Weekly Report - 18 May 2004

For years, the combination of the long-ruling Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) and the Mexican military kept a tight lid on the `dirty war' that took place between the late 1960s and the early 1980s. Last year, the first prosecutions were launched against officials accused of involvement in `disappearances' during that period. Now the defence minister, General Clemente Vega, wants the lid put back on again for the sake of `national reconciliation'.