Documents in Action: FOI Success Stories in Mexico
<http://freedominfo.org/features/20090320.htm>
By Emilene Martinez-Morales. 20 March 2009
Mexico City, Mexico - Mexico's civil society have maximized the potential of
its Federal Access to Information Law
<http://freedominfo.org/documents/mexico_ley.pdf> to affect policies in
local communities, advocate for citizens' rights, and expose corruption at
the highest levels of state.
Openness advocates have utilized two key institutional features of Mexico's
access-to-information system. The electronic system for sending information
requests to federal agencies, Infomex <http://www.infomex.org.mx/> , also
allows citizens to review all public requests and responses to these
requests. the Federal Access to Information Institute (IFAI)
<http://www.ifai.org.mx/> , carries out the functions of an information
ombudsman's office, reviewing appeals for information, and maintaining a
good track record of ruling in favor of citizens requests.
Over 300,000 requests have been sent since the law was implemented in 2004.
This article highlights some of the revelations made possible through the
citizen requests sent through Mexico's Federal Access to Information Law:
In 2006, Maderas del Pueblo del Sureste
<http://www.maderasdelpueblo.org.mx/> —a nongovernmental environmental
organization supporting indigenous people and rural communities in
Chiapas—filed access to information requests using the federal transparency
law, seeking information about a sewage project in Cintalapa, a community
located inside the natural reserve of Montes Azules. The sewage system
negatively impacted neighboring Lacanja Tseltal, which was receiving waste
from a neighboring town and had no access to clean water. Information
released through these requests showed that the water treatment system was
not properly designed and needed a filter system that had not been
installed. Chlorine had to be poured manually into the water that flowed
back to the river. As a result, the Cintalapa sewage project was halted, and
authorities publicly acknowledged that changes had to be made to ensure
water was properly treated before it reached the people of Lacantun.
In May 2006 journalist Arelí Quintero published an investigative article in
Diario Monitor about Mexican aid sent to Southeast Asia after the 2004
tsunami. Through a series of access to information requests, Quintero
obtained detailed information from the office of President Fox about the
goods that were shipped by the Mexican Navy. The documents included the
inventory of aid shipments cleared by customs officials, which showed large
discrepancies in what was promised to victims of the tsunami, as opposed to
what was actually sent. Coffee makers, vests, tools, and other articles were
never shipped and, according to Quintero, remain unaccounted.
In 2007, Ciudadanos en Apoyo a Derechos Humanos
<http://www.cadhac.org/principal.html> (CADHAC)—an NGO based in the state
of Nuevo León in northeastern Mexico—worked with 200 inmates from a federal
prison in Nuevo León and trained them on how to access their own personal
records using the Federal Transparency and Access to Information Law. Most
of these inmates were in prison for minor offenses but could not afford
lawyers that could fight for reduced sentences for good conduct. Close to
100 requests for personal records were filed. At first, these requests were
denied, but an appeal to IFAI set a precedent that now guarantees inmates'
access to these records throughout the federal prison system. 35 inmates
were released from jail after obtaining their records.
In 2008 Fátima Monterrosa from Eme-Equis magazine won the National Press
Award in the Access to Information Category
<http://www.periodismo.org.mx/ganadores.html> for her investigative article
"Corrupción en el Estado Mayor Presidencial
<http://www.m-x.com.mx/2008-04-27/corrupcion-en-el-estado-mayor-presidencial
/#omment-294> ." Monterrosa used documents from the Office of the President
obtained through the Federal Access to Information Law. In her piece,
Monterrosa uncovers corrupt practices within the Presidential General Staff
including simulated contracts and ghost suppliers.
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Mark Perkins MLIS, MCLIP
www.markperkins.info
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