Neither Truth nor Justice

Abstract

All countries that travel the path to democracy eventually have to decide what to do about the atrocities and excesses of their predecessors. During Mexico’s own interminable transition to democracy, opinion was divided about what to do about the human rights violations committed during the long authoritarian rule of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional. The government of Vicente Fox sided, both verbally and in some of its early decisions, in favor of truth and justice. Meanwhile, however, the president was proposing and/or approving political, administrative, and legal decisions which in practice granted de facto amnesty to the perpetrators of state crimes under the old regime. Some consequences are evident. The culture of impunity remains intact, and it has continued to erode and trivialize the culture of human right and justice, which, in Mexico, have become abused rhetorical concepts gradually emptied of political meaning.