Watch: Report by Human Rights Group Faults Mexico over Abductions John Hendren - Al Jazeera
go to original February 22, 2013

Report by Human Rights Watch accuses military and police of abducting and killing dozens during six-year drug war. Al Jazeera's John Hendren reports from Mexico City. (AlJazeeraEnglish)

Dozens of people were abducted and killed by Mexican security forces over the past six years, according to a new report from Human Rights Watch.

The report, released on Wednesday, said that the disappearances of 149 people, many of them civilians, followed a pattern in which security forces detained them without warrants at checkpoints, homes or workplaces, or in public.

When families ask about their relatives, security forces deny that they were detained, or urge family members to look at police stations or army bases.

The group criticised former president Felipe Calderon for ignoring the problem, calling it "the most severe crisis of enforced disappearances in Latin America in decades."

The report was a grim reminder of the dark side of the war on drug cartels that killed an estimated 70,000 people during Calderon's six-year presidency. Enrique Pena Nieto, Mexico's current president, has pledged to take a different approach and focus on reducing violent crime and extortion rather than attacking the cartels directly.

Read the whole story at Al Jazeera

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!