Former President of Mexico Indicted for Genocide

A few months ago, I noted the repeated failure of Ignacio Carrillo Prieto, the special prosecutor investigating past government abuses in Mexico, to indict former president Luis Echeverria on genocide charges. Carrillo has finally succeeded: a Mexican court of appeals held on Friday that it had sufficient evidence to charge Echeverria with genocide in connection with the “Tlatelolco massacre,” in which dozens if not hundreds of students were killed by government troops during a student rally days before the opening of the Mexico City Olympics.

Echeverria, who has long denied involvement in the massacre, is under house arrest. He is expected to make his first formal statement in the case to a judge today.