No information on the procedure for issuing a "preventive control order" in the Federal District of Mexico could be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate. However, documents published in April 2003 indicated that the Legislative Assembly of the Federal District adopted a new organic law on the public security secretariat (Ley Orgánica de la Secrataría de Seguridad Pública), which aims at modernizing the public security secretariat (Secrataría de Seguridad Pública, SSP) and provides a starting point for the reorganization of the Federal District police force (Mexico 1 Apr. 2003; Reforma 2 Apr. 2003). The new organic law, which updates the 1984 administrative police regulations (Reglamento de la Policía Preventiva) and the 1993 public security law (Ley de Seguridad Pública), establishes mechanisms for more rigorous control of police operations in the Federal District; in particular, it provides for the creation of an internal affairs unit and a reliability verification centre (Centro de Control de Confianza), where police officers will be trained and evaluated (ibid.). No additional information on this law and its possible effect on the Federal District could be found within the time constraints for this Response.

The attached electronic document is an excerpt of the report published in December 2002 by the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in Mexico. It supplies information on curfews and arbitrary detention. For more information on the criminal justice system in Mexico, please refer to the report published on 25 March 2003 by Amnesty International at http://web.amnesty.org/aidoc/aidoc_pdf.nsf/Index/AMR410072003ENGLISH/$File/AMR4100703.pdf.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of additional sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

Mexico. 1 April 2003. Secrataría de Seguridad Pública (SSP). "¿Cuál es la nueva Ley Orgánica de la Secretaría de Seguridad Pública del D.F.?" http://www.prodigyweb.net.mx/comunicacion0303/httm/ver-mec_ver1.htm [Accessed 16 July 2003]

Reforma [Mexico City]. 2 April 2003. "Aprueban Ley de SSP sin correciones." http://www.reforma.com/parseo/printpage.asp?pagetoprint=../ciudaddemexico/articulo/282841/default.htm [Accessed 16 July 2003]

Attempts to obtain information from the Comisión Mexicana de Defensa y Promoción de los Derechos Humanos A.C. (CMDPDH) were unsuccessful.

Attempts to obtain information from the Consejería Jurídica y de Servicios Legales in the Federal District were unsuccessful.

Attempts to obtain information from the Procuraduría General de Justicia del Distrito Federal (PGJDF) were unsuccessful.

Attempts to obtain information from the Subdirección de Ejecución de Sanciones Penales in the Federal District were unsuccessful.

IRB Databases

World News Connection (WNC)/Dialog

Internet sites, including:

Centro de Derechos Humanos Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez (Centro PRODH)

Comisión Mexicana de Defensa y Promoción de los Derechos Humanos A.C. (CMDPDH)

Country Reports 2002

Diario de México [Mexico City]

Human Rights Watch (HRW)

La Jornada [Mexico City]

Mexico, Consejería Jurídica y de Servicios Legales

Mexico, Secretaría de Seguridad Pública (SSP)

Mexico, Subdirección de Ejecución de Sanciones Penales

Procuraduría General de Justicia del Distrito Federal (PGJDF)

Reforma [Mexico City]

Search engine:

Google

United Nations. 17 December 2002. "Annex to the Executive Summary of the Report of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on its Visit to Mexico (27 October to 10 November 2002)." In Rapport du groupe de travail sur la détention arbitraire concernant sa visite au Mexique (27 octobre 2002-10 novembre 2002). (E/CN.4/2003/8/Add.3.) http://193.194.138.190/Huridocda/Huridoca.nsf/0/9db831812b1e201fc1256ccc0035870b/$FILE/G0216008.doc [Accessed 21 July 2003] Electronic attachment

United Nations. 17 December 2002. "Annex to the Executive Summary of the Report of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on its Visit to Mexico (27 October to 10 November 2002)." In Rapport du groupe de travail sur la détention arbitraire concernant sa visite au Mexique (27 octobre 2002-10 novembre 2002). (E/CN.4/2003/8/Add.3.) http://193.194.138.190/Huridocda/Huridoca.nsf/0/9db831812b1e201fc1256ccc0035870b/$FILE/G0216008.doc [Accessed 21 July 2003]

F. Curfews and arbitrary detention

45.At the request of the Public Prosecutor's Office, a judge will issue a home-curfew order or order banning a person from leaving a specific geographical area if a criminal case is being prepared against that person and there is a reasonable risk that the person might abscond.

46.When article 133 bis of the Federal Code of Criminal Procedure was amended, curfew orders were introduced primarily to avoid the use of administrative detention while at the same time guaranteeing that a person could be located and brought before the court, thereby avoiding sending him to prison unnecessarily. In practice, however, curfews have become a form of preventive detention, often enforced in a "curfew house" or, sometimes, in a hotel.

47.The practical consequence of this kind of curfew is that it gives the Public Prosecutor's Office longer to carry out the relevant investigations and collect the evidence it needs to submit to the district judge before the person can be formally charged.

48.There is thus a sort of de facto pre-trial that takes place not before a judge, but before officials from the Office of the Attorney-General, who are thus empowered to perform judicial acts and evaluate evidence and present the means of proof before the person is charged.

49.The Working Group heard criticisms of the way in which this measure is implemented in so-called "curfew houses", which might be houses confiscated from drug-traffickers or fraudsters or rooms rented in hotels to enforce curfew orders. Detainees are then subject to curfew not in their homes, but in this kind of private establishment, which is actually very similar to a prison (in terms of security, numerous armed guards, electronic surveillance, etc.).

50. After visiting one of these curfew houses, the Working Group finds that this arrangement in fact amounts to a form of preventive detention of an arbitrary nature, given the lack of oversight by the courts and the implementation of the measure in places that, while not actually secret, are "discreet". The Working Group established that inquiries about their precise location were more or less a taboo subject, including for administration officials.