Mexico has been in a state of violence for the past couple of years. Since former Mexican president Felipe Calderón initiated Mexico’s war on drugs, there have been considerable violations committed by soldiers and police. Many of these operations involved extrajudicial executions by the military. These 10 facts about human rights in Mexico will be informative about the degree of human rights violations people in Mexico have been experiencing in the past couple of years.

10 Facts About Human Rights in Mexico

1. When the newly elected president Enrique Peña Nieto began his term, reports stated that, in an attempt to battle crime, law enforcement had begun violating human rights including the use of enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings and torture. In addition, there had been an increase in homicides since the beginning of his presidential term in 2012, totaling in 42,583.
2. Mexican security forces have been part of enforced disappearances since 2006. In fact, in August of 2016, the government of Mexico issued a report that stated more than 27 thousand missing people still have not been located since 2006. Police have been declining to investigate those guilty for the enforced disappearances, often leaving it up to the families of the people missing to conduct their own investigations.
3. In 2016, The National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) stated that the federal police killed 22 out of 42 citizens at random in Tanhuato during a confrontation. The CNDH concluded that law enforcement shot thirteen people in the back, fatally injuring them, and burned a man alive.
4. Since 2014, the Mexican government has failed to arrest the people responsible for the disappearance of 43 students in Guerrero state. Out of these 43 students, it was reported that only one person could be positively identified after being found dead.
5. Between January and November 2016, over 88,741 non-documented migrants were detained with an additional 74,604 migrants deported. Out of the people who were deported, 94 percent of them were from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, which are countries known for having some of the highest homicide ratings in the world.
6. It was reported that in 2016, 90 percent of crimes committed against journalists had not been prosecuted. Along with the crimes committed against journalists and human rights defenders in the past, they continue to be consistently threatened and attacked to this day.
7. In 2009, Mexico received several recommendations from The United Nations regarding international human rights reformation. These subjects that needed to be addressed included torture, acts of aggression against civilians, the investigation of missing people and violence against women.
8. Violence committed against women is continuous throughout Mexico. Data given in 2016 stated that 2,668 women were thought to be victims of homicide. In addition to that, more than 66.1 percent of girls ages 15 and above have experienced gender-based violence.
9. In 2014, soldiers killed 22 people in the state of Tlatlya. Information regarding the crime itself continues to be unavailable. Cases like this fall under extrajudicial executions; these executions were never fully investigated. Furthermore, eight of the soldiers involved were absolved of these crimes.
10. Arbitrary arrests have occurred throughout Mexico leading to additional human rights violations. Most of these arrests were conducted to extract money from detainees or to serve another purpose such as political gain.

These facts about human rights in Mexico serve to give a closer look at the variety of violations committed against its citizens. Besides the facts listed above. The government has made small strides in the prosecution process of holding accountable those responsible for the various crimes that violate human rights. In 2016, the U.S. Secretary of State confirmed that Mexico had made improvements in protecting human rights, earning its Mérida aid of nearly $155 million.

– Alyssa Hannam

Photo: Flickr