Associated Press
Nov. 23, 2003 12:00 AM
MEXICO CITY - The mother of a soldier sentenced to death for killing a superior
officer has asked Mexico's president to intervene in a case with countercharges
of sexual harassment that has caught the attention of human rights groups around
the globe.
President Vicente Fox has lobbied forcefully to protect the rights of Mexicans
sentenced to death in the United States. But intervening in the court-martial
of sub-Lt. Heron Varela, 24, this month for shooting to death a Mexican army
colonel in a crowded military dining hall would carry different consequence
at home and abroad, legal experts say.
"The military has a lot of power and is reluctant to have their competency
questioned," said Miguel Carbonell, a researcher at the Institute for Judicial
Investigations at the Autonomous University of Mexico. "Choosing a stance
will not be easy for Fox."
The death penalty hasn't been implemented in decades, but the constitution
and the Military Justice Code allow executions for some crimes.
Varela's family insists the young soldier acted in self-defense and was the
target of constant sexual harassment by a homosexual colleague at military installations
in Juarez, across the border from El Paso.
"My son killed the colonel, but he did not do it without provocation,"
Eva Flores said in an interview with the Associated Press last week, describing
the confrontation in February that she said came after sustained sexual harassment
from a male soldier who acted as the colonel's assistant.
"My son told me, 'I didn't commit insubordination. I defended myself because
he was going to kill me,' " Flores said.
Flores said her son gave statements to investigators before he could talk with
a lawyer or anyone else. And she recounted a chilling silence on the part of
most witnesses to the colonel's death.
"There were lieutenants, captains, sub-lieutenants" in the dining
room, she said. "But nobody else said they heard anything or saw anything.
They only heard the shot. It's a fight against a deaf and blind monster."
Calls to the Defense Department were not returned, and no response was made
to written request for an interview with military prosecutors.
An attorney going to the military's highest court to appeal Varela's conviction
and sentence, Flores said.
Flores said she received word last week from the president's office that President
Fox may intervene once the case has worked its way completely through the courts.
The president's office did not return calls.
Many Mexican human rights groups already are citing Varela's case as evidence
that Mexico's military courts lack the independence from the Defense Department
hierarchy to operate effectively.
The Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights is leading
a letter-writing campaign to government officials, noting the country's obligations
in Varela's trial under international human rights treaties.
Executing Varela would almost certainly provoke international disapproval because
of human rights treaties and recommendations from abroad that Mexico overhaul
its military justice system, Carbonell said.
He said Varela, who is being held at a military detention center in Mexico City, can still file an appeal on constitutional grounds with a civilian court.