Latin American Rights Organizations Remember Victims of Forced Disppearances Prensa Latina
go to original August 31, 2017

UN High Commissisoner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein's statement on the International Day for the Victims of Enforced Disappearances (UN Human Rights)

On the International Day for the Victims of Forced Disappearances, Latin America remembered the thousands of people that have been arrested and disappeared from the public eye in the countries where they belong, in which they have never been seen again in what is called "forced disappearance."

Implemented during the dictatorships that plagued for years several Latin American Nations as a strategy to instill terror among the citizens, this practice is currently used in situations of internal conflict as a method of political repression, Telesur news channel commented.

The issue of forced disappearances returns to the fore with the case of Argentinean young activist Santiago Maldonado, whose whereabouts are unknown since last August 1st after being arrested by police officers during a crackdown on a Mapuche protest in Chubut, Argentina.

Personalities and human rights organizations have accused the government of President Mauricio Macri of Maldonado's disappearance and demand from the State to come up with location of the young artisan.

Because of the flagrant indifference of the authorities, the leader of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo Association, Hebe de Bonafini, compared the administration of Macri with the military dictatorship of the 1976-1983 period, in which about 30,000 persons disappeared, according to human rights groups.

On the other hand, the 43 missing students from Ayotzinapa, in the Mexican state of Guerrero, after being attacked by the police of Iguala on September 26, 2014, constitutes another example of injustice and the ineffectiveness of the government of Mexico to clarify the case.

There have been almost three years of the forced disappearance of the 43 students and the Mexican government has not provided any relevant response on the whereabouts of the students.

The government of President Enrique Peña Nieto tried to silent the incident, forbidding the participation of international organizations in the investigation carried out by the local authorities.

According to numbers of the Mexican National Information Registry for Missing Persons, the whereabouts of almost 31 thousand persons are unknown, most of them victims of kidnapping on the part of criminal bands, although also there are cases linked to the police and military.

Now immersed in a peace process after several decades of armed conflict, Colombia turns out to be another of the most affected Latin-American countries by the issue of forced disappearances.

Human rights organizations, victims and Colombian politicians have expressed their support to the creation of the Unit of Search of Persons given as Missing, that will have the mission to clarify the destination of at least 50 thousand persons with unknown whereabouts in this country.

See the original at Prensa Latina

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!