Four months after the disappearance of 43 students from Ayotzinapa in Mexico, authorities concluded that they had been burned, while protestors at local and international level raise their voices to demand justice and investigate the implications of the army and federal police.
The Attorney General’s conclusion was based on 386 statements that helped establish the facts and forensic evidence which identified one of the missing students. The Attorney General defends his gendarmes while acknowledges that still has much to clarify.
Human Rights Watch criticized the Attorney General for assuming that there are 43 dead based on the identification of a single victim. They recalled that the Mexican government obtains confessions through “torture and irregularities” which de-legitimizes statements obtained. In 2013, the Committee Against Torture of the UN was forced to submit 72 recommendations to Mexico when the federal government acknowledged that torture is a serious problem.
Witnesses and footage of the students attacked connect the army and federal police to the disappearances. According to the Mexican magazine “Proceso”, based on research from the University of California at Berkeley, there is evidence that the federal police “actively and directly participated in the attack” and that the army was aware of what happened.
It is no coincidence that Ferguson’s and Iguala’s events occurred simultaneously and that the respective governments are accused of torture.
The United States has involved Mexico in its failed drug war and militarization tactics, while supplying 2,000 illegal weapons daily. Mexico suffers the effects of massive military deployment in major cities hit by drug trafficking, racking up 100,000 dead in six years.
The Mexican National Human Rights Commission has received 9,000 complaints of military abuse. In June in Tlatlaya the military killed 22 civilians, 15 were extra-judicially executed, a clear violation of human rights. Two witnesses were beaten repeatedly by the state attorney to force them to deny military responsibility.
Militarization has increased violence, citizens are treated as enemies and cities have become battle zones while the judicial system clearly inclines against the marginalized, leaving them defenseless.
The U.S. government sends the local police military arms and trains their staff in warfare tactics. In 2012, SWAT teams were used to execute search warrants in 63% of the cases of drug investigations, mostly in communities of color (42% African American and 12% Hispanic) according to the ACLU.
Racism is evident. The respected Mexican writer Elena Poniatovska, accused the government of being racist for delaying the recognition of Iguala’s case because the victims were poor, peasants and indigenous.
Governments can’t ignore human rights. A transparent and accountable system is needed, it must have the ability to curb impunity and safeguard its citizens. As Uruguayan President Mujica said, Mexico gives the feeling of being a “failed state”, it is in the people’s hands to promote and demand change.
