Military Abuses

Violence and murders attributed to organized crime in Mexico have spiraled in the last two Years. In response to this the Mexican President Felipe Calderon has deployed 50,000 troops to combat this extreme cartel violence. Reports of serious human rights violations, such as unlawful killings, disappearances and torture, committed by military and police forces have risen in the last two years. Military jurisdiction and impunity for such cases remain the norm.

Federal Police and other police forces are also deployed widely. Police reform has not led to reductions in human rights violations; such as torture, arbitrary detention and misuse of the criminal justice system continue.

Here are some figures to highlight these points

  • 14,000 murders reported in media between 2008 and October 2009
  • In Ciudad Juárez, 3,052 drug cartel killings between ‘08 and Sep ‘09, (NHRC, July 2009).
  • 559 complaints of abuse by military in first 6 months of ‘09 (NHRC)
  • 1,230 complaints in 2008, compared to only 367 in 2007 and 182 in 2006
  • 6 cases in which charges were filed from 110 military investigations.

The latest Amnesty International report accuses the Mexican authorities of failing to fully investigate allegations of abuse committed by the military, during its attempts to combat organised crime and drug cartels.

There are concerns that in the rare situations when cases of abuse are taken forward, they are dealt with in virtually closed military courts where victims and their relatives have no access to information and no status on which they can challenge judicial or court proceedings.

Amnesty International calls for :

  • Independent and impartial investigations conducted by the civilian justice system into allegations of abuses by the military.
  • The military to comply with international human rights law which prohibits, underany circumstances, enforced disappearances, unlawful and extrajudicial killings, torture and arbitrary detention.

Join our call take action now.

Read our report on human rights abuses by the Mexican military

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