Precipitous decline in complaints against Mexican troops in 2013, Human Rights Commission reports

Guadalajara -
Mexico's National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) reports that complaints against armed forces personnel for alleged mistreatment of civilians dropped 50% in the year about to end.

Foreign monitors, particularly Human Rights Watch, have repeatedly criticized the Mexican army for claimed human rights violations during the country's arduous drug war, launched seven years ago this week by former president Felipe Calderón Hinojosa. The evidence the organization has produced has been anemic in the extreme, however. Hype always present in Mexico's drug war, especially when HRW comes to town.

CNDH president Raúl Plascencia Villanueva called the reduction in complaints "notable" and praised that nation's top military brass.

In August 2012 Mexico's Supreme Judicial Court stripped military courts of criminal jurisdiction in offenses committed against civilian victims, to eliminate alleged bias in favor of accused personnel. In most countries, including the United States, troops charged with assaulting noncombatants while in the operational theater must be tried by courts martial, not before ordinary civilian criminal tribunals.

Feb. 1 - HRW's latest condemnation of Mexican drug war reveals how little it understands conflict
Apr. 11 - Mexico's troublesome policías comunitarias will prompt some to argue Failed State theories
Dec. 2 - Use of military forces in Mexican drug war increases under president Enrique Peña Nieto
Dec. 5 - U.N. selects Mexico's Supreme Court for prestigious Defense of Human Rights Award

Dec. 16, 2011 - Mexico apologizes for rape of 17 year old - after a decade of litigation seeking dignity

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