Death penalty gaining support among Mexicans (but not for countrymen in U.S.)

Houston Chronicle ^ | August 8, 2004 | IOAN GRILLO

[sarcasm]

MEXICO CITY - When some people in Mexico's crime-ridden capital were asked what should be done with kidnappers and rapists, they replied in no uncertain terms.

"Why waste money keeping the rats in prison? Just hang them up and let them die slowly," said Francisco Ramirez, 37, a stocky salesman hawking cable TV packages in a downtown shopping mall.

"Dispose of them," said taxi driver Rafael Galvan, 41, as he cruised past a bustling marketplace. "Garbage like them pollutes the environment."

Although Mexicans express opposition to the execution of their countrymen in the United States, many are supporting the notion of applying the death penalty in Mexico, which has been plagued by a decade-long crime wave.

Under current Mexican law, only military tribunals can hand out death sentences, and then only in cases of treason, premeditated murder and arson. In practice, though, no prisoner has been executed here in nearly five decades.

Mexico's influential Roman Catholic Church and politicians from all parties have long spoken out against the death penalty.

But a recent survey by the market research company Parametria suggested that attitudes among the general public have shifted. The poll found that 63 percent of Mexicans now believe that rapists should be executed, and 55 percent think convicted killers should be put to death. Several other surveys reported similar attitudes.

Some politicians and high-ranking officials have joined the chorus calling for capital punishment. Federal Attorney General Rafael Macedo de la Concha and Public Safety Secretary Alejandro Gertz Manero recently urged Congress to study the issue.

The increasing support for the death penalty follows a surge in public outrage over crime. In June, an estimated 250,000 people marched through downtown Mexico City to protest the authorities' failure to control lawlessness. Some demonstrators held banners demanding that criminals be put to death.

A crime wave has engulfed Mexico since a 1995 economic recession threw millions of people out of work.

Many now feel threatened by the seemingly high number of kidnappings, murders and rapes in urban areas. Just last week, Mexico City authorities found the body of an abducted physician who had been honored for her work in rehabilitative medicine.

Across Mexico, 3,000 people were kidnapped for ransom last year, according to Kroll Inc., a New York-based security company.

"When I was young, it was safe to walk streets. Now, I won't let my children go out alone at night," said Irma Sanchez, 42, a maid. "If the criminals won't stop, I say we have to kill them."

Many analysts and politicians, however, doubt that the Congress will overhaul the nation's capital punishment laws any time soon.

Pollster Maria de las Heras said many people are displaying knee-jerk reactions to crime when they talk about putting criminals to death.

"People are angry and desperate," she said, "so when you ask them if kidnappers should be killed, they say, 'Yes.'

"But as soon as the first convict is taken to the electric chair and the first crying mother is shown on television, they will change their minds," she said. "Mexicans do not like violence."

Other analysts say that with the country's justice system widely distrusted, any ruling that condemns a prisoner would provoke a public outcry.

"While there are still reports of torture and forced confessions, it would be crazy for Mexican judges to hand out the irrevocable death penalty," said Rep. Eliana Garcia of the center-left Democratic Revolution Party.

Garcia, like many on the Mexican left, blames economic conditions for the crime wave. More than half of Mexico's 104 million people live below the poverty line, existing on less than $10 a day, according to the World Bank.

Opposition to the death penalty here also runs strong through the ranks of conservative politicians.

President Vicente Fox, a devout Roman Catholic, has expressed fervent opposition to capital punishment. In May, he sent Congress a bill that would prevent military tribunals from sentencing defendants to death.

Fox, of the right-of-center National Action Party, has also been outspoken in championing the cause of Mexicans on death row in the United States.

In August 2002, the Mexican leader canceled a visit to President Bush's Crawford ranch after the Texas state government refused to spare the life of Mexican citizen Javier Suarez Medina. Suarez Medina was subsequently executed for the 1988 killing of a Dallas undercover police officer.

After Suarez Medina was put to death, his body was returned to Piedras Negras, Mexico, where more than 3,000 people attended his funeral.

However, pollster de las Heras said the popular opposition to the killing of Mexicans in the United States is fueled by nationalism rather than opposition to the death penalty. Some of the same people who condemn executions north of the border clamor for the death penalty here, she said.

"When the victims are brought back from the United States, they are given a national hero's welcome," de las Heras said of the condemned convicts. "Mexicans cannot stand to see the gringos execute one of their countrymen."

[GeronL]

They're only for death to Mexicans in Mexico....

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

"Although Mexicans express opposition to the execution of their countrymen in the United States, many are supporting the notion of applying the death penalty in Mexico..."

Oh, we are sub-citizens? Execute rapists and kidnappers, but if you kill a US citizen, just high-five him? Knee-jerk reaction: landmines on the Mexican border, and sea mines on its shores. I'm fed up with these clowns, if that is what they really think. If some idiot decides to walk into a clearly marked landmine, he's as loony as some dodo who runs into a busy freeway. Laws to protect lunatics? Or "Nations Without Borders?"