Mexico Deserves the Truth

The Mexican constitution guarantees freedom of expression and makes the state the agent of a free flow of information to the public, requiring that officials “respect the right of petition” made in a “peaceful and respectful manner.”

Sounds good on paper, say some Mexican journalists, but they contend the law of petition is so antiquated that it precludes many investigations. Furthermore, they point out, the law allows the president the discretionary power to keep documents secret forever.

This debate has been going on for at least 20 years and has flared again with the petitioning by Mexican journalists to open the archives of the Ministry of Defense so they can review documents related to the Oct. 2, 1968, massacre in Mexico City that broke a student rebellion in the shadow of the capital’s 1968 Olympic Games.

That night, an army battalion opened fire on a group of students demonstrating against the government in Tlatelolco plaza. Some 300 people were killed, and the student leaders of the pro-democracy demonstration were jailed.

Many accounts have been published about those turbulent events, but the army archives have remained sealed by presidential order. That shield of secrecy has led some politicians and commentators to demand that Mexico enact a law similar to the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, which authorizes the publication of many public documents upon petitioning and the passage of time.

Mexico’s debate on freedom of information has many facets: the rewarding of licenses for electronic media, for instance, and criteria for advertising budgets of public-sector agencies. These issues affect the economic interests of some very powerful people.

But government works for society, not individuals, and if opening the books lets truth move out of the shadows, Mexico will benefit. The U.S. Freedom of Information Act is one model to emulate. The truth will eventually come out in any society, and the sooner the better for Mexico.