Pubdate: Tue, 22 Sep 2009
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Page: A13
Copyright: 2009 Los Angeles Times
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/bc7El3Yo
Website: http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: Ken Ellingwood, Reporting from Mexico City
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Mexico
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Felipe+Calderon
Bookmark: http://mapinc.org/topic/Juarez

MEXICO NOMINEE UNDER FIRE

Critics Fault Attorney General Pick for Not Solving Juarez Killings

President Felipe Calderon's pick for attorney general faced 
questioning in Congress on Monday amid criticism by human rights 
groups that he failed as a state prosecutor to solve the killings of 
hundreds of women in Ciudad Juarez in the 1990s.

Calderon has named Arturo Chavez Chavez to be the nation's top law 
enforcement officer at a moment when the government is locked in a 
bloody war against drug-trafficking cartels and the public's 
confidence in the justice system is low.

Chavez, 49, who belongs to Calderon's conservative National Action 
Party, or PAN, would take over for Eduardo Medina Mora, who resigned 
this month as part of a Cabinet shake-up. Medina Mora had come under 
attack for what political foes called the faltering drug war.

Chavez, a private attorney and onetime federal prosecutor, testified 
Monday before the Senate's 13-member justice committee, which will 
recommend whether he should be confirmed by the full Senate.

He said he focused his agency's efforts on solving the Juarez 
killings and that suspects responsible for 32 of the deaths were 
convicted during his tenure. But he also acknowledged failures by 
agents under his supervision.

The PAN holds a numerical advantage in the 128-seat Senate, but it 
lacks an outright majority. Chavez needs votes from the main 
opposition force, the Institutional Revolutionary Party, to win 
confirmation, but it is unclear whether he'll get them. Members of 
the leftist Democratic Revolution Party are expected to vote against him.

Rights advocates have lobbied the Senate to reject Chavez, taking aim 
at his tenure as attorney general in the northern state of Chihuahua, 
where more than 350 women have been killed in the border city of 
Ciudad Juarez since 1993.

Critics say Chavez, who held the prosecutor's job from 1996 to 1998, 
mishandled investigations. Despite some arrests, the grisly slayings 
remain largely unsolved. Advocates also accused Chihuahuan 
authorities of torturing suspects and manufacturing evidence.

A 1998 report by the National Human Rights Commission cited Chavez in 
noting failings in the state's handling of the cases, which former 
President Vicente Fox later put under the supervision of federal authorities.

Last week, demonstrators painted black crosses on the walls of the 
federal attorney general's office in Ciudad Juarez to protest 
Chavez's nomination.

Calderon has stuck by Chavez, an unknown in national politics, saying 
he had a good record in Chihuahua and would be a successful attorney general.

Interior Minister Fernando Gomez Mont told reporters that Chavez had 
improved the state prosecutor's office during his term. "He is a man 
respectful of the law, a calm man, a brave man," Gomez Mont said.

Mexico's attorney general plays a key role in the drug war, which was 
launched by Calderon shortly after he took office in December 2006. 
Government forces have made high-profile arrests and seized large 
amounts of drugs, guns and money. But critics say that effort has 
done little to corral the violent trafficking groups, which smuggle 
billions of dollars' worth of drugs into the U.S.

More than 13,000 people have died in drug-related violence in Mexico 
since 2006, largely the result of battles between rival gangs over 
coveted smuggling routes and drug sales. The most violent spot is 
Ciudad Juarez. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake