By Mark O’Brien
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

MEXICO CITY, Mexico — Authorities discovered eight dead bodies dumped along the streets of a Mexico City suburb on Thursday.

A police spokesperson said found the bodies in Ecatepec, a poor suburb north of the capital city.  Six of the bodies—five men and one woman—appeared to have been severely beaten.

“They were all naked and showed signs of torture,” police spokesperson said.  “It also appeared their throats had been cut.”

The other two bodies, both men between the ages of 18 and 22, died from gunshot wounds on another street.  So far, police have not identified the bodies or any suspects in what police called two separate crimes.

“Both incidents are being investigated by the homicide prosecutor’s office, which immediately assigned personnel to conduct the corresponding investigation,” the Mexico state Attorney General’s Office said, according to Global Post.

Fox News Latino reported that investigators believe the killings were linked to organized crime because of the way the victims were murdered.  The news organization quoted city officials as saying no messages were left with the bodies.

Fox News Latino also quoted city officials as saying two of the bodies had ropes around their necks, and all of them had “tattoos on different parts of their bodies.”

Since Mexico began cracking down on drug cartels six years ago, more than 60,000 people have died in violence linked to drug trafficking.  The Associated Press reported that Mexico City had been predominantly free of that violence, although it was slowly making its way there.

In September, Mexico deployed troops to Nezahualcoyotl, an eastern suburb, when fighting between two drug cartels spilled into the streets.

Reuters reported that the number of drug war deaths kept by the Mexican newspaper Reforma “is on course to suffer its heaviest death toll this year since [President Felipe] Calderon launched his offensive, at a time when the national count has erased somewhat.”

Ecatepec is home to both incoming President Enrique Pena Nieto and incoming State of Mexico Governor Eruviel Avila.  Both are members of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which governed Mexico between 1929 and 2000.  As Reuters reported, “[c]ritics accused the PRI of turning a blind eye to the drug trade while in power.”

But Nieto, who will be sworn in this December, has pledged to continue the national crackdown on organized crime.  Until last year, he governed the State of Mexico, where both Nezahualcoyotl and Ecatepec are located.

For further information, please see:

Global Post — Mexico Violence: 8 Bullet-Ridden Bodies Found on Outskirts of Mexico City — 26 October 2012

Fox News Latino — Police Find 6 Bodies in Central Mexico — 25 October 2012

Reuters — Eight Bodies Found Dumped in Mexico City Suburb — 25 October 2012

Seattlepi.com — 8 Bodies Found on Outskirts of Mexico’s Capital — 25 October 2012

By Mark O’Brien
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

WASHINGTON, United States — Russia’s foreign ministry denounced the United States this week for what it called “serious problems” in the U.S. human rights record.

Presenting their own report on human rights to foreign nations, Russian leaders condemned what they called the American double standards on human rights.  Specifically, they criticized harsh conditions in prisons, use of the death penalty, mistreatment of adopted children, and the United States’ failure to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay.

“Washington’s attempts to become the world’s tutor on democracy are baseless,” said Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov during a hearing by the Duma International Affairs Committee.

The report, which was not actually released after being presented on Monday, was the second paper from the Russian Foreign Ministry on human rights abroad.  The first was released in December, not long after a report from the U.S. State Department criticized Russia.

Among the criticisms outlined in the report were racial profiling, police brutality, Internet censorship and rising right-wing extremism.  It also condemned the United States for “extra-judicial” killings overseas by drones, its involvement in Afghanistan, CIA “renditions,” and failing to sign and ratify more than a dozen international treaties and conventions on human rights going back 80 years.

Konstantin Dolgov, who authored the new Russian report, said the purpose was to expand the dialogue of human rights abuses worldwide by showing no country is perfect.

“Nobody likes to be hectored,” he said.  “We are a young democracy, we have our problems, but we also have serious achievement that we hope won’t be overlooked.”

Dolgov and other authors based the report largely on the work of American academic and non-government sources.  They claimed the data shows that U.S. criticisms of other countries are often less than objective, ignorant of cultural significance, and sometimes hypocritical.

“They criticize and judge everyone except themselves,” Dolgov said.  “We think the U.S. should not try to monopolize the role of leader, teacher, and mentor in the field of human rights.  If they want to do this, they should be aware that they are also being monitored.”

The official U.S. response to the Russian report was “Bring it on,” according to the Christian Science Monitor.  The news organization quoted State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland as saying that would be the response from any agency, whether American or international.

“[The United States] is an open book, and we have plenty of non-governmental organizations of our own that make assessments about our human rights and that represent to the government what they think needs to be done,” Nuland said.

For further information, please see:

The Christian Science Monitor — Russian Report Criticizes US on Human Rights, US responds ‘Bring It On’ — 24 October 2012

Global Research — Russia Denounces US Human Rights Record — 23 October 2012

The Chicago Tribune — Russia Condemns United States for Human Rights Record — 22 October 2012

The Moscow Times — Foreign Ministry Slams U.S. on Human Rights — 22 October 2012

By Mark O’Brien
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

BOSTON, Massachusetts — Civil rights groups criticized the Boston Police Department this week for secret surveillance of activists who are not criminal suspects.

On Tuesday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts and the National Lawyers Guild of Massachusetts called on the department to stop illegally spying on anti-war groups that have no affiliation with crime or terror.

“This kind of monitoring of political groups is just the kind of subtle interference that threatens to chill legitimate constitutionally protected speech,” the groups said in a letter to Police Commissioner Edward Davis.  “When police surveillance penetrates the internal workings of peaceful organizations, some Bostonians will be less likely to exercise those fundamental rights.”

By Wednesday, the police department issued a statement in response, saying that routine monitoring is not their practice.  But the department admitted that a computer glitch saved some intelligence reports unrelated to crime for longer than they should have been.

“Boston residents should confidently participate in any lawful, peaceful protest or demonstration knowing the Boston Police Department is not monitoring the events without specific information on suspected criminal activity,” the police statement read in part.

Police officials said the computer software problem was fixed last year, but not before 11 intelligence reports were saved for too long.

The civil rights groups sued the department last year.  They said that resulted in materials that showed police officials tracked and kept records on peaceful groups.

Now the groups are calling on Police Commissioner Edward Davis to create an independent auditing system to identify incoming surveillance reports on expressive activity, determine whether they are crime related, and purge anything unrelated to crime within three months.

But that might be too late for protesters named in the reports.  According to the Boston Globe, they were outraged but not surprised to learn that police documented their connections to protest groups.

“It’s appalling,” Susan Barney said in an interview with the Boston Globe.  She was a political activist listed in two reports.

“Money is being spent to harass, spy on, and surveil (sic) the public, instead of being used for education or housing for low-income communities,” she said.

“I don’t like being considered a homeland security threat,” Ridgely Fuller told the Boston Globe.  “I’m like this middle-aged suburban woman who just wants to speak out against injustice and war.”

The police intelligence reports detail how various Boston activist groups operate and who is involved.  Some even go in-depth about some groups’ views on politics and elections.

Civil rights groups said this violates federal regulations.

For further information, please see:

The Boston Globe — Boston Police Accused of Spying on Antiwar Groups — 18 October 2012

The Boston Herald — Civil Rights Groups Criticize Boston Police Department Surveillance — 18 October 2012

New England Cable News — Boston PD Accused of Spying on Anti-War Groups — 18 October 2012

WHDH-TV — Hank Investigates: Secret Police Files — 17 October 2012