Conn. suit against Mexican ex-president dismissed

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Conn. suit against Mexican ex-president dismissed

AP foreign, Monday July 22 2013

DAVE COLLINS

Associated Press= HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Ten people suing former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo for $50 million over a 1997 massacre in a Mexican village are taking their case to a U.S. appeals court after a judge in Connecticut dismissed their lawsuit, their lawyer said Monday.

The unnamed plaintiffs say they are survivors of the killings of 45 people in Acteal in the southern state of Chiapas. They sued Zedillo in 2011, alleging he bore some responsibility for the massacre and covered it up.

But a legal doctrine giving former heads of state immunity from lawsuits applies to Zedillo, U.S. District Judge Michael Shea in Hartford ruled Thursday, and he dismissed the case.

Zedillo denies the allegations, and the U.S. State Department backed his immunity claim. But the State Department based its immunity recommendation on an illegal and unauthorized letter by the Mexican ambassador, said Roger Kobert, a Miami-based attorney for the plaintiffs. He said he will appeal Shea's dismissal to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan.

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Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/10895864

[Judi Lynn]

1. Unbearably sad. Had this people been financially comfortable, no harm would have come

to them. It only happens to the defenseless.

Cannot believe there is finally NO ONE who will hold this man accountable. Well, no one in government.
He's home, free.

A protest letter from earlier days:

Permanent Commission of the Congress of the Union
Legislative Palace, San Lazaro, México City, Mexico
Fax: (int)52 (5)522-7439 or 628-1300 x2033 , for national calls dial 91 instead of the international code 52

A sample of the letter, may be the following which the National Peace-Negotiating Comission (CONAI) sent to: President Zedillo.
C. Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon, President of the Republic of Mexico


Yesterday, the 22nd of December, 1997, many tzotzil families were massacred in the community of Acteal in the municipality of Chenalho, Chiapas at the hands of paramilitary groups bearing arms such as M-16, of exclusive military use. The toll of this heinous crime includes: 45 persons killed, amongst them 14 children; and a large number of persons wounded, the great majority being women.

These kinds of grave incidents, only serve to move us further away from any path toward a peace dialog. Rather, it pushes Chiapas and the rest of the country towards an uncontrolable spiral of violence and war, impossible to detain or deny.

For that, the CONAI respectfully requests:

1. That you exercise all of the forces within the Constitution of the Republic in order to serve the Legislative Powers a Presidential Decree declaring the Dissolution of State Powers in Chiapas, in addition to the investigation and the arrest of Government Officials found to have some responsability in the massacre.

2. The detention and arrest of the members of paramilitary groups involved with the bloodshed in Acteal, and the dismantling of these groups and the detention of the participants who continue to act with impunity in Chiapas.

3. To create the political conditions necessary to resolve the root causes of the conflict, and absolute compliance of the signed agreements in San Andres.

Respectfully,

Samuel Ruiz Garcia, Concepcion Calvillo Vda. de Nava, Pablo Gonzalez Casanova, Oscar Oliva, Juan Bañuelos, Raymundo Sanchez Barraza

http://www.boes.org/actions/america/north/chiapas2.html