[Infowarrior] - Mexico increases domestic surveillance

[Richard Forno]

Mexican congress approves widening police powers

By MARK STEVENSON – 1 day ago

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hbIC6ZYe2A2fSIe1q-1dnh4TphiwD94VK6K81

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico's Congress on Tuesday voted to broaden  
police powers, allowing law enforcement agencies to use undercover  
agents and taped conversations as evidence in a bid to help them fight  
increasingly bloody drug cartels.

The reforms, which were approved earlier by the Senate, are backed by  
President Felipe Calderon and come as Mexico is shaken by organized- 
crime violence that has claimed almost 5,400 lives so far this year,  
more than double the death toll from the same period of 2007.

They allow taped conversations to be used in court if submitted as  
evidence by one of the parties in the conversation, and let police  
request search warrants by e-mail or by telephone calls to judges  
rather than exclusively in writing, according to a Congressional  
statement.

The changes also permit undercover agents.

Many Mexican detectives currently operate in plain clothes, but the  
new measure would let them keep their identities secret in legal  
proceedings and be identified by a numerical code known only to  
superiors.

Drug gangs have increasingly targeted police officials for  
assassination in recent years.

The reforms include some safeguards meant to prevent police from  
abusing their powers, including one requiring that officers quickly  
register all detentions. Under current law, they have up to two days  
to present a suspect before a judge.

In the past, some police have been accused of using that period to  
threaten, pressure or torture suspects into confessing.

The bill also tightens the definition of catching a suspect "in the  
act," to mean just a few moments from the commission of a crime.  
Previously, police could detain suspects hours or even days after a  
crime and claim they had been caught in the act.

Also Tuesday, the Senate voted to create a registry of cell phone  
owners to combat kidnappings and extortions in which gangs often use  
untraceable mobile phones to make ransom demands.

Telecoms would be required to ask purchasers of cell phones or phone  
memory chips for their names, addresses and fingerprints, and to turn  
that information over to investigators if requested.

At present, unregulated vendors sell phones and chips for cash from  
streetside stands. It is unclear how such vendors would be made to  
comply with the new law.

The Senate also approved a bill previously passed by the lower house  
to standardize police training, vetting and operational procedures.

The law would create a national security council headed by the  
president and the governors of Mexico's 31 states to improve  
coordination among a disparate array of state, local and federal police.

The bill will return to the lower house for final approval after  
senators detected errors in its wording.