National: International Week of the Detained and Disappeared concludes in Mexico

International Week of the Detained and Disappeared 2014
(@Comité Cerezo)

In the last week of May, various activities were held in Mexico in the framework of the International Week of the Detained and Disappeared. They were organized to “demand the presentation alive of all the disappeared of the country, to feed the memory and historical consciousness of the population, and to sensitize it to suppress forced disappearance, a crime against humanity, carried out in the country and the world; as well as to establish and promulgate clear laws prohibiting its execution and guarantee that the guilty are punished, and to eradicate such practices.”

On May 26, the Committee of Relatives of Detained and Disappeared “Until We Find Them” informed that it has been seeking justice in the case of the forced disappearance of Edmundo Reyes Amaya and Gabriel Alberto Cruz Sánchez (militants of the Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR) disappeared in Oaxaca, in May 2007) for seven years. It announced that they will come before the Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), due to the fact that the Mexican State “has ignored their demands” and has not guaranteed the conditions to find them alive nor to punish those responsible.

On 28 May, the Report of the National Campaign Against Forced Disappearances was presented in Mexico City. It informs that forced disappearances against social activists (men and women) is a State practice which seeks to control and eliminate political dissent. It claims that during the current administration, the practice has spread to other sectors of society such as the young people, women, and migrants, and so has become “a broader social control mechanism that also serves for territorial plunder and to control migration flows.” The Cerezo Committee reported inconsistencies between the number of missing people presented by the authorities such as the Ministry of the Interior and the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) compared to what the civil and victims organizations have documented. The report also states that 30 human rights defenders have been victims of this practice during the first 18 months of Enrique Peña Nieto‘s government.

After the presentation of this report, the Forum “Forced Disappearances, Systematic Impunity: From Rosendo Radilla Pacheco to Edmundo Reyes Amaya and Gabriel Cruz…” was carried out.

Finally, on the 30th, a march was organized under the motto “Detained and Disappeared to the Streets! Presentation NOW!” Members of approximately 15 social organizations participated so as to demand actions to adequately characterize this crime against humanity and to establish a single protocol for the whole country.

For more information (in Spanish)

Informe sobre Desaparición Forzada 2014 (Comité Cerezo, mayo de 2014)

El gobierno “desaparece a los desaparecidos”, acusan las ONG (CNN México, 24 de mayo de 2014)

Irán ante justicia interamericana familiares de dos eperristas desaparecidos en 2007 (La Jornada, 26 de mayo de 2014)

La desaparición forzada de activistas aumentó 300% en los primeros 18 meses de Peña Nieto, denuncian ONGs (SinEmbargo, 29 de mayo de 2014)

Activistas marchan para exigir una ley contra las desapariciones forzadas (La Jornada, 30 de mayo de 2014)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

National/Internacional: Mexico accepts 166 of the 176 recommendations released by the United Nations (March 30, 2014)

National: 30 August, International Day for Victims of Forced Disappearance (September 16, 2013)

Mexico: Amnesty International presents its report on forced disappearances (June 10, 2013)