Mexicans try to face up to dirty war legacy

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -- Mexicans are belatedly trying to come to terms with a dark chapter in their recent history -- the bloody repression of left-wing guerrillas -- but the task may be more than the country's leaders can bear.

While Mexico was trumpeting itself in the 1970s and early 1980s as a safe haven for refugees fleeing brutal dictatorships in Chile and Argentina, the Mexican government was secretly conducting its own "dirty war" against guerrilla movements.

Officials now have to decide whether to extradite to Spain an alleged Argentine torturer sitting in a Mexican jail, while at the same time resisting probes into human rights abuses during Mexico's own counter-insurgency fight.

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"I have always said that the Mexican government is one of the most hypocritical in the world," said Rosario Ibarra, whose 21-year-old son vanished without trace in 1975.

Ibarra's son was accused of being involved in a guerrilla movement called the September 23 league, said Ibarra.

Ibarra petitioned Luis Echeverria, Mexico's president from 1970 to 1976, 39 times about her son's fate.

"He knew everything but all he would say was 'you poor mother.' It was terrible," she said.

Two recent events have cast a spotlight on a murky episode in the country's past in which hundreds were killed or disappeared without a trace as a feared army unit called the "white brigade" conducted search-and-destroy missions throughout the country.

Last month the Argentine director of a Mexican car registration programme, Ricardo Miguel Cavallo, was arrested after he was exposed as a former army officer wanted for dirty war atrocities under Argentina's 1976-83 military dictatorship.

Mexico now has to decide whether to accept an extradition request from Spain's crusading judge Baltazar Garzon, who led the unsuccessful campaign to try former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.

Many Argentines sought refuge in Mexico from the dictatorship and were welcomed by a sympathetic government.

Mexico's tradition as a safe haven for political fugitives was cemented in the 1930s when president Lazaro Cardenas took in thousands of refugees from the Spanish Civil War.

Only days after Cavallo's detention, Mexicans received an abrupt reminder of the excesses of their own little-publicized dirty war and of the ambiguous stance of the country's authorities over the issue .

Two Mexican army generals, Arturo Acosta Chaparro and Humberto Francisco Quiros, were arrested on charges of drugs trafficking last month.

No mention was made on the charge sheet of the role of both men in the brutal suppression of Mexican guerrilla movements more than 20 years ago but their arrest prompted painful memories for relatives of those who disappeared.

If Mexico decides to extradite Cavallo to Spain to stand trial for his alleged crimes, it could suggest the country is taking a tougher line with foreigners accused of human rights abuses than it is prepared to take with its own military.

President-elect Vicente Fox, who ends 71 years of rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) when he takes office December 1, has avoided reference to the dirty war although he has called for a truth commission to probe the murkier aspects of Mexico's past.

"I don't think Fox is remotely interested in this subject," said Carlos Montemayor, author of a novel about Mexico's guerrilla war. "It would be absurd for him to meddle in conflicts which have nothing to do with him."

A public airing of the grievances of those who lost friends and relatives in the dirty may be salutary even if nobody is brought to justice.

"Talking about this is a form of justice. We need to keep alive the memory of this dark page of our history," said Hector Aguilar Camin, a novelist and historian.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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