March 8, 1999;

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- A lack of political will and abuses by the military are responsible for what Amnesty International described Monday as a human rights crisis in Mexico.

In a report, the London-based human rights group said "torture, extrajudicial executions, disappearances and arbitrary detentions are widespread in Mexico."

The report called on the Mexican government to reform its legal system and allow U.N. rights inspectors to visit the country to look into the executions and measure the degree of independence of judges, the group said in a press statement.

A spokesman for the Office of the Presidency said the government had no immediate reaction to the report, and was unsure whether a copy had been delivered to the government.

Mexico has traditionally rejected investigations by international human rights groups, claiming it would constitute a violation of the country's sovereignty. Instead, it relies on government commissions established earlier in the decade to stem human rights abuses.

But those commissions "juggle a dual role of defending victims of violations and deflecting criticism of the Mexican authorities," according to the report.

The Mexican army, which has taken on a greater role in law enforcement activities, was harshly criticized in the Amnesty International report.

"Suspects have been detained, held in secret detention and subjected to torture -- typically in order to extract confessions against suspected supporters of the armed opposition," Amnesty said.

The report said the increased reliance on the army and the "systematic" failure of judges to investigate reports of torture "seems to be encouraging sectors close to the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party -- local political leaders and landowners, for example -- to believe they can act with impunity."

Cited as example of that attitude in the report was the December, 1997 massacre of 45 Indian villagers in southern Chiapas state by pro-government gunmen.

However, federal prosecutors have arrested about 126 people in the Acteal massacre, including state police officers and a soldier accused of helping the gunmen.

Copyright 1999 The Associated Press