MEXICOA pattern of murders with apparent official complicity has developed during the past decade in two states of southeastern Mexico with large Indian populations Amnesty International reported today.
The London-based human rights group said in a report that most of the killings along with dozens of unsolved disappearances are lined to longstanding conflicts over land. It said a significant number of victims were members of peasant organizations that oppose the torture of prisoners sin “common use” in the two southeastern states Oaxaca and Chiapas as well as other parts of the country.
A response by the Mexican government published with the report acknowledged that there had been “regrettable lapses in the administration of justice” but said that when complaints of abuses are presented to the authorities through the correct channels the perpetrators of the abuses are prosecuted.
The government’s response also Criticized Amnesty and other human rights groups for presenting queries that “are often lacking in rigor.” It said such groups often present “long indiscriminate lists of names of people who allegedly have disappeared “without any precise facts or basic information about the person or the place and time of the supposed disappearance.”
Article extracted from this publication >> May 23, 1986
