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1 1 (October 21, 2020)

handle is hein.crs/govdcij0001 and id is 1 raw text is: October 21,2020 Human Rights Challenges in Mexico: Addressing Enforced Disappearances Mexico faces significant human rights concerns amidst record violence related to drug trafficking and organized crime. Since 2006, the government estimates that 275,000 people have beenkilled and another 71,678 have dis appeared. In some cases, referred to as enforced dis appearances, those dis appearances have involved the complicity of state forces. Congress has taken steps to address the general human rights situation in Mexico, as well as the specific issue of enforced dis appearances, through foreign assistance and conditions on that assistance, hearings, and letters to Mexican andU.S. Administrations. The United Nations (U.N.) International Convention for the Protection of AllPersons fromEnforced Dis appearance defines the termenforced disappearanceto mean the arrest, detention, abduction or any other fonnof 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 deprivationofliberty orby 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 dirtywars of this period, officials arrestedand 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 whohave disappeared in Mexico went missing during the country's dirty war period (1,500 out of an estimated 73,200 total; see Figure 1). The vast majority of enforced dis appearances have occurred more recently. As of July 2020, Mexican authorities estimated that 71,678 people had disappeared since drug trafficking related violence began to escalate in 2006, and then-president Felipe Calder6n launched a military-led response. Despite criticism that military-led antidrug strategies have contributed to an escalation in homicides and enforced disappearances, former Pres ident Enrique Pefia Nieto (2012-2018) and current President Andres Manuel L6pez Obradorhavelargely maintainedCalder6n's approach. While criminal groups have carried out many of the disappearances, state forces have participated, or have been complicit, in many cases. Figure I. Disappearances in Mexico, 1964-2020 aDai 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 orprobable cause. Some detainees are tortured for purposes of obtaining information and then disappeared by security forces to coverup their deaths. Others are handed over to organized crime groups, who often hold themfor ransom, extort them, oruse them for forced labor. Victims' families routinely face threats and intimidation fromauthorities when trying to report disappearances. Families are often forced to carry out s earches for dis appeared family members on their own. The case of the 43 students who disappearedin Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, in September2014 attracted global attention. The initial investigation by the federal attorney general's office found thatlocalpolice had arrested the students on orders from the mayor and handed themover to a criminal group. Experts from the Inter-American Commis sion on Human Rights disproved those findings, which did not consider the involvement of federal forces in the case. In 2018, a federal judge deemed the initial investigation flawed. President Lpez Obrador later es tablished a truth commis s ion on Ayotzinapa, and a new special prosecutor within the federal prosecutor general's office-which has replaced the attorney general's office-reopened the case. In March 2020, a federaljudge issued arrest warrants sought by the specialprosecutor's office for a former Mexican marine and five former officials in the office of the attorney general for torture and obstruction ofjusticerelatedto the case. Arrest warrants also have been is sued for dozens of Mexican soldiers and police. DNA analysis has helped identify the remains of at least two students; the other students have yet to he identified. \ Q

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