Mexico's Rights Abuses

Chabat weighs in on recent rights abuses:

Since Calderón's government unleashed its offensive drug traffickers eleven days into his term, it has been repeated in official circles that what was sparked was a war in which drug traffickers use all types of weapons, as in any war. 

The argument for the government is that the battle isn't only for the streets with high-power weapons but also that drug traffickers have a media strategy through which they seek to delegitimize governmental action. And the truth is that there's a lot of truth to this argument. If not, how would you explain the paid ads in newspapers from the Family, the narco-posters in which the government is accused of favoring one cartel to the detriment of another, or the narco-protests in Monterrey against the participation of the army in that fight? In this strategy you could also include the violent executions of members of rival groups that seek to terrify their adversaries but also generate a climate of confusion among the population that eventually leads the government to change its drug-combating policies. 

This is a bit off-topic, but one way in which the Mexican government has failed in its media strategy is the musical chairs of primary public enemies. For a long time, the Zetas were the biggest threat to the government. Later, with Operation Clean-up and the assassination of Edgar Millán, it was the Beltrán Leyvas. At other times, it's been Chapo Guzmán. Presently, it's the Family. All of that undermines popular confidence in the government; why should I believe that the Family is such a big threat if in three months surely one of its competitors will be more of a menace, according to official sources? A more consistent rhetorical approach would be a helpful upgrade for the next president. 

Back to Chabat: 

Against this backdrop, a couple of days ago the Secretary of Defense launched a worrying accusation that criminals used the National Commission on Human Rights to malign the fight against drug trafficking through presenting baseless complaints of violation of human rights. The accusation from the Army comes in a context of rising criticism of human rights abuses committed by Mexican security agencies in its combat against drug traffickers by organizations like Human Rights Watch and from the announcement by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that a report on the performance of the Mexican government on this issue is forthcoming. 

It's likely that, in effect, drug traffickers are using the issue of human rights to undermine the legitimacy of the anti-drug strategy of the Mexican government. Nevertheless, believing that all the complaints on the issue are a product of media war between the drug traffickers and the government is akin to not seeing the forest for the trees. 

Thinking that drug traffickers are capable of manipulation not only the CNDH but also international NGOs and even the US State Department sounds incredible. There is a real human rights problem that must be addressed with all the resources of the Mexican state.