Senate Debates 90-Year Prison Sentences for Forced Disappearance Crimes teleSUR
go to original April 24, 2017

At present  the government does not have effective search and investigation mechanisms that are adequate to the magnitude of the problem, that is why family memebers deserved to be listened to and should be considerd in the build up of the Law of Enforced Disappearances. (FundarAC)

The Senate is expected to vote on the reform this week, after months of work by human rights organizations.

Perpetrators could be handed a sentence of up to 90 years in prison for the crime of forced disappearances in Mexico if a bill up for debate passes into law.  

The bill proposes that any person will face 75 years in prison for forcibly disappearing another, but in the case that a public servant who commits the crime, the perpetrator will get 90 years.

The draft legislation also proposed strong sanctions for those who hide or destroy human remains, as well as for people who ignore this type of crime and allow it to go unreported or investigated. The bill sets penalties of up to 20 years in prison for those who carry out or collaborate in the destruction of human remains.

The sanctions may increase if the victim is a minor, a woman, a person with a disability, a migrant, a journalist or a human rights defender, among others. Reductions of the sentences will be given if information on the whereabouts of the victim are given in the first ten days after the crime.

One of the elements of the bill also includes penalties for those who hurt a baby born from a victim of enforced disappearance, such as what happened in cases of forced disappearances during the dictatorship in Argentina when members of the military kidnapped infants and children and raised them as their own.

The importance of the debate looms large after a new report recently found that at least 30,000 people have gone missing in Mexico in the past nine years. The report also found that Mexico is home to a staggering 855 mass graves.

Read the rest at teleSUR

Related: Mexico Drug War Producing "Terrifying" Numbers of Forced Disappearances (Mexico Voices)

Related: Mexico: 30,000 Disappeared, 855 Mass Graves Found in 9 Years (teleSUR)

Related: At Least 2,600 Persons Are Missing in Veracruz, Mexico (Prensa Latina)

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