to join but "many of them are
not willing to risk their prestige, nor their lives."

But the assassination last month of a human rights attorney, Digna
Ochoa, brought Mr. Macedo's military past back to haunt him. Ms.
Ochoa, 37, a defender of peasant farmers and suspected guerrillas, was
shot to death in her Mexico City office. Her biggest cases pitted her
against Mr. Macedo's military justice system. She endured death
threats for years.

Mr. Macedo said he had never met her. But, he said, he was indignant
about her killing and determined to pursue her murders, even if that
pursuit lead to the military.

"I will go as far as necessary," he said. "I have always lived up to
my responsibility to guard the rule of law. That is my only interest."