Human Rights Watch April 5 denounced the ongoing impunity for perpetrators of rights violations during the "dirty war" against leftists in Mexico of the 1960s and '70s. HRW said the results obtained by the special prosecutor's office on the repression, created under President Vicente Fox and declared over when his term ended last year, were "deeply disappointing." The statement said that impunity continues for those responsible for more than 600 disappearances, as well as the student massacres of Oct. 2, 1968 and June 10, 1971.

"The special prosecutor's office may be gone, but the need to address the legacy of past abuses remains," said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director for HRW. "Mexico must still find a way to meet its obligation to investigate and prosecute these cases." He pointed out that while other Latin American countries—including Argentina, Chile and Uruguay—have made significant advances in bringing to trial those accused of atrocities in the "dirty war" era, "Mexico remains unwilling to do so."

The denunciation by HRW came just prior to a visit to Mexico by a mission of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, with the aim of establishing contact with the new federal authorities of President Felipe Calderón. (El Universal, April 6)

The Inter-American Commission delegation would especially focus on the ongoing rights crisis in the southern state of Oaxaca.

See our last posts on Mexico, the human rights crisis and the dirty war.