Mexican troops commits abuses in anti-crime fight: gov't

The Mexican National Human Rights Committee admitted on Wednesday that some Mexican forces had committed serious abuses during its nationwide fight against drug traffickers.

"We must not forget or ignore the proven cases of serious abuses that deserve sanction," chief of the committee Jose Luis Soberanes said on the presentation of the committee's annual report, "We have the (case) files and whoever wants to see them can see them."

His comments resulted from the Mexican government's aim to persuade U.S. legislators to free 100 million dollars of funding under the 1.4-billion-dollar U.S.-backed anti-drug Merida Initiative. The funds, which are partly controlled by the U.S. legislature, are frozen because of the abuses committed by the Mexican army.

U.S. President Barack Obama backed his Mexican counterpart Felipe Calderon over this issue at a press conference in the central Mexican city of Guadalajara on Monday, where two days of talks between Mexico, Canada and the U.S. were held.

Obama said, "We will continue to support the transfer of resources to President Felipe Calderon, because his effort to fight drug trafficking is a brave one."

He added that the Mexican army and federal police needed to boost transparency and honor human rights.

In December 2006, the Mexican government began deploying federal police and army officers to patrol areas where organized crime was deeply rooted. The central government believed that some local police forces collaborated with traffickers.