Mexico has a higher number of civilian deaths than Iraq and Afghanistan

Relatives of 43 missing students marching and demanding justice Relatives of 43 missing students marching and demanding justice Ginnette Riquelme/Reuters

5 December 2016
Mexico is enduring a serious human rights crisis, along with the impunity in the justice system.

According to a report on high-impact crimes, developed by the ONC (National Civil Observatory), a civilian project that focuses on security conditions of the country, September 2016 has been the worst month of intentional murders with 2,187 victims, 588 more than in the same period in 2015. Up to September 2016, Mexico suffered 15,201 intentional murders that, when combined with manslaughters deaths registered in the country, increases the total to 26,283. This figure does not include the number of forced disappearances, extrajudicial executions, torture, widespread insecurity and violence against journalists and human rights advocates.

On 30th August 2016, president Enrique Peña Nieto announced a new strategy of a close coordination between the Security Cabinet and the local authorities, with the aim of preventing and combating the increasing number of homicides, focusing on 50 municipalities where 42% of the crimes are concentrated. A less than encouraging panorama if we consider that exactly 10 years ago, the then president Felipe Calderón, started a war against drug trafficking across the country. Such high rates of violence clearly show that this war led to a growing level of violence and insecurity in Mexico, affecting not only the criminals connected to drug cartels but society as a whole, including innocent civilians. Indeed, between 2006 and 2012, 60,000 people died because of violence related to drugs and during the same period, a further 26,121 disappeared.

Many people from various Mexican cities crossed the border with the US to escape violence. Meanwhile, US president-elect Donald Trump, threatens building a wall along the common border and deporting a huge number of undocumented immigrants. Mexicans, inside and outside their country, have to contend with a Mexico that continues to fathom how to contain its relentless violence.

 

For more information, read:

http://cnnespanol.cnn.com/2016/11/15/la-violencia-sigue-disparada-en-mexico-que-esta-fracasando/#0
http://www.hispantv.com/noticias/opinion/198724/mexico-43-normalistas-desaparecidos-ayotzinapa-iguala
http://es.insightcrime.org/noticias-del-dia/cifras-demuestran-violencia-aumenta-extiende-mexico
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mexico-violence-idUSKCN0XP37M
https://www.insightonconflict.org/blog/2013/10/war-on-drugs/
https://www.ictj.org/news/why-mexico-lagging-so-badly-human-rights
https://www.ictj.org/news/commission-says-mexico-human-rights-crisis

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