At U.S. State Department, Mexican Military's Torture Still Above the Law

The Washington Post had an important exclusive on Wednesday: "Leahy Blocks Positive Report on Mexico's Rights Record."

William Booth and Steve Fainaru report:

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.

That the State Department was going to say Mexico was somehow meeting the human rights conditions is a disturbing development (See my previous "Why the U.S. should withhold 15% of Merida Initiative aid to Mexico" and "The Mexican Military's Torture"). This is sort of what the Bush Administration used to do with certifying Colombia's human rights progress once or twice a year (it became a non-news event after a while, perhaps understandably).

The Post article notes that in recent weeks several human rights groups had laid out the case that Mexico was not meeting the conditions. The State Department went ahead anyway. Did they really think that no one would stand up and object? (Leahy being the obvious suspect, but also even Dodd, Feingold, Kerry, etc).

The LAT follows up:

On Wednesday, State Department spokeswoman Sara Mangiaracina said the report was still in its draft stages but that it would be submitted to Congress shortly.

We'll be waiting.

In the meantime, here's what you can do:
Thank Leahy (202-224-4242).
Ask Kerry (foreign relations chair, 202-224-2742) and Dodd (chairs subcommittee covering Americas, 202-224-2823) to join Leahy and urge the Administration to issue an accurate assessment of Mexico's compliance with the human rights conditions.

If you have senators and any of them are Democrats, urge them to join Leahy. He is, I would imagine, facing a significant punishment from the White House for publicly shaming the Administration like this, and deserves and needs all the support we can give.