Mexican Rights Report Sent To Congress

The Obama administration has sent to Congress a favorable report on Mexico's human rights record that could allow the release of $100 million in U.S. aid to help the country fight drug traffickers.

The State Department said Monday the report was forwarded to Capitol Hill on Aug. 13 after a delay caused by the objections of a Democratic senator who had blocked its release, saying it was premature to give Mexico a passing grade on human rights concerns.

"The Mexican government has embarked on a major effort to reform and overhaul its justice system _ including major reforms affecting police, prosecutors and the way the legal system functions," said Laura Tischler, a department spokesman, describing the report's contents. "This reform process is ongoing."

In early August, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., stopped the release of the report on the Merida Initiative, a $1.4 billion, three-year aid package. Because Congress must withhold some of the funding unless the State Department reports that Mexico is not violating human rights in the drug war, the move held up $100 million in assistance.

Administration officials said the department had wanted to send the report to Congress before President Barack Obama traveled to Mexico earlier this month for a summit with Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

But aides to Leahy, chairman of the Senate Appropriations foreign operations subcommittee, cited reports of torture and forced disappearances in rejecting the report.

Since 2006, more than 2,220 complaints of human rights abuses such as disappearances, killings and torture have been lodged against the Mexican military with the Mexican National Commission for Human Rights, according to Amnesty International.

Leahy's office on Monday had no immediate comment on the release of the report and it was not clear whether the senator's objections had been addressed.

Tischler said the law does not require the secretary of state "to sign a certification" that Mexico is respecting human rights. Rather, it requires that the State Department report that "the government of Mexico is continuing to take certain steps to promote and protect human rights and advance the rule of law, as they relate to security forces in Mexico," she said.

She added that congressional appropriations committees will review the report.

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