The Mexican Government under order of the Mexican Congress must disclose publicly information regarding various cases. But the Federal Institute of Access to Information (IFAI) has instructed the Secretary of Foreign Affairs to censure information about the Elvira Arellano case, between the Mexican Government and the U.S. government. They are affraid that if this information is made public, the media will learn how far the Mexican Government is meddling and that could "affect diplomatic relations" according to Alonso Lujambio and Jacqueline Peschard, two agents from the IFAI.


TRANSLATED FROM:
http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2008/04/03/i ... e=017n2pol

The Federal Institute of Access to Information (IFAI) instructed the Office of the secretary of Foreign Affairs (SRE) to diffuse a public version of the expedient about the activist Elvira Arellano, deported from the U.S. in 2007.

In that version it should be included the communications emitted between the American and Mexican governments, but eliminating information that might be able "to affect the diplomatic relations", according to a proposal from Alonso Lujambio and Jacqueline Peschard.

The instruction agreed with aunanimous vote by the four agents of the IFAI, after revoking the classification that the SRE had established. One must emphasize that that agency sent the applicant of that data to its electronic page, so the person could revised the bulletins on that case.

According to the agent speaker of case 4818/07, Alonso Gómez Robledo, the information that the SRE delivered to the IFAI, "does not have evidences that are removed" that justify the classification, except for personal data.

Nevertheless, Lujambio and Peschard insisted on classifying contained data in the communiqués exchanged by both countries. Peschard said that this "protected diplomatic relations", therefore with the diffusion "they would be informed of that relations take place". Although the agent Juan Pablo Guerrero disputed how relations would be affected, when all that information has been diffused (even at international scale), it was impossed – despite the fact that the speaker said that he "did not seem it necessary– the elaboration of public versions.