Human Rights Expert Warns Ayotzinapa Case Signals Return to Authoritarian Mexico teleSUR
go to original April 11, 2016

Mexico’s controversial handling of the case of 43 forcibly disappeared Ayotzinapa students and blatant sidelining of independent expert investigators has signaled a dangerous rollback to a more “authoritarian Mexico,” a human rights expert told the Mexican daily La Jornada.

“If the Mexican government goes in the opposite direction of human rights, it goes it the opposite direction of democracy, in a context of its decline or impairment,” Emilio Alvarez Icaza, executive secretary of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, told La Jornada in an interview published Saturday.

Last month, Mexican prosecutors launched an investigation into Alvarez Icaza over alleged fraud linked to the Ayotzinapa case. Although authorities ruled not to lay charges, the IACHR expert says the process has been part of a campaign by the Mexican state to harass and discredit independent experts seeking justice in the Ayotzinapa case.

He said such actions are “very serious and regrettable” and signal a return to an “authoritarian Mexico.” The attack on a chief of the IACHR was unprecedented, a move that didn’t even happen under the reign of military dictatorships, Alvarez Icaza added.

“If there was legal action against the executive secretary of IACHR, what can human rights defenders in Mexico expect?” he continued, raising particular concern for the wellbeing of rural activists.

Read the rest at teleSUR

Related: Ayotzinapa Experts Fight Mexico's Historical Lie on 43 Students (teleSUR)

Related: No Evidence of Mexico's 43 Missing Students' Remains in Rubbish, Lab Finds (The Guardian)

Related: Amnesty International Disqualifies Attorney General’s Conclusions (The News)

Related: Officials in Northern Mexican City Hope Experts Can Help Find Missing (EFE)

Photo: EFE

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