Principal Investigators

Sara Schatz, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Center fro Latin American Studies

Project Abstract

Democratization in Mexico has produced the paradoxical result of an increase in state crimes coupled with the rise of juridic certainty for electrons. By 2004, deaths in electorally-related violence have decreased markedly, election fraud is by down by 90%, and some punishments have been meted out against state officials responsible for torture. The "relative" success of Mexican legal institutions provides an interesting counterpoint case those "double" transitions in many Eurasian and African nations which have produced a weaker rule of law. Thus, a speaker series on controlling state crime seems a timely one given this continuing global problem. A number of institutional reforms to ameliorate the problem state crime in Mexico have been implemented since the mid-1990s including the establishment of the National Human Rights Commission, a Federal Electoral Authority, a series of Federal and State Electoral Courts, a Special Prosecutor for Electoral Crimes (FEPADE) within the Mexican Attorney General's Office, and the Special Prosecutor for Political and Social Movements of the Past. Most of these institutions have become increasingly autonomous from ex-dominant party control, especially those at the federal level. This speaker series proposes 10 examine the effectiveness of those institutions designed to control state crime in Mexico with a hi-monthly speaker for the ten-week Spring Quarter (2006). The proposed speakers for the talks include academics and human rights scholars who are experts on those institutions designed to control state crime in Mexico, i.e. the National Human Rights Commission, the Electoral Courts, the various special prosecutors, etc. (see proposed speaker list for details). Each speaker will discuss the past and present capacity of these institutions to protect human and political rights for citizens and political party members, to deal with abuses committed under the old regime as well as recent reforms to increase the prosecutorial powers of Mexico's institutions designed to control state crime in a period of democratizing reforms. The proposed speaker series will be held at The Mershon Center as part of their "Citizenship Speaker Series" which draws its audience from the Center and the general public. Another target audience of the series will include members of the class Globalization in Latin America, sponsored by the Center for Latin American Studies. Furthermore, this speaker series includes the participation of OSU faculty in their capacity as respondents to the papers including but not limited to Ileana Rodriguez of the Spanish and Portuguese Department and John Quigley in the Law School and various members of the Political Science Department.

Project Timeline

Spring Quarter 2006

Project Sponsors

Office of International Affairs
Department of Spanish and Portuguese
Center for Latin American Studies