Mexican government officially responds to "criminal indictment" of Felipe Calderón

By Lic. Edward V. Byrne View Edward V. Byrne's profile
The government of Mexican president Felipe Calderón has officially responded to yesterday's filing of a complaint against him with the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands. That complaint asks that Calderón be indicted for waging war against Mexico's drug cartels, and claims that he and his adjutants have committed the equivalent of "war crimes" during the course thereof. The complaint is the brainchild of Mexican professor John Ackerman, a U.S. educated researcher at UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico), and other "intellectuals." Ackerman is a frequent media commentator and op-ed writer, and is well known for his vitriolic comments about the Calderón government.


The Mexican Chancery, or Foreign Affairs Office (the equivalent of the U.S. Department of State) filed the government’s first legal response, which says that every one of Calderon’s actions against the drug cartels is in strict accord with and based upon Mexican law. The Chancery says that the government’s sole strategy is to destroy the cartels and avoid further violence in the country.
"The International Court is justified in taking action against a State only if the State is incapable of, or refuses to, suppress lawlessness and thereby protect its citizenry," the Chancery will argue before The Hague tribunal. "In our country, society is not a victim of an authoritarian government, or of systematic abuses carried out by the armed forces. The Mexican State acts in accordance with and fully conforms to the law."
The complaint will be officially presented to the International Court on November 25. In addition to Calderón, several high ranking members of the Mexican government are also named as respondents, including cabinet ministers and military officers. The legal papers allege that Calderon’s offensive against narcotics traffickers has caused more deaths than U.S. military operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan combined, and that Mexican civilians have been tortured, raped and in some cases murdered by members of the armed forces.
According to press accounts... Read more at Mexico and Gulf Region Reporter Blog