The human rights situation in Mexico is “tragic” and the problems do not just involve drug violence, but also torture, impunity, excessive force and police collusion with criminals, an Organization of American States panel said on Wednesday.
A report by the Washington-based Inter-American Human Rights Commission also cited increasing detentions of Central American migrants and attacks on journalists and human rights workers, many of which occurred under the administration of Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, who took office in 2012.
The report praised some recent judicial reforms, but said they have not really been implemented yet.
“Despite the change in administration in December 2012, in practice there have been no substantial changes with regard to security policies and the violence levels,” the report said. “Of particular concern are the reports of disappearances, extrajudicial executions and torture.”
The commission acknowledged that Mexico had made significant constitutional and legislative reforms, but said that everywhere it went during its visit, “it met with victims, family members, and defenders, who described the barriers that they have run up against in their quest for justice, as well as their distrust of the authorities.”
Police are often believed to be ineffective, or in league with criminals.
The report said that 98 percent of crimes go unpunished in Mexico.
“Family members’ discoveries of mass graves with dozens of bodies underscore that they are the ones who have undertaken the search for their loved ones, given the state’s ineffectiveness,” the report said.
It also cited three cases in which survivors have accused Mexican security forces of essentially executing suspects.
The Mexican government acknowledged problems, but said the report “unfortunately does not reflect the general situation in the country, and starts off from erroneous premises and diagnoses.”
The government said that the problems were localized, adding that “there is no crisis of human rights in our country.”
In related news, Mexico’s National Institute for Information Access denied an appeal to release autopsy reports on 42 suspects killed by federal police in a gunbattle last year, backing the government’s position.
One police officer died in what authorities described as a clash with drug cartel suspects in the western state of Michoacan on May 22, but the lopsided 42-1 death toll drew suspicion.
The transparency watchdog last month ruled against a freedom-of-information request filed by The Associated Press in October last year.
The quasi-independent agency ruled the information should be kept as a state secret for five years.
The institute also took the government’s side in denying there was any evidence that human rights violations occurred at the ranch where the shooting occurred.
It said it had reviewed the 12 volumes of reports in the case file on the events in Tanhuato, Michoacan, and essentially said the evidence indicated federal police acted correctly.
The Tanhuato deaths were one of three cases of suspiciously lopsided death tolls in Mexico cited the Inter-American Human Rights Commission report on Wednesday.
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