Faced with 95,000 missing in Mexico, the UN criticizes the "ineffectiveness" of the authorities
Seven years after the disappearance of 43 students, a tribute demonstration on September 26, 2021 in Mexico City.
© CLAUDIO CRUZ / AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
A United Nations committee against enforced disappearances denounced the "
ineffectiveness
" of the authorities in investigating the some 95,000 people missing in Mexico.
They also criticized the “
impunity
” enjoyed by the perpetrators of these kidnappings and assassinations, often linked to drug trafficking.
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"
We regret to note that there are still generalized disappearances over a large part of the territory of the State for which, as we reported in 2015, impunity predominates
", declared to the press the representative of the UN committee. Carmen Rosa Villa, Friday November 26 at the end of a visit to Mexico of ten days.
More than a hundred people would have disappeared "
during our stay
", added the representative of the committee who arrived in Mexico City in mid-November.
A total of 95,121 people are listed in the National Register of Missing and Unidentified Persons.
The UN committee criticized the "
ineffectiveness
" of the investigations as well as the "
arbitrariness
" of the decisions of the prosecution in cases of disappearance.
In several of the 32 states, the security forces and the judiciary are even suspected of being infiltrated by criminal drug trafficking networks.
Mexico must adopt "
a national policy of prevention to eradicate disappearances, a policy which involves all the authorities and which makes effective the victims' right to truth, justice and reparations
", declared the UN committee.
This committee was visiting Mexico for the first time.
He also felt that this first visit marked an "
opening
" to international support from President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, in power since the end of 2018.
Disappearances often linked to cartels
The number
of disappearances exploded as
much as the assassinations from 2006, when ex-president Felipe Calderon declared all-out war on narco-trafficking.
“
Organized crime remains one of the main causes of disappearances,
” notes Laura Atuesta of the Center for Investigation and Economic Expertise (Cide).
Mass graves exist in the north of the country, according to the National Research Commission (CNB) which estimates for example that 500 kilos of human remains have been found since 2017 near Matamoros on the border with Texas.
In Guadalajara, the country's second city, a crossroads has been renamed the Missing Roundabout, with photos of missing young people.
Guadalajara is the capital of Jalisco, the state most affected by enforced disappearances (more than 12,000).
It is a state where the most powerful cartels in the country are present (
Jalisco New Generation
and Sinaloa).
► To read also: Despite the increase in violence, tourists do not seem to flee the Yucatan
(With AFP)
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