The chief prosecutor's office, the PGR, has not only publicly disputed the right of federal commissioner Guadalupe Morfín to examine the dossiers of the murders, but has also been taken over a growing number of investigations, on the grounds that they involve federal crimes. Morfín, for her part, has praised the Chihuahua state government for its cooperation and announced that she will review 224 dossiers, not in a `prosecutorial' role (a reply to the PGR's objections) but with a view to drawing lessons from them that may lead to an improved preventive response. The commissioner has said that the moment she finds that she is not supported at cabinet level, she will resign. Apart from her, a special commission of the federal congress has been formed to follow the Juárez cases.
A team of six experts from the UN who recently delivered their analysis to the UN and the Mexican government for observations couldn't wait until its official release, and announced in early December, `Our opinion is that there has been an institutional collapse, that is, a failure of the judicial system in its entirety.' Mexico's human rights commission also publicly previewed its report on the Juárez killings, due for publication this month, saying that it would highlight the negligence manifest in the investigations. More can be expected.
DRUGS | Prosecutors to consider legalisation. State prosecutors meeting this month in Tamaulipas will be discussing an initiative on drug legalisation that has been receiving attention in the capital. Mexico city's security and prosecution cabinet has been pondering the pros and cons of gradually legalising the use of drugs, starting with controlled distribution in prisons and later moving on to other areas where narcomenudeo (small-scale trafficking) takes place.
The chief state prosecutor in the capital, Bernardo Bátiz, acknowledges that any changes in the attitude towards narcomenudeo would require amending the constitution, the penal code, and health legislation, but he believes the benefit of free supply would be a sharp lowering of street prices, which would neutralise the appeal of `pushing'. [The proposed changes would also clash with international antinarcotics convention, not to mention the opposition they would encounter from the US.]
Recent official figures show that the age of initiation into drug use in Mexico city has fallen to 11-12. There has also been a marked shift in the drugs of choice, with the numbers of adolescents using cocaine and heroin trebling between 1993 and 2000.
`DIRTY WAR' | Old habits die hard. In late November Mexicans received a nasty reminder of the days when dissidents were `disappeared' and secretly killed, often after torture. Horacio Barrientos, a man who had been testifying before the prosecutor investigating crimes committed during the `dirty war' period of the 1960s and 1970s, was found murdered, his body bearing signs of torture, by a roadside in Guerrero.
This happened just after the special prosecutor, Ignacio Carrillo, had issued the first arrest warrant arising from his investigations, against a former police commissioner from the state of Guerrero — where the notorious death squad known as the `Blood Brigade' operated.
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