On 15 December, the Mexican Embassy in Germany organized a meeting with the subsecretary for multilateral affairs and human rights from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Miguel Ruiz Cabañas Izquierdo, for a dialogue regarding the state of human rights in Mexico. After the event, the German Coordination for Human Rights in Mexico (DMKRM) lamented that the official had not recognized the human-rights crisis in the country. With regard to the presence of the Army in the streets and the accusations that exist against soldiers for numerous cases of extrajudicial executions and human-rights violations against the people, Carola Hausotter, executive director of DMKRM, said that “the fundamental contradictions between the official discourse of the diplomatic corps and the information received regarding human rights in Mexico that the German Coordination receives through its counterparts in Mexico and international organizations such as the UN has been notorious.” Regarding the problem of impunity, Ruiz Cabañas “denied the rate of 98%, calling into question the official data that support this conclusion.” According to a press conference published by DMKRM, the subsecretary failed to recognize that the majority of cases of attacks against human-rights defenders and journalists that remain in impunity. Due to such “evasive attitudes” the members of DMKRM, which include Amnesty International and the Ecumenical Office for Peace and Justice, called on the Mexican government to “submit a concrete plan of measures to implement […] in accordance with the human-rights recommendations formulated by international organizations, thus recognizing their validity and legitimacy.”
It should be mentioned that on 9 June 2015, the Mexican and German governments signed a Declaration of Intention to establish a binational commission that would incorporate broad collaboration in terms of security, foreign policy, development, sustainable development, science, education, and culture. After the conference “Forcible disappearance, a systematic crime: the political crisis in Mexico,” which took place on 25 October 2015 in Germany, the DMKRM expressed its doubts regarding this project because Mexico “finds itself presently in a profound political-juridical crisis: all the institutional levels are in fact linked to organized crime.” Amidst this panorama, DMKRM concluded that the Germany State must pressure the Mexican government to adopt policies that will help advance human rights.
For more information (in Spanish):
Exigen organizaciones alemanas compromiso con los derechos humanos a Estado (Centro ProDH, 18 de diciembre de 2015)
Indigna a activistas alemanes “postura evasiva” de Peña sobre violación de derechos humanos (Proceso, 17 de diciembre de 2015)
Comunicado de prensa Coordinación alemana por los derechos humanos en México (DMKRM, 16 de diciembre de 2015)
ONG alemanas cuestionan que su país declare a México respetuoso de los derechos (La Jornada, 5 de diciembre de 2015)
Instituciones mexicanas, vinculadas al crimen organizado en todos sus niveles: ONG’s en Alemania (Proceso, 2 de diciembre de 2015)
For more information from SIPAZ (in English):
National/Guerrero: “No more arms sales to Mexico” – German government (8 March 2015)
National/International: German activists reject security agreement with Mexico (10 February 2015
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