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January 13, 2013. David T. Ellwood Dean, Harvard Kennedy School Scott M. Black Professor of Political Economy Dear Professor Ellwood, The Statement of Rights and Responsibilities of the Kennedy School declares that members of the community are “ideally characterized by [their] respect for the dignity of others”. Students are said to “think deeply and broadly about the impact policies have on people”. Harvard’s Mission Statement encourages its members to “assume responsibility for the consequences of personal actions”. Given that Mexico’s former president, Felipe Calderón, has recently been named research associate at the Kennedy School, we wonder to what extent he fulfills these requisites. There are certain aspects in Calderón’s administration (2006-2012) that one is certainly not to dismiss. He forged a positive panorama in terms of macroeconomic standards and, few exceptions aside, he bears an acceptable record in terms of freedom of expression and access to information. As part of a regular democratic procedure, universities are already scrutinizing his administration. What is thoroughly debated is the role he played in the humanitarian tragedy caused by the war against organized crime: more than 60 thousand deaths, at least 25 thousand missing, 260 thousand displaced, thousands of abducted immigrants, etcetera. The world’s cardinal human rights organizations (Amnesty International, Freedom House, Human Rights Watch, etcetera) all agree on the gravity of the humanitarian crisis that Mexico currently endures. This unprecedented situation is partly due to the decisions that Calderón’s administration made. The former President himself currently faces a legal process in the International Criminal Court. It would be unfair to accuse Calderón of ordering such brutality. We can ascertain, however, that he did not respect the victims’ dignity; he disregarded the consequences of his policy and eluded the responsibility of his actions. Due to a lack of space we will focus on the case of the disappeared. Calderón profusely committed himself to create a National Registry of Victims since, as he declared in October 2012, it is crucial that “we all know where are the people that suffer the most”. Today we can acknowledge that in terms of the missing persons, at least, the General Prosecutor’s Office (PGR) did elaborate a record throughout the six-year presidential term, but one that was never published. As the administration reached its end, officials from the PGR delivered a list with the names of 25 thousand missing persons to Washington Post correspondent William Booth (the list was published on November 29).

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Tracy Wilkinson, correspondent of Los Angeles Times, received from PGR employees a list that detailed the names, surnames and conditions of disappearance of 20,851 persons during five years and a half of Calderon’s administration. The Research Center of Propuesta Cívica (www.propuestacivica.org.mx) acquired the list from Wilkinson herself. This document corroborates the minor priority that the government assigned to the matter; the complaints were never investigated and victims’ relatives were never informed on the matter. Mexico already faces a sentence from the Inter American Court of Human Rights regarding cases of forced disappearance. In the Rosendo Radilla case it is stated that the State has the obligation to investigate the whereabouts of the missing persons and to disclose this information to their relatives. Furthermore, on December 20, 2011 the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances published a report that comprised the observations drawn by the mission that visited Mexico on March, 2011(A/HRC/19/58/Add.2). The document describes objectively and in detail the situation that prevailed in Mexico during Calderón’s administration. Notwithstanding the diplomatic language that is conventionally used in these documents, the report sheds light on the Government’s responsibility, recurrently emphasizes the participation of State agents in the forced disappearances and highlights the absence of measures to remedy this situation. The document sharply condemns the deployment of Armed Forces in security tasks for the sole reason that it contributes to the serious violations of human rights. It thus recommends their gradual removal in the short term. Calderón’s government simply ignored the UN Working Group’s recommendations just as he disregarded the pleas from organizations and academics in Mexico and around the world. Therefore, we claim that Felipe Calderón is presumed responsible for the violation of human rights of at least 25 thousand victims of enforced disappearance. Professor Ellwood, you described Calderón as a “vivid example of a dynamic and committed public servant”. How can you sustain such a declaration when a great deal of evidence amounts to the contrary? Felipe Calderón was an insensitive leader: his government did not investigate the whereabouts of the disappeared and concealed essential information to their relatives. Franklin Delano Roosevelt justified the Lend-Lease Act (passed on March, 1941), by which he delivered war and humanitarian equipment to the allies threatened by the Axis powers, stating that it was all about “helping to put out the fire in your neighbor’s house before your own house caught fire and burned down”. Mexico is currently consumed by the fire of a humanitarian tragedy that is witnessed indifferently by one portion of American society. Another, on the contrary, has walked alongside us and has cleansed our tears and healed our wounds. In sum, Professor Ellwood, we consider that the inclusion of Felipe Calderón as a visiting scholar at the Kennedy School constitutes an insult to the victims of violence in Mexico.

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Having outlined these reasons we respectfully and formally request that you provide us by written means the motives that led the Kennedy School to admit Felipe Calderón as a member of the Angelopoulus Global Public Leaders Program of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Based upon the information delineated in this letter, he does not fulfill the ethical criteria of this institution. Sergio Aguayo Javier Sicilia Professor at El Colegio de México Poet President of Propuesta Cívica Movement for Peace and Justice with Dignity Sergio Aguayo is a faculty member of the Center of International Studies at El Colegio de México since 1977. He is a columnist at Reforma and has been a human rights activist for various decades. He received his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University and has taught, among other institutions, at the Universities of Chicago, Columbia, Berkeley and the New School of Social Research. Javier Sicilia is a Mexican poet and journalist. Aside from being a collaborator in diverse written media such as Proceso and La Jornada, he is also a member of the National System of Art Creators since 1995 and professor of Literature, Aesthetics and Screenwriting at La Salle University in Cuernavaca, Morelos. He also served as director of the extinct magazine Ixtus and founded the Movement for Peace and Justice with Dignity (http://movimientoporlapaz.mx/). He was named Person of the Year in 2011 by Time magazine.   Translation: Hector H. Valdivia. Ccp. Drew Gilpin Faust, Presidenta de la Universidad de Harvard. Ccp. Jorge I. Domínguez. Vice Provost for International Affairs. Ccp. Lydia Cummings, Ombdusman de la Universidad de Harvard. Ccp. Donna Wray Ombudsperson de la Kennedy School. Ccp. Matthew Alper, Ombudsperson de la Kennedy School. Ccp Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki