Human Rights Watch denounces that violent crimes "have reached historic peaks" during the presidency of López Obrador

A forensic doctor walks on a street where the bodies of four people were deposited, in Fresnillo, Zacatecas State, on February 5, 2022.STRINGER (REUTERS)

Violence has run rampant during the presidency of the Morenista Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

Although the official discourse tries to show a reduction in homicides and kidnappings, the most recent report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) shows that violent crimes "have reached historic peaks" during this Administration and levels of impunity remain high, with barely a 1% of cases resolved.

"Violent crime rates have suffered a drastic increase in Mexico, and reached historic levels during the current government," HRW warns in its 2023 report, made public this Thursday.

"Although the authorities often attribute this violence to criminal cartels, most crimes are not investigated and those responsible are never identified or prosecuted," criticizes the human rights organization.

The reduction of violence is one of the issues on which the chief executive insists the most since he took power at the end of 2018. López Obrador presents official reports that show a significant drop in crimes, mainly in relation to homicides , which is, says the president, a sample of the success of his policy of "hugs and no bullets."

Ricardo Mejía Berdeja, Undersecretary of Security, appeared on December 20 at López Obrador's morning press conference to affirm that crime in Mexico has registered a 30% reduction.

Mejía Berdeja also assured that homicides are on the decline, with "a very relevant decrease" in November, which was the month, he said, "with fewer intentional homicides in the last six years."

According to the statistics presented by the official, in November the authorities registered 23.5 victims less than the historical maximum in intentional homicides in the country, which was in July 2018. “Within the comparative January-November 2022, in relation to this same period from 2018 to 2021, there are relevant data.

There were 28,469 victims of intentional homicides, which implies a decrease of less than 7.3

compared to the same period in 2021;

less than 10.8% compared to the same period in 2020;

less than 10.6% compared to the same months of 2019, and less than 7.7% compared to 2018. Regarding the average daily intentional homicides, there is a reduction to 85, whereas in 2019 there were 95, which which implies 10 fewer homicides per day,” said Mejía Berdeja.

Despite this reduction, the numbers from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi) show that the country continues to stagnate at high levels of violence.

The Inegi has reported that Mexico registered 35,625 homicides in 2021, a figure similar to that of 2020, and although the murder rate fell from 29 to 28 per 100,000 inhabitants, violence continues unbridled in the country.

Only in March of last year —a very bloody month— there were more than 3,600 murders, which shows how Mexico is consumed by violence.

All in all, the president praises his security policy.

“In the rest of the crimes we are going down and what cost us the most work was lowering the homicides, because the trend was going up, they left us that legacy —like others—,

The HRW report, however, denounces that the government's security policies have not only failed to stop the violence, but can also incur serious human rights violations.

“Police, prosecutors and soldiers routinely use torture to extract confessions and commit other abuses against people accused of crimes.

The justice system habitually does not ensure the guarantees of due process”, alert from the agency, which criticizes the constant militarization of security in the current six-year term.

“It is common for police, prosecutors and soldiers to use torture to obtain information and confessions.

In the most recent survey of incarcerated people carried out by the official statistics agency in July 2021, almost half of the respondents indicated that, after being detained,

policemen or soldiers had subjected them to physical abuse.

Among those who had confessed to a crime, 38% said they had done so only because the authorities had beaten or threatened them," denounces HRW.

To the horror of the still high homicide rates that hit Mexicans, the statistics add a high number of disappeared, the other nightmare hits the country: at least 105,000 people are registered as missing in Mexico, according to official statistics.

“Authorities believe the actual number would be higher.

Almost 90,000 have disappeared since the start of the “war” against organized crime in 2006. Thousands of people continue to disappear each year.

More than 36,000 people have disappeared since López Obrador took office,” HRW warns.

The agency makes a grotesque complaint: "Authorities believe that many of the missing persons have been buried in mass graves by state or local officials after forensic services declared them 'unidentified' or 'unclaimed'."

According to the report, between 2006 and 2020, at least 50,000 bodies were not properly identified by the authorities.

“It is possible that other people have been killed and buried in hidden graves by police, military and criminal groups.

Between 2006 and 2021, the authorities would have found at least 4,000 of these graves in the country,” reports the human rights organization.

In this context of violence that is bleeding Mexico dry, activists and journalists are the target of excessive cruelty.

The Human Rights Watch report recalls that the country is one of the most dangerous in the world for journalists and human rights defenders, "especially those who criticize public officials or expose the work of criminal cartels."

Last year, between January and September, 15 journalists were killed in the country.

HRW reports that Article 19, an organization that ensures the safety of journalists, registered at least 331 threats, attacks and other forms of aggression against journalists in the first half of 2022, which is why many reporters decide to resort to self-censorship.

“Authorities often fail to adequately investigate crimes against journalists,” warns Human Rights Watch.

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