The nation´s top human rights official Wednesday blasted government authorities who fail to act on National Human Rights Commission recommendations, accusing some of rejecting the findings out of hand without even reading them."It´s deplorable for an authority to be remiss in accepting a recommendation," said José Luis Soberanes, president of the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), as he delivered the 2006 commission report to a joint committee of Congress. "Not only does it send the wrong message about the value of human rights, it also foments impunity among public servants."
Soberanes was speaking in the same Chamber of Deputies building where 24 hours earlier federal Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora had defended his rejection of CNDH recommendations last year when he headed the Public Security Secretariat (SSP).
CNDH investigations found evidence of excessive force and abuse by the SSP-controlled Federal Preventive Police while arresting protesters in the State of Mexico town of San Salvador Atenco and in Oaxaca, as well as breaking up a strike at the Sicartsa mine in Lázaro Cárdenas, Michoacán. Medina Mora refused to investigate the conduct of his officers, insisting then - and repeating Tuesday- that CNDH findings were based on "interpretation" rather than "hard facts."
Soberanes clearly had Medina Mora in mind when he made his comments Wednesday. He said that in 2006 the SSP under Medina Mora received the most recommendations (eight) and, along with the Querétaro state government and the Navy Secretariat, rejected the most.
He also suggested that Medina Mora has a conflict of interest as attorney general, given that his office is investigating the Atenco, Oaxaca and Lázaro Cárdenas operations that he oversaw.
"Because he didn´t accept our recommendation, some illegal acts are still unpunished," Soberanes said. "The way I see it, this is a serious problem that Congress has to act on."
The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the third force in Congress, did act Wednesday.
PRI Sen. Mario López Valdez said he has presented legislation that will require authorities to accept CNDH recommendations, or appear before Congress to explain their reasons for refusing to do so.
In another action, the joint committee urged President Calderón to make "a public condemnation of the wave of attacks on local, national and international communications media."
