http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/laplaza/

Rights group to Calderon: 'Heal thyself'

Mexican President Felipe Calderon is in the United States this week stumping for fair treatment of immigrants living north of the border, regardless of their legal status.

Though it supports that effort, human rights group Amnesty International says Calderon should get his own house in order. The organization is calling on the Mexican leader "to support human rights at home with the same vigor that he shows in seeking greater protections for the rights of Mexican migrants to the United States."

In an open letter to Calderon, Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty Inernational USA, cites a long history of repression by the Mexican government, "including torture, arbitrary detention, excessive use of force and the denial of due process" against its own citizens.

The agency is particularly worried about the so-called Merida Initiative, a Bush administration proposal to send $1.4 billion in aid to Mexico and a half-dozen other Latin American nations to combat drug cartels.

A big chunk of those funds would go to Mexico's military, which Amnesty said has been implicated by Mexico's own National Commission on Human Rights in the "rape, torture and the killings of civilians" while conducting counter-narcotics activities.

Cox also called for a halt of abuses of Central American immigrants on Mexican soil. Many are assaulted and robbed on their way to the United States, often by corrupt Mexican authorities.

-- Marla Dickerson in Mexico City