[JURIST] Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] said Thursday that Mexico's now-closed Special Prosecutor's Office [JURIST report] failed in its effort to address past human rights abuses stemming from the "Dirty War" of the late 1960s to 1970s [GWU Mexico Project report; JURIST news archive]. The office was created by former Mexican President Vicente Fox [BBC profile] to investigate potential human rights violations that included more than 600 "disappearances" and two still-unsolved student massacres: the Tlatelolco Massacre [Wikipedia backgrounder; GWU Mexico Project report] and the Corpus Christi Massacre [GWU Mexico Project report].

HRW said that only limited progress was made into uncovering the fates of the hundreds of missing people, and while the office is now gone, "the need to address the legacy of past abuses remains." The Special Prosecutor's Office brought charges against numerous former officials, but never secured any convictions as judges threw out many charges on technical grounds or because the statute of limitations had expired. HRW praised many South American countries for advances in prosecuting similar past abuses, but faulted Mexico for its unwillingness to do the same. HRW has more.