NGO: Impunity prevents amelioration of the human rights crisis in Mexico

The crisis of human rights in which Mexico It has been immersed for more than a decade and it has not been possible to reverse it in 2021, as in recent years, due to persistent impunity and violence, civil organizations told Efe.

“The available public indicators confirm this, we are going to conclude 2021 with more than 35,000 homicides in the year, which indicates that the violence has not abated and that very high levels remain,” the director of the Center explained in an interview with Efe. of Human Rights Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez (Centro Prodh), Santiago Aguirre.

In addition, he indicated that other indicators such as the number of missing persons “remain at extraordinarily high levels.”

For Aguirre, the Government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador “cannot speak of the disappearances and violence being only an inheritance from the past; on the contrary, they are a present wound, there are more than 20,000 disappeared so far this administration ”, which began on December 1, 2018.

A report presented at the beginning of October by the analysis center México Evalúa indicated that 94.8% of the cases reported in Mexico go unpunished as a result of “a system that does not have prioritization tools or sufficient capacities.”

The report detailed that the prosecution offices and their officials are collapsed and fewer and fewer investigations can be opened.

“At the national level, there are 11 prosecutors, 9 experts and 14 ministerial police officers for every 100,000 inhabitants, on average,” said the organization.

According to data from the National Search Commission (CNB), since 1964 Mexico has accumulated more than 95,000 missing and non-located persons, the vast majority since the beginning of the military war against drug trafficking that began in 2006.

Knot of impunity

Aguirre considered that two factors have influenced the crisis of violence and human rights violations: the required changes have not been made in the courts, “the transition from prosecutors to prosecutors has been disappointing,” and no investment has been made in the area of ​​law enforcement, especially “in public ministries and prosecutors, which is where the knot of impunity really lies in Mexico.”

He added that “the seriousness of the situation prevailing in those institutions is not fully understood. Another factor that contributes to this crisis not being reversed is the commitment to a very centralist and heavily militarized security model ”.

He pointed out that the current administration’s commitment “that the Armed Forces take charge of public security, including by controlling the National Guard,” is not giving the expected results.

In addition, it is a risk for human rights because “the strengthening of military leadership is occurring without adequate counterweights.”

He indicated that the National Human Rights Commission is “extremely weakened” in a context in which it has been “losing autonomy and assuming a perspective that is not very compatible with the strict monitoring of human rights.”

Despite this, Aguirre highlighted positive actions such as the recognition made by the Undersecretary of Human Rights, Alejandro Encinas, “that there is a human rights crisis in the country” and some actions by the National Search Commission.

He also highlighted the emphasis that the current administration has placed on the issue of inequality, a relevant issue for the human rights agenda, and measures such as the labor reform and the salary increase have to be greeted, but unfortunately, he said, “those positive actions they are not enough ”.

Legacy of the past?

The representative of the Centro Prodh stressed that after three years of the current administration it can no longer be said that the violence and the human rights crisis “is just a legacy of the past.”

He said that while it is true that a major crisis was inherited, “it is also true that so far in the current administration there are more than 20,000 disappeared and that already involves the responsibility of the current authorities.”

“After three years of government, this administration cannot continue with the narrative that it carries problems from previous administrations,” the executive director of Amnesty International Mexico, Edith Olivares Ferreto, said in an interview with Efe.

He affirmed that when López Obrador took office “Mexico was mired in a Human Rights crisis from which it has not been able to get out and from which it will not get out of one day to the next.”

The representative of AI recognized that Mexico is a country where “there are still disappearances, torture, police repression and where violations of human rights that had occurred previously continue to occur” and as popular wisdom says “to solve a problem you must first recognize it ”.

He said that AI hopes that the current government, in its capacity as representative of the Mexican State, “recognizes the human rights violations that continue to be committed in order to start working on them.”