Time for Mexico to Ask for International Assistance to Fix Its Criminal Justice System James A. Goldston and Jose A. Guevara - Americas Quarterly
go to original June 7, 2017

This month, facing public outrage over a spate of killings of journalists, Mexico's President Enrique Peña Nieto responded with promises of institutional change and improved cooperation between federal and state investigators. For Mexicans, this kind of official rhetoric has become part of a time-worn routine that does little to correct the country’s national crisis of impunity. In 2016 alone, 11 journalists were killed and 426 were assaulted. Only about a quarter of these incidents even led to a police investigation; of those, a handful of perpetrators were punished.

Impunity on this scale requires more than vague public commitments; continued failure to act imperils government credibility. Even as Peña Nieto spoke at Los Pinos, reporters angry over the most recent murder – the killing on May 15 of respected journalist Javier Valdez – staged a protest demanding action.

Within Mexico, courageous activists, judges, and others have taken up the call for exceptional measures – including the provision of international assistance to support a restructuring of the justice system. The precise configuration of international and national expertise and participation should be the subject of robust discussion in Mexican society. But there have been many examples of positive international contributions in domestic justice issues around the world, whether as advisers, investigators, prosecutors or judges. The moment has come for Mexico to consider this option.

Violence without redress extends beyond crimes against journalists. There were 22,932 recorded homicides in Mexico in 2016, an increase of more than 20 percent from 2015. But a comprehensive report by our two organizations and four other Mexican groups in 2016 found that, on average, Mexican authorities secured convictions in only about one of every 10 homicide cases from the beginning of 2007 through 2012. Federal prosecutors issued indictments in only 16 percent of homicide investigations they opened between 2009 and July 2015. Legal redress is even less likely for other crimes. Cases of torture and enforced disappearance involving the federal and state security forces are rarely investigated or prosecuted.

More than two and a half years after the country’s highest profile atrocity – the infamous disappearance of 43 students from the Ayotzinapa teaching college – and their families are still waiting for answers and justice.

Read the rest at Americas Quarterly

Photo: Rendicion de Cuentas

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!