While Disappearances in Mexico Continue to Increase, Government Denies Problem La Jornada
go to original April 3, 2016

Disappearances in Mexico (Amnesty International)

According to a report released by the Mexican Childrens’ Rights Network (Redim), between 2012 and 2014, the number of disappearances of young girls, and teenagers under the age of 17 increased by 191%, going from 404 cases to 1,179. This figure comes from within a much broader study, carried out between 2006 and 2014. During this period, more than 22,000 cases of disappearances - in which 30% of the victims were minors – were reported. Furthermore, according to the same document, the rise in the disappearances of girls and teenagers observed has not stopped since the beginning of the current federal government.

An unavoidable precedent of this data being broadcast was the publishing of a report, in early March, from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), which stated that our country is in the midst of a violent security crisis, and has been for several years. The same report also highlights numerous cases of forced disappearances.

It should be noted, that the official response centered on discrediting the report – arguing that its original methodology was biased, as it did not list what was being done to address the situation.

However, in the wake of the figures released by Redim, the description of the national situation in the IACHR report is painfully accurate. As well as prominent occurrences, such as the events that transpired in Iguala, Guerrero, on 26 September 2014, in which 43 normal school students from Ayotzinapa disappeared, the country is suffering from an increasing and systematic proliferation of disappearances, and the State has not been able to put a stop to these occurrences, which result in trafficking, sexual exploitation and forced labour, in the least bad cases, or in extrajudicial killings.

Read the rest at Mexico Voices

Translated by Marc McPherson

Mexico Voices is a blogging endeavor aimed at raising the awareness of U.S. citizens regarding the destructive impact of the U.S. economic policy and the War on Drugs on Mexico — on its people, their economic and physical security and their human rights, on the nation’s dysfunctional justice system, and on the rule of law and Mexico’s fragile democracy. Visit the website at MexicoVoices.blogspot.mx

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