Human Rights Issues in Mexico

8/13/2019 Human Rights Issues in Mexico

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Caitlin Wilkinson

October 28th

2013

CRM 307

Professor Finley

Human Rights Violations in Mexico

Mexico is well known for its internal struggles with organized crime and its issues of

abuse and corruption within the powers of authority. In order to attempt to capture and detain

criminals in organized crime rings, authorities often disregard the Mexican laws as well as the

International Human Rights treaties that Mexico has ratified. The purpose of this essay is to

discuss the violations that are being committed, the treaties that are being violated, and the

theories that can address the reasoning behind the human rights violations. In order to

accomplish this, I will delve into detail on these situations so that a deeper understanding of the

situation in Mexico can be breached.

As addressed, Mexico has suffered through numerous human rights violations that have affected

the sanctity of their government, the safety of their citizens, the lives of migrants, and have

provided opportunity for organized crime rings to capitalize on the discordance between the laws

and the application of laws. This is a very broad incident to cover, but it is one of the most vital

issues to cover in order to understand the depth of the violations that are occurring in Mexico.

Mexican authorities have violated human rights treaties to combat organized crime groups

through the use of torture, covering up or being the perpetrators of disappearances, and killing

civilians and criminals alike outside of the system. To begin addressing the violations, the

military abuses will be addressed first. Mexico has used the military as a major defensive


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mechanism against organized crime, which is one of the biggest crimes in Mexico; crime rings

are responsible for a high percentage and a wide range of crimes committed. An offset of crime

rings that is also being fought against is drug-related violence. Mexico is a nation that is plagued

by drug-related crimes and offences because of their economic struggles and internal authority

issues. Mexicos National Human Rights Commission has reported that between January 2007

and November 2012, 109 cases of human rights violations from the army had been reported.

7,350 complaints have also been recorded about the military abuse of power (World Report).

Military officials and other authority figures alike have abused their powers to pursue what they

feel are the best courses of action in order to reach the desired objective of reducing crime. To

reach this objective, they have disregarded the laws set in place to protect citizens and civilians

alike; individuals who have been apprehended by the authorities have been reported to have been

held incommunicado (without communication with the outside world) in military bases or in

illegal detention sites (World Report). The methods used to obtain information from these

detained individuals include waterboarding, the use of electric shocks, death threats, physical

beatings, sleep deprivation, asphyxiation, and other forms of torture (World Report).In these

situations, the apprehended individuals are subjected to multiple techniques of information

retrieval that are illegal and against human rights treaties.

Additional violations have occurred within the criminal justice system and the judicial

system itself. Within the criminal justice system, there is a widespread failure in the finding of

justice for those who are victims of human rights violations and violent crimes (World Report).

Mexico is still operating under the traditional system and has not taken the steps to integrate the

international treaties into their systems. This promotes ignorance and negligence towards these

treaties, which prevents the proper protections of citizens and civilians. An example of their


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adherence to the traditional system is their development and implementation of arraigo.

Arraigo is detainment that allows for suspects of organized crimes to be held in captivity for up

to 80 days without a trial; people held under arragio are often held over the 80 day limit (World

Report). This is in clear violation of human rights, which will be discussed shortly. There is

inherent corruption within the system, as well, coupled with a lack of training in the application

of laws and the restrictions of human rights treaties and the negligence of prosecutors to ensure

the legality of their behavior. As addressed earlier, multiple methods of torture are used to

extract information from detained individuals. This information that has been obtained through

the use of illegal methods is then brought to court, where judges often do not question the

methods used and convict the offender with said information.

Within prisons, it is also seen that human rights have been violated. The conditions that

prisoners are forced to liven in are deplorable at best, are severely overpopulated and violate the

most basic of human rights, not to mention the treaty against of torture. This is the lesser of the

two violations that will be addressed, however. The more inhumane violation that is occurring is

the powers that organized crime rings have amassed due to the corruption of the legal system.

Crime rings have obtained control over multiple prison systems in Mexico and use this power to

control the inflow and outflow of prisoners and to use it as a means of diminishing the numbers

of rival groups whose members are sent to prison (World Report). In 2012, guards in an Apodaca

prison turned a blind eye to the butchering of 44 inmates who belonged to a rival group of the

group who was controlling the prison.

