U.N.: Dangerous to use Mexico army against drug gangs

REUTERS
10:32 a.m. February 5, 2008

MEXICO CITY – Mexico risks committing more rights abuses if it continues the “dangerous” policy of using its military to fight brutal drug gangs, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said Tuesday.

“I understand there are those who say that at times you have to turn to a more powerful force such as the army, but it seems to me that in the long term it is frankly dangerous,” Louise Arbour told television network Televisa during a visit to Mexico.

“The army should not be doing the job of the police,” she added.

President Felipe Calderón has mobilized some 25,000 Mexican troops since taking office in December 2006 to try to crush powerful drug cartels that are warring over lucrative smuggling routes to the United States.

Calderón has won praise at home and in Washington for using the military, as Mexico's corrupt police forces side with drug gangs, especially in states bordering the United States.

But Calderón has faced criticism from rights groups such as Amnesty International. Mexico's Human Rights Commission also says heavy-handed soldiers have committed abuses. A Mexican court last year sentenced at least four soldiers to up to 40 years in prison for rape in 2006.