EFE
December 5, 2001
By Mar Marin

Family members of victims of Mexico's so-called "dirty war" plan to reject compensation offered by the government because "a price cannot be put on life," Eureka Committee head Rosario Ibarra de Piedra, who lost a child in the war, said.

Ibarra, who for 26 years has led a campaign on behalf of the disappeared and their families, said the administration of President Vicente Fox should determine the whereabouts of the missing individuals and punish those responsible.

The claims filed by the Eureka Committee, which represents the family members of the victims, make up a large part of a National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) report officially recognizing that government agents kidnapped at least 275 people during the "dirty war" of the 1970s and 1980s.

Among the many cases included in the report is that of Jesus Piedra, Ibarra's son, who was arrested in April 1975 for his alleged role in the rebel Sept. 23 League.

He was subsequently transferred to a number of prisons and military bases before he disappeared.

After receiving the report, Fox announced the creation of a special prosecutor's office to investigate such incidents, the opening of the relevant files of the intelligence services and a plan to offer compensation to families of the victims.

Fox has left Federal Attorney General Rafael Macedo de la Concha in charge of appointing the prosecutor, but that decision has been widely criticized given Macedo's status as a 34-year military veteran and army general.

Ibarra said the families of the victims would not accept the payments because "a price cannot be placed on our children. If (the government) insists we should ask them how much their children are worth. We will not sell our conscience."

The CNDH report does not include much new information about the whereabouts of the disappeared and assigns blame for the "dirty war" almost exclusively to mid- and low-level officers.

The only senior officials named in the report are already deceased, such as former minister Fernando Gutierrez Barrios or the former head of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), Javier Garcia Paniagua, Ibarra noted.

The report should address the responsibility of former presidents under whom disappearances occurred, both during and after the "dirty war," she said.

Ibarra specifically cited Gustavo Diaz Ordaz (1964-1970), Luis Echeverria (1970-1976), Jose Lopez Portillo (1976-1982), Miguel de la Madrid (1982-1988), Carlos Salinas (1988-1994) and Ernesto Zedillo (1994-2000).

"Echeverria, who now claims he did not know, had my son's file on his desk and Lopez Portillo says he does not remember because he is 81 years old. I am also old and I haven't forgotten," Ibarra said.

"I have to remember those who disappeared every day, and it is very painful."

Despite the fact that some of the victims disappeared more than 25 years ago, the Eureka Committee will not assume they are dead until there is proof, she added.

"All of the administrations have wanted to assume they are dead in order to close the case, but we will not allow it. In recent years we have found 148 alive, some of whom were missing for a short time, but others were missing for up to nine years. That's why we will continue with our demand: alive is how they were taken and alive is how we want them returned," Ibarra said.

She vowed the victims' families would "be at the door of the Attorney General's Office every day."

The Eureka Committee, which last year filed 61 criminal complaints in connection with forced disappearances, has gathered testimony from survivors of the "dirty war" confirming that teenagers, infants and at least three pregnant women were among the victims.