Mike LaSusa: The US Must Address Its Role in Mexico's Human Rights Crisis Mike LaSusa - Truthout
go to original April 25, 2015

Through in-depth research in five states, Human Rights Watch documented scores of cases of disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and torture carried out by security forces. (HumanRightsWatch)

The militarized approach to crime and violence pursued by Mexico and other countries in Latin America with US support has not only failed to achieve its stated objectives, but in many cases, has contributed to the very problems it proposes to solve. Instead of "wiping out" organized crime, this decades-long warlike framework has paradoxically ensured that only the most adaptable, innovative and ruthless groups survive.

Since it was ramped up in the mid-2000s under the nearly $2 billion, US-funded "Merida Initiative," the drug war has left an estimated 100,000 dead and millions more displaced in Mexico alone. A large number of high-level cartel leaders have been arrested by Mexican authorities in recent years, but this so-called "kingpin" strategy often causes further violence by destabilizing already volatile black markets. Additionally, this heavy-handed "whack-a-mole" approach can fragment criminal groups and disperse their influence over wider areas, simply pushing violence around rather than addressing its root causes.

Criminals of various sorts are undoubtedly responsible for many horrific acts of violence in Mexico, but they depend on the protection offered by the country's weak and often-corrupted police and judicial institutions to operate with widespread impunity. In many cases, the distinction between organized crime and "the state" is one without a difference, as criminal groups have become increasingly intertwined with official politics.

...Given the deluge of credible reports about the involvement of Mexican forces in numerous massacres and mass disappearances in recent months and years - and even more disturbing, the efforts of government officials to impede proper investigations and critical, investigative journalism - the United States should keep its international obligations in mind, and perhaps more importantly, it should follow its own laws and demand Mexico take serious measures to prevent and prosecute such abuses before it receives further US assistance.

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