Enforced Disappearances Still an Appalling Reality in the Americas Amnesty International
go to original August 30, 2013

Confronting a Nightmare: Disappearances in Mexico (AmnestyInternational)

Enforced disappearances in the Americas are not only an inheritance of the dark past of the authoritarian governments of the 1970s and 80s, but also an appalling ongoing practice, Amnesty International said as it marked the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances.

“In Colombia and in Mexico, the authorities aren’t facing up to a serious ongoing problem of enforced disappearances,” said Guadalupe Marengo, Amnesty International’s Americas Programme Director.

“Both countries’ governments are failing to effectively investigate these cases and bring those suspected of criminal responsibility to justice. This impunity only fuels new enforced disappearances, as the perpetrators believe there are no consequences for their actions.
 
Meanwhile in other countries in the region – including Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Bolivia, Peru, El Salvador, Guatemala and Haiti – thousands of people are still missing decades after internal conflicts and political repression.

... More than 26,000 people were reported missing or disappeared in Mexico between 2006 and 2012. It is unclear how many remain unaccounted for. Some are the victims of enforced disappearances in which public officials are implicated. Others have been abducted by private individuals or criminal gangs. Still others may simply have left home without telling anyone.

Despite the shocking numbers involved, the authorities have systematically failed to investigate and clarify the vast majority of cases, including the many hundreds of disappearances in which there is evidence of detention or abduction, whether by state agents or criminal gangs. The systematic failure of state and federal authorities to take seriously the mounting reports of disappearances has helped create a climate where such crimes are tolerated.

Read the rest at Amnesty International

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