LCHR Letter Regarding Giuliani Plan
for Mexico City

LCHR has sent a detailed letter Mexico City's Public Security Secretary Marcelo Ebrard offering a response to a summary of recommendations that the Secretariat circulated recently. The recommendations come from a consulting team headed by former NY mayor Rudolph Giuliani. Giuliani was contracted by Mexico City's government for USD4.3 million (paid by a group of Mexican businessmen) to conduct a review of policing and criminal justice and make recommendations.

Text of the Letter in English
Texto de la Carta en Español

The letter seconds many of the recommendations, several of which LCHR had made previously to Mexico City officials in a letter last March (see letter to Secretary Ebrard re new Public Security Law) , but raises significant questions about others. INSyDE (Instituto Para la Seguridad y la Democracia, A.C.), a new Mexican NGO focusing on policing and criminal justice sent a similar letter under separate cover after consulting with LCHR.

Text of INSyDE's Letter in Spanish

Pushing for Due Process and Accountable Police

Urge Caution Before Importing “Zero Tolerance” Policing to Mexico

For decades, Mexican police have been poorly trained, ill equipped and badly led. Unable to stand up to organized crime, political bosses, or their own sometimes corrupt leaders, police forces have been notoriously inefficient at bringing culprits to justice. Without the means to do their job properly, and little incentive to change from a passive judiciary, Mexican police have frequently resorted to extreme and brutal means. The result has been an extreme lack of confidence in public institutions, from the police station to the courthouse.

“Mexicans do not trust their police either to protect them from harm or to solve crimes” - National Secretary of Public Security Alejandro Gertz Manero

Officials in the Fox administration admit that police frequently torture or otherwise use excessive force against suspects, compelling them to confess to crimes where no other evidence exists. The problem with Mexican police is a serious, multi-layered one of corruption, ineffectiveness, unaccountability and brutality. There are, however opportunities for change, as new administrations at all levels, and even the PRI begin to recognize that they need to seek new models for policing, or risk losing voter support.

Lawyers Committee's Approach to Reform in Mexico

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