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1 1 (July 25, 2022)

handle is hein.crs/goveimk0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congree informing ii ;ional Research Serviae lecislitive debate since 1914 Updated July 25, 2022 Mexico: Addressing Missing and Disappeared Persons Mexico faces significant human rights concerns amidst record violence related to drug trafficking and organized crime. As of July 2022, the Mexican government has registered more than 101,300 cases of missing or disappeared persons. Some 32.2% of cases were reported since President Andres Manuel L6pez Obrador took office in December 2018 (see Figure 1). Some cases, referred to as enforced disappearances, have involved the complicity of state security forces. Congress has sought to address the general human rights situation in Mexico, as well as the specific issue of enforced disappearances, through foreign assistance and conditions on that assistance, hearings, and letters to Mexican and U.S. Administrations. Background The United Nations (U.N.) International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance defines the term enforced disappearance to mean the arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the State or by persons or groups of persons acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which place such a person outside the protection of the law. The phenomenon of enforced disappearances rose to prominence in Latin America during the military dictatorships of the 1960s-1980s. During the dirty wars of this period, officials arrested and disappeared individuals as a strategy to silence insurgents and opposition activists. Mexico is distinct in its experience with enforced disappearances. Only a small fraction of those who have disappeared in Mexico went missing during this period (1,500 out of an estimated 73,200 total). Enforced Disappearances in Mexico As of July 2022, Mexican authorities estimated that 84,789 people had disappeared since former president Felipe Calder6n launched a military-led response to drug trafficking in December 2006 that contributed to an escalation in homicides and enforced disappearances. Despite criticism by human rights groups and the U.S. government, President Enrique Pena Nieto (2012-2018) and President L6pez Obrador maintained similar policies. Under L6pez Obrador, new cases of enforced disappearances committed by security forces have emerged, while past cases have not been prosecuted. From January to June 2021, Mexico's National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) received nine complaints of enforced disappearances. Many human rights advocates maintain that cases of enforced disappearances are often undercounted. Victims' families routinely face threats and intimidation from authorities when trying to report disappearances. Families are often forced to carry out searches for disappeared family members on their own. Figure I. Missing and Disappeared Persons in Mexico: I 964-2021 196- N 2 C9 C rd Cf 0 -i Ont o a o a a a a a a a a a a a a W/fl Source: National Search Commission, Government of Mexico. Human rights organizations have identified patterns of behavior regarding enforced disappearances in Mexico. In many cases, police or military officials first detain people from whom they seek to obtain confessions or gather intelligence without warrants or probable cause. Some detainees are tortured for purposes of obtaining information and then disappeared by security forces to cover up their deaths. Others are handed over to organized crime groups, who often hold them for ransom, extort them, or use them for forced labor. An August 2021 report by the nongovernmental organization OpenGlobalRights describes how Mexican officials often falsify evidence and use other means to cover up their involvement in disappearances. Ayotzinapa, Guerrero The emblematic case of 43 missing students who disappeared in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, in September 2014- which allegedly involved both local police and federal authorities-remains largely unsolved despite efforts by the L6pez Obrador administration to resolve the case with assistance from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). In March 2022, IACHR experts published a report detailing how federal authorities under the Pena Nieto administration used torture to force witnesses to back a false version of how the crime was carried out. The report also described how the Mexican navy played a role in covering up evidence. According to the State Department's Country Report on Human Rights Practices covering 2021, Mexican officials arrested more than 80 suspects related to the crime as of October 2021, but had yet to secure any convictions.

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