Mexico moves to stop death penalty in army justice code

Category: World News

Date Added: 1 April 2004

MEXICO CITY Mexico quietly moved to eliminate the death penalty from its military justice code, hours before the International Court of Justice ruled yesterday that the US violated the rights of 52 Mexicans on death row in US jails.

Mexico has long opposed the death penalty. The World Court case was Mexican President Vicente Fox's way of formally protesting against US death sentences.

Not implemented for decades, the existence of Mexico's death penalty as a punishment for military personnel represented a potential embarrassment for Mexico in its legal challenge against the US.

While President Fox launched a broad criminal justice reform package on Monday, Tuesday's proposal to substitute the military death penalty with 30- to 60-year jail sentences was not even announced by the president's office. The proposal was listed in a one-sentence entry in the "received bills" section of the Mexican senate daily gazette.

An unofficial version of the bill sent by the presidential press office noted the purpose was to eliminate the last vestige of the death penalty in Mexico. The senate agreed to turn the measure over to its defence committee for study and debate.

The death penalty has not been applied in Mexico's army since 1961. It is theoretically reserved for treason or serious dereliction of duty. The proposal came hours before the World Court, the United Nations' highest judiciary, ordered the US to review the cases of 52 Mexicans on death row.

The case relates to the 1963 Vienna Convention, which guarantees people accused of a serious crime while in a foreign country the right to contact their own government for help and to be informed of that right by arresting authorities. Mexico says US police did not notify Mexican citizens of their right to consular assistance, and it wants their convictions overturned.

Even those who support Mexico's challenge acknowledge the World Court case increases pressure on Mexico to clean up its own torture and corruption-plagued justice system."How can President Fox insist on justice for Mexican citizens in US prisons when he is ignoring a case in Mexico he could easily fix?" said Laurie Freeman, Mexico representative for the Washington Office on Latin America, a US think tank. Freeman was referring to Alfonso Martin del Campo, an American who holds dual US and Mexican citizenship and who was sentenced in Mexico to 50 years in prison for the murder of his sister and brother-inlaw, with no physical evidence presented against him. Sapa-AFP

"His case is a textbook example of the flaws in Mexico's justice system," Freeman said. Del Campo said he signed a confession to the murders after being stripped, beaten and

tortured by police.

In December, several members of the US Congress sent Fox a letter urging him to "set an example for the United States by freeing Alfonso Martin del Campo Dodd, and in doing so demonstrate your commitment to rectifying the legal injustices suffered by US and Mexican citizens imprisoned on both sides of our shared border."

Such tales are not uncommon in Mexico, where 646 Americans sit in jail on federal charges. Fox acknowledged Monday that the Mexican system suffers from "profound structural faults," and proposed substituting oral, public trials for written judgments, clearly establishing the presumption of innocence in the constitution, and reorganizing national police forces.