Mexican Government must act now to end kidnapping and killings of migrants
26 August 2010
Amnesty International is gravely concerned at the mass execution of 72 migrants near Mexico's northern border, which came to light last Tuesday (24 August 2010).
The killings are thought to have been carried out by members of a drug trafficking gang, known as the Zetas.
Latest reports suggest the victims, who were kidnapped by the criminal gang, were irregular migrants from El Salvador, Honduras, Ecuador and Brazil.
Amnesty International believes that it is crucial that those responsible for the killings be identified and brought to justice as soon as possible.
However, we are calling on the authorities to ensure the safety of witnesses as a top priority and to quickly and reliably establish the identity of victims so that families can begin to grieve for their losses.
Sufficient resources must be made available to relatives of the victims to help them to recover the bodies.
Migrants in extreme danger
The cold-blooded murder of defenceless migrants attempting to enter the US, in the hope of improving their lives and that of their families, is the clearest proof yet of the scale and severity of attacks on this vulnerable element of society.
Last April, Amnesty International issued a report that highlighted the failure of Mexican authorities to implement measures that would have prevented thousands of kidnappings, killings and rapes of irregular migrants.
These crimes are mainly carried out by criminal gangs, who often operate with the complicity or acquiescence of public officials.
This latest case again demonstrates the extreme dangers faced by migrants and the apparent inability of both federal and state authorities to reduce the risks that they face.
This latest case again demonstrates the extreme dangers faced by migrants and the apparent inability of both federal and state authorities to reduce the risks that they face.
The federal government has so far failed to show clear leadership by addressing the systematic violence faced by irregular migrants.
A clear action plan that involves all key agencies, including the Federal Attorney General's Office, the Federal Public Security Ministry, the Interior Ministry, the National Migration Services and state authorities must be implemented if the situation is to be improved.
Life on the margins
Irregular migrants’ lack of legal status means that they are denied access to effective recourse to the justice system.
Excluded from mainstream society and beyond the reach of the law, Mexico’s irregular migrants are condemned to a life on the margins.
They are vulnerable to exploitation by criminal gangs and corrupt officials and largely ignored by many of those in authority who should be protecting them from human rights abuses.
Human rights abuses against Mexican migrants in the USA attract a great deal of public concern, and rightly so.
Public outrage over the crisis facing migrants in Mexico, on the other hand, has been much more muted.
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