The Human Rights Treaties that have been violated so far are the Inter-American Convention to

Prevent and Punish Torture, ratified in 1987, the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel,

Inhumane or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, ratified in 1986, the optional Protocol


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attached, ratified in 2005, and the Inter-American Convention on Forces Disappearance, ratified

in 2002(Minesota HRL). The Convention Against Torture provides the universal definition of

torture and creates distinct guidelines that explain when the treaty is being violated; it explains

when interrogation is considered torture, when it is constitutional and when it is violating the

treaty (Minnesota HRL).

ICPPT defines torture in a more detailed manner that the UN Convention Against Torture

to include The use of methods upon a person intended to obliterate the personality of the victim

or to diminish his physical or mental capacities, even if they do not cause physical pain or mental

anguish.(Minnesota HRL) It clearly states that a public servant who uses torture against

another, even under the orders of a superior, is guilty and is subject to the law. Furthermore,

domestic political instability or domestic disturbances are not considered as justifications for the

treaty to be ignored. These treaties allow one to see the violations that have occurred in the

Criminal Justice System and subsequently in prisons. Information that had been obtained through

illegal means cannot stand in a court of law because it is the enforcement of the initial violation.

It appropriates the violation and subjects the individual being prosecuted to further human rights

violations. In the prisons, convicted persons are subjected to forms of torture through

uninhabitable living environments and the corruption of the system they have been placed in.

Because crime rings are allowed to dominate within the system, corruption is being validated

and the Criminal Justice System of Mexico has failed to uphold not only its own rights of

authority, but the guaranteed rights of prisoners. Essentially, they are undoing the work that they

have done thus far and are adding additional human rights violations to the violations they

committed to stop crime rings in the first place.


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The ICFDP states that no extenuating circumstances legally condone or justify the

forced disappearance of persons (Minnesota HRL). In addition, any individual who is deprived

of their liberties shall be held in legally recognized places and will be brought in front of a court

without delay. (Minnesota HRL). This aids in explaining the violation that the Criminal Justice

System has created; they have promoted the ignorance towards human rights treaties, in addition

to allowing for the detainment of non-convicted persons for a set period of time. The ICDFP also

proves that the actions of the military and other authority officials are in violation of human

rights treaties due to their apprehended persons that are held incommunicado in illegal areas.

It is possible to explain the behaviors of the Mexican authorities by viewing their actions

through theoretical application. To provide a basic understanding of the methods and motivations

of the violations of human rights treaties in Mexico, I will apply the routine activities theory,

social disorganization theory, and rational choice theory. Routine activities theory dictates that

there are three necessary factors that allow for crime, or in this case, human rights violations, to

be committed. First, there has to be a motivated offender. In our case, the motivated offenders

are the military and authority figures who violate the treaties in order to stymie organized crime

rings. Seconds, there must be suitable victims. These victims are the Mexican population: those

who are deemed to have information that would prove useful in order to break crime rings.

Finally, there must be a lack of capable guardians. Because the Mexican government is still

operating on more traditional laws and has yet to fully implement the treaties into its legal

system, there are very few checks that are actively attempting to prevent the violations of the

rights guaranteed by the treaties. Because these three factors have been fulfilled, the violation of

treaties has been seen as a means of bypassing the laws and allows authority figures to hunt for

information as they deem fit (Finley).


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of individuals who are being apprehended illegally and held incommunicado in illegal areas. The

integration of the human rights treaties into the legal system will also help to clarify the situation

occurring in the Criminal Justice system, and to begin the purge within the prison systems of

both the corrupt authority figures and the control that the crime rings hold on the system. By

loosening their grasp, they are crippling part of their power and moving themselves one step

closer to their initial goal: the dissolution of the organized crime rings in Mexico.


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Works Cited

1."Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or

Punishment." University of Minnesota Human Rights Library. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Oct.

2013. .

2.D.W Jackson, J.M. Dodson and L. Nuzzi OShaughnessy.Bulletin of Latin American

Research, Vol. 18, No. 4 (Oct 1999) pp. 403-421. JSTOR.

3.Finley, Laura. "CRM 307 Class Notes." Barry University, Miami Shores. 2013. Lecture.

4."Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture." University of Minnesota Human

Rights Library. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Oct. 2013.

.

5."University of Minnesota Human Rights Library."Mexico . N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Oct. 2013.

.

6."World Report 2013." : Mexico. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Oct. 2013.

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Human Rights Issues in Mexico