I really didn't know this shyt was still going on in Mexico.
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/fe...eared-continues-rise-2013929103218410631.html
Mexico's mountain of unsolved disappearances continues to rise despite President Enrique Pena Nieto's promise to tackle the problem which has devastated thousands of families since 2006.
The disappearance of four people within six days close to the US border recently exposed the cruel mix of state corruption and organised crime still blighting the lives ordinary folks on Mexico's mean streets.
"Mexico today has the worst crisis of disappearances in Latin America, arguably the world," Nik Steinberg, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, told Al Jazeera. "That there is still no single unified definition and many state authorities have no idea how to investigate disappearances shows the government has failed to take the problem seriously."
The recent cluster of disappearances in and around the border city of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, bears the hallmarks of previous cases documented by local and international human rights organisations.
In the early hours of July 29, Jose de Jesus Martinez Chigoand 17-year-oldDiana Laura Hernandez Acostawere stopped by marines at a checkpoint while driving home.
A relative, one of several eyewitnesses, saw marines force the pair into a military vehicle and then drive them to a nearby base. Their families rushed to the base, but were told no civilians were being held.
The next day, 17-year-oldRaul David Alvarez Gutiérrezwas stopped by marines at a different checkpoint in the same city. Several eyewitnesses described to the teenager's family how marines apprehended him. But the federal prosecutor's office refused to accept the family's complaint because the witnesses were too frightened to provide official statements.
Four days later and 40km away in the town of Colombia, Nuevo Leon, several witnesses saw 33-year-old Armando Humberto del Bosque Villarreal dragged from his car by marines as two local police officers watched on. He was witnessed being taken to the navy base on the edge of town, where a captain initially told del Bosque's father his son was being questioned. An hour later, he denied the arrest had ever taken place. Another naval officer later claimed del Bosque was last seen driving to Nuevo Laredo, yet another said he had escaped during the arrest.
None of the victims have been seen since being detained. The navy, which answers directly to the president's office, denies any involvement despite eyewitness accounts.
"There is no more information on their whereabouts or fate. The last we heard the cases were languishing with the PGR [Federal Attorney General] in Nuevo Laredo," Rupert Knox, Amnesty International's Mexico researcher, told Al Jazeera.
"Prosecutorswant the families to provide more evidence while they donothingto further the investigations. They say the eyewitnessaccounts prove nothing as naval authorities deny responsibility.The military have simply stonewalled; the government has ignored all requests for an official response."
Government complicity?
In February 2013, Nieto's government revealed that 26,000 people were reported missing or disappeared between 2006 and 2012 - on top of the 60,000 killed - and authorities had no idea what became of them. The figure, along with the acknowledgement that authorities had so far failed to properly investigate, was a major step forward. It came after six years of denial and downplaying by the previous president Felipe Calderon.
The state - police, army or navy - were directly implicated in half of the disappearances documented by both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch in reports published earlier this year.
Even when the state was not directly involved, it consistently failed to carry out even the most basic of investigations. Criminal inquiries remain unopened in 40 percent of the 26,000 cases, according to the Interior Ministry.
In 2012, the National Human Rights Commission reported 16,000 unidentified bodies across the country.
President Nieto's government has taken some important steps to tackle the disappearances. Twelve investigators have been assignedto a new dedicated unit in the Federal Attorney General's Office.
Mexico is now nine months late submitting information to the United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappeared (CED) regarding what exactly it is doing to meet its obligations under the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, which it ratified in 2008.
Luciano Hazan, CED member, told Al Jazeera: "We await the government's report, but we are seriously worried by the information we have collected from victims and civil society groups."
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/fe...eared-continues-rise-2013929103218410631.html
Mexico's mountain of unsolved disappearances continues to rise despite President Enrique Pena Nieto's promise to tackle the problem which has devastated thousands of families since 2006.
The disappearance of four people within six days close to the US border recently exposed the cruel mix of state corruption and organised crime still blighting the lives ordinary folks on Mexico's mean streets.
"Mexico today has the worst crisis of disappearances in Latin America, arguably the world," Nik Steinberg, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, told Al Jazeera. "That there is still no single unified definition and many state authorities have no idea how to investigate disappearances shows the government has failed to take the problem seriously."
The recent cluster of disappearances in and around the border city of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, bears the hallmarks of previous cases documented by local and international human rights organisations.
In the early hours of July 29, Jose de Jesus Martinez Chigoand 17-year-oldDiana Laura Hernandez Acostawere stopped by marines at a checkpoint while driving home.
A relative, one of several eyewitnesses, saw marines force the pair into a military vehicle and then drive them to a nearby base. Their families rushed to the base, but were told no civilians were being held.
The next day, 17-year-oldRaul David Alvarez Gutiérrezwas stopped by marines at a different checkpoint in the same city. Several eyewitnesses described to the teenager's family how marines apprehended him. But the federal prosecutor's office refused to accept the family's complaint because the witnesses were too frightened to provide official statements.
Four days later and 40km away in the town of Colombia, Nuevo Leon, several witnesses saw 33-year-old Armando Humberto del Bosque Villarreal dragged from his car by marines as two local police officers watched on. He was witnessed being taken to the navy base on the edge of town, where a captain initially told del Bosque's father his son was being questioned. An hour later, he denied the arrest had ever taken place. Another naval officer later claimed del Bosque was last seen driving to Nuevo Laredo, yet another said he had escaped during the arrest.
None of the victims have been seen since being detained. The navy, which answers directly to the president's office, denies any involvement despite eyewitness accounts.
"There is no more information on their whereabouts or fate. The last we heard the cases were languishing with the PGR [Federal Attorney General] in Nuevo Laredo," Rupert Knox, Amnesty International's Mexico researcher, told Al Jazeera.
"Prosecutorswant the families to provide more evidence while they donothingto further the investigations. They say the eyewitnessaccounts prove nothing as naval authorities deny responsibility.The military have simply stonewalled; the government has ignored all requests for an official response."
Government complicity?
In February 2013, Nieto's government revealed that 26,000 people were reported missing or disappeared between 2006 and 2012 - on top of the 60,000 killed - and authorities had no idea what became of them. The figure, along with the acknowledgement that authorities had so far failed to properly investigate, was a major step forward. It came after six years of denial and downplaying by the previous president Felipe Calderon.
The state - police, army or navy - were directly implicated in half of the disappearances documented by both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch in reports published earlier this year.
Even when the state was not directly involved, it consistently failed to carry out even the most basic of investigations. Criminal inquiries remain unopened in 40 percent of the 26,000 cases, according to the Interior Ministry.
In 2012, the National Human Rights Commission reported 16,000 unidentified bodies across the country.
President Nieto's government has taken some important steps to tackle the disappearances. Twelve investigators have been assignedto a new dedicated unit in the Federal Attorney General's Office.
Mexico is now nine months late submitting information to the United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappeared (CED) regarding what exactly it is doing to meet its obligations under the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, which it ratified in 2008.
Luciano Hazan, CED member, told Al Jazeera: "We await the government's report, but we are seriously worried by the information we have collected from victims and civil society groups."
