Headlines, Human Rights, Latin America & the Caribbean

MEXICO: Military Justice System under Fire

Diego Cevallos

MEXICO CITY, Apr 2 2009 (IPS) - The Mexican government, legislators and human rights organisations are calling for a review of the outdated military justice system, accused of letting human rights violators off the hook. But only activists seem to actually be doing anything to bring that about.

"We believe there will be no political will from here to 2010 or even 2012 for reforming or throwing out the military justice system," Santiago Aguirre, lawyer for the Agustín Pro Juárez Human Rights Centre (PRODH), which has closely followed the issue, told IPS.

"But despite the headwind, we have not, and will not, remain idle," said Aguirre.

Since 2006, PRODH and seven other NGOs have been carrying out a global strategy that consists of challenging Mexico’s military justice system at an international level, especially in the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

This year, the Commission is expected to issue resolutions on three cases of civilian victims of abuses at the hands of the military, which were ignored by the military courts.

The cases involve a forced disappearance during the 1970s dirty war against dissidents; the alleged rape of an indigenous woman by soldiers; and the alleged torture of two rural environmental activists by members of the military.

On the domestic front, activists are demanding that lawmakers amend the military justice code. Their argument is that the reforms of the Mexican legal system in effect since 2008, which ushered in oral trials open to the public and other far-reaching changes, should also apply to the military courts.

They also plan to turn to the Supreme Court, where they will present several cases that were tried in military courts, which – the activists argue – handed down sentences that run counter to the constitution.

The 1933 military justice code says the special courts have jurisdiction when crimes against military discipline – a category that according to judges ranges from insubordination to rape – are committed by serving armed forces personnel when they are on duty.

But if the offence is committed in complicity with civilians, the military personnel in question are automatically referred to the ordinary courts.

Between 2006 and 2008, the complaints from civilians received by the government National Human Rights Commission, referring to illegal searches, arbitrary arrests, torture, rape and other abuses by the military, skyrocketed from 182 to 1,230 a year.

There are currently more than 30,000 troops deployed around the country to fight drug trafficking – the largest number assigned to that task since the mid-1990s, when the armed forces first began to get involved in policing activities.

A PRODH report published in January notes that in the last two years, an average of less than one out of 10 soldiers accused of committing crimes against civilians were brought before the military courts. No action was taken against the rest.

The report, "Supreme commander? The absence of civilian control over the armed forces at the start of Felipe Calderón’s six-year term", states that 28 people died between 2006 and 2008 as a result of "alleged human rights violations committed by military personnel."

The incidents documented by Mexican NGOs, in which military prosecutors assumed competence over cases involving human rights abuses, showed that victims have absolutely no access to justice, the report says.

The military justice code allows any crime committed by members of the military, including human rights violations, to be tried by the military courts, instead of just breaches of military discipline.

The judges, prosecutors and prisons making up the controversial 76-year-old military justice system respond to the Defence Ministry and, ultimately, to the president.

The system provides for sentences that are much more lax than those applied by the civilian courts.

The groups involved in the effort to challenge the system are PRODH, the Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Human Rights Centre, the Tlachinollan Human Rights Centre, the Centre for Justice and International Law, the Fray Francisco de Vitoria Human Rights Centre, the Mexican Commission for the Defence and Promotion of Human Rights, Fundar, and the All Rights for All Network.

In a Mar. 20 hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the eight groups demanded that it ask the Mexican state to carry out urgent reforms of the military justice code, to keep it from being applied in cases involving human rights abuses.

"What we are asking is that the Commission at least express its concern over the existence of military justice in Mexico and state that it will be actively watching for legislative changes on the matter," said Aguirre.

The groups are pushing for specific changes to the military code, because they see it as very difficult under the present circumstances to marshal political support for reforms of article 13 of the constitution, which stipulates the existence of military courts for breaches of military discipline.

The immediate goal is to introduce in the military code articles that clearly state that any human rights crime must fall under the jurisdiction of the ordinary courts.

Another aim is to clearly define the concept of breaches of military discipline. The activists say the category should cover crimes that can only be committed by military personnel in the line of duty, such as treason, conspiracy, espionage, desertion or disobedience, but not rape, murder or theft.

While they are working on that front – in which legislators have also presented (so far unsuccessful) initiatives to reform the military code – the human rights groups are also drafting requests for the Supreme Court to examine the constitutionality of several military court rulings.

The objective is to get the Supreme Court to issue recommendations for changes to the law.

The 2008-2012 human rights programme issued by the Calderón administration last August instructs the ministries of defence and the navy to carry out reforms to bring military justice into line with the international human rights conventions signed by the Mexican state.

It also instructs the ministries of defence, navy, interior and security to establish directives on the legitimate use of force with full respect for human rights.

At the Mar. 20 hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the representative of the Mexican state, Anibal Trujillo, said the military justice system would be modified as part of the reforms of the Mexican legal system put into effect last year.

In February, official delegates from Mexico who presented the universal periodic review at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva also promised that the military justice system would be reviewed.

"The military courts do not live up to international standards, but we don’t know when they will be reformed, because neither the government nor the legislators have shown real interest in discussing the issue. For now, the only thing we have are promises," said PRODH’s Aguirre.