NAME OF MECHANISM

Fiscal’a Especial para movimientos sociales y pol’ticos del pasado - the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Past Social and Political Movements

YEARS OF OPERATION

November 27, 2001 - April 2006

MANDATE AND OPERATIONS

Mandate:  Established through a special decree by President Vincente Fox to investigate and prosecute abuses committed directly or indirectly by state security forces against individuals related to social or political movements of the past.

Structure:  Special Prosecutor and 15 prosecutors, divided into three sections:

1. Section addressing forced disappearances investigated by CNDH and other similar cases from the “dirty war”

2. Section examining the 1968 and 1971 massacres of student prostestors.

3. Section responsible for abuses not covered by other sections (with no time limit given)

It also includes a documentation center responsible for collecting relevant information;  and a 2 person team to develop psychological support to victims and their families.

The executive order establishing the Special Prosecutor’s Office also instructed the attorney general to establish a “Support Committee,” made up of “citizens of public standing and experience in the judicial branch or in the promotion of human rights,” that would provide the special prosecutor with assistance in the investigations, and instructed the interior minister to establish an “interdisciplinary committee” to develop a proposal for providing reparations to the victims of abuses. [HRW]

FINAL REPORT

The report, known as the White Book, was presented to the Mexican Government in February 2006, but has never been officially made public.

However, an unedited draft was leaked by the authors, who were angry at being dismissed without eight months pay and worried that the report would be watered down before it was released. This draft was not endorsed by the Government or the Special Prosecutor, Ignacio Carillo Prieto, who claimed that the report was biased and laid too much at the door of the military forces.

The draft named military officers and units involved in the destruction of whole villages, and listed more than 500 missing persons.

The Government stated that the report, once edited so as to be more accurate, would be released to the public, and a date was set. However this has been and gone, and the report still remains unpublished.

LATEST UPDATE

January 2008: On 12 July 2007, the Mexican Federal Tribunal ruled that, although the Corpus Christi Massacre did constitute genocide, President Luis Echeverria was not guilty of the charge of genocide since there was insufficient evidence linking him to the preparation and execution of the massacre. Echeverria, along with some other high-level officials, was arrested on 19 February 2002.

Mexico closed the special prosecutor's office in April 2006. The crimes detailed in the draft report were committed during the administrations of Presidents Diaz Ordaz (1964-1970), Echeverría (1970-1976) and López Portillo (1976-1982).

There have subsequently been calls made by some of the authors and other human rights organisations for the government to complete the investigations started by the Fiscalia. [National Security Archive, 2006]