Can Mexico Honor the Victims of Enforced Disappearances When It Is Often Complicit? Dawn Paley - teleSUR
go to original August 31, 2016

On May 7th 2016, Maximiliano Gordillo Martínez (18) was traveling from his community Socoltenango, Chiapas to Playa del Carmen Quintana Roo, to find a job. He was detained by the National Institute of Migration at the checkpoint at Chablé, Tabasco. They mistook him for being a foreign undocumented migrant of central-American origin due to his physical traits. Up until now, there are no signs of Maximiliano and the National Institute of Migration denies having him. (Centro de Derechos Humanos Frayba)

Indifference doesn’t go far enough to describe the actions of the Mexican government in the face of the over 27,600 cases that have been included in the National Register of Missing or Disappeared Persons. The real number of people disappeared is higher, however it is not clear by how much. Amnesty International released a report in January 2016 which found that families often do not report disappearances because of a deep-seated fear of the authorities and a prevailing belief that “officials are colluding with criminal gangs.”

Beyond the acquiescence of authorities, the Amnesty report went on to document five key impacts disappearance has on families of the victim: “access to education is limited or interrupted, health problems are aggravated or treatment can no longer be accessed, loss of the family home or inability to find a home, adequate alimentation is compromised, families face economic difficulties.”

The International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances was declared when the United Nations adopted the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance in 1992. The Convention considers enforced disappearance as taking place when:

“Persons are arrested, detained or abducted against their will or otherwise deprived of their liberty by officials of different branches or levels of Government, or by organized groups or private individuals acting on behalf of, or with the support, direct or indirect, consent or acquiescence of the Government, followed by a refusal to disclose the fate or whereabouts of the persons concerned or a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of their liberty, which places such persons outside the protection of the law."

According to this definition, the majority of disappearances in Mexico would count as enforced disappearances, as state authorities at a minimum acquiesce, and do little to help locate the missing.

Read the rest at teleSUR

Related: Sign Petition to Tell INM 'We Do Not Accept One More Disappeared Person in Mexico' (Centro de Derechos Humanos Frayba)

Related: In Depth: International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances (teleSUR)

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