Mexico outlaws death penalty

MEXICO CITY - The Mexican government formally abolished the last vestiges of its death penalty on Friday.

President Vicente Fox described as "historic" the publication in the official gazette of the constitutional changes, which were approved by the Mexican Congress in June and by a majority of state legislatures in the intervening months.

"Mexico shares the opinion that capital punishment is a violation of human rights," Fox said. "Today, the death penalty has been abolished."

The Mexican legal system has not put anyone to death since 1961, and courts usually refuse to extradite suspects to the United States or other countries if there is a chance they could wind up on death row.

But capital punishment was, until Friday, still technically legal, especially in military courts.