@ Cuartoscuro
In recent days, the Animal Político website released several testimonies from migrants who denounced cases of extortion, mass kidnappings, torture, rapes, murders, etc. to the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) without being attended to.
According to the media, the institution concealed and omitted this information since there was no resolution by the CNDH nor was it disseminated through any media. “It has not done so in statements, nor in recommendations, nor in a special report. It did not even mention […] in the first report of Rosario Piedra’s activities at the head of the CNDH, on November 20.” Between September 2019 and February 2020, the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) took these testimonies, the head of which herself received them in writing.
Faced with this situation, the Secretary of the Interior, Olga Sanchez Cordero, asked the CNDH “to clarify an investigation on the violation of the rights of migrants that allegedly” was hidden for two years. Furthermore, despite the fact that the CNDH is an autonomous body, Sanchez Cordero said that it “has to be accountable and be transparent in its actions. If this investigation was saved, it will be necessary to see why this investigation has not happened and why after two years it has not been made known.”
For its part, the CNDH published a statement stating that “not publicizing the testimonies and files […] is not synonymous with ignoring. […] Not exposing the victims is not and will never be a fault.” This as proof of respect for the privacy and security of people. Thus, it condemns “the dissemination of journalistic reports based on obtaining information in an illegal or illegitimate way” especially in the face of the trend of disinformation.
Organizations such as Article 19 and Fundación Justicia spoke out on the public response of the CNDH, considering that it “distorts journalistic work” and said that “journalism obtaining information through unofficial sources does not mean any illegality, as indicated by the human rights organization.”
For more information in Spanish:
Gobierno mexicano pide a CNDH aclarar secuestros de migrantes (Efe Noticias, 5 de febrero 2021)
#NoCallenAlMensajero: ONG se pronuncian contra respuesta de CNDH sobre testimonios ocultos de migrantes (Animal político, 6 de febrero 2021)
Tortura, asesinatos, violaciones: lo que CNDH ha ocultado sobre secuestros a migrantes en 2019 y 2020 (Animal político, 1 de febrero 2021)
Posicionamiento CNDH (CNDH, 4 de febrero 2021)
For more information from SIPAZ:
sipazen.wordpress.com 