One month after 43 Mexican students disappeared
More than 80 social organizations from various regions of the world condemned the enforced disappearance of 43 Mexican students in the context of that country’s “War on Drugs” and failed security policies, which only serve to spawn more violence and institutional corruption. We urge the Mexican State to investigate the disappearances and punish these crimes.
The consequences of the ‘War on Drugs’ in Mexico: executions and enforced disappearances of students
For a month now, 43 Mexican students—ages 17 to 25, from the teacher training college Normal Rural Raúl Isidro Burgos in Ayotzinapa—have been missing after a series of violent episodes that allegedly involved, among others, Iguala’s municipal police in the state of Guerrero, Mexico.
These tragic events, in which 6 people were killed and 20 injured, once again reveal the social cost of the so-called War on Drugs in Mexico and its failed security policy. Both have resulted in more violence, grave human rights violations committed by the security forces themselves, and increasing levels of state corruption.
On September 26th, about 80 students from the Escuela Normal in Ayotzinapa were held up by local police while travelling in three buses. Without notice, police blocked the road and opened fire indiscriminately, killing and wounding 26 people. The surviving students witnessed how municipal police made their classmates get into cars. However, they were never taken before any judicial authority.
Various Mexican State forces have been looking for the missing 43 students, discovering clandestine graves with unidentified corpses in the vicinity of Iguala. Victims’ relatives are waiting for the result of tests by independent experts to identify the bodies. However, as additional clandestine graves are found, more questions emerge in this already dramatic scenario regarding the quantity of bodies surreptitiously buried in that area of the country.
It is essential that a paradigm shift be effected in drug and security policies to avoid similar cases of institutional violence and corruption in the future.
Social organizations elsewhere echo the demand of victims’ relatives and Mexican human rights groups that a search-and-rescue mission be carried out for the 43 students. We also urge the Mexican State to investigate and punish these crimes, as well as determine all the political responsibilities involved.
‘They took them alive, we want them back alive!’
- Abogadas y Abogados del Noroeste Argentino en Derechos Humanos y Estudios Sociales- ANDHES, Argentina
- Abogadas y Abogados para la Justicia y los Derechos Humanos, Mexico
- Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, Argentina
- Acción Solidaria en VIH/Sida, Venezuela
- AIDS Foundation East-West- AFEW, The Netherlands
- Aksion Plus, Albania
- Asamblea Permanente por los Derechos Humanos- APDH, Argentina
- Asistencia Legal por los Derechos Humanos- ASILEGAL, Mexico
- Asociación Civil por la Igualdad y la Justicia – ACIJ, Argentina
- Asociación de Reporteros Gráficos de la Republica Argentina- ARGRA, Argentina
- Asociación Lucha por la Identidad Travesti – Transexual- ALITT, Argentina
- Asociación para la Prevención de la Tortura- APT
- Asociación para la Unidad de Nuestra América- AUNA, Argentina
- Asociación Para Una Vida Mejor de Personas Infectadas/Afectadas por el VIH-Sida en Honduras- APUVIMEH, Honduras
- Asociacion Pro Derechos Humanos- APRODEH, Peru
- Associação Juízes para a Democracia- AJD, Brazil
- Brazilian Harm Reduction Network- REDUC, Brazil
- Canadian Drug Policy Coalition, Canada
- Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir- CDD, Argentina
- Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir, Spain
- Centro de Derechos Humanos de la Montaña Tlachinollan, Mexico
- Centro de Derechos Humanos de la Universidad Católica Andrés Bello, Venezuela
- Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas, AC, Mexico
- Centro de Documentación en Derechos Humanos “Segundo Montes Mozo S.J.”- CSMM, Ecuador
- Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales- CELS, Argentina
- Centro de Investigación Drogas y Derechos Humanos- CIDDH, Peru
- Centro de Políticas Públicas y Derechos Humanos, Peru
- Centro de Promoción y Defensa de los Derechos Sexuales y Reproductivos- Promsex, Peru
- Centro Nicaragüense de Derechos Humanos, Nicaragua
- Centro por la Justicia y el Derecho Internacional- CEJIL
- CIVILIS Derechos Humanos, Venezuela
- Colectiva Mujer y Salud de República Dominicana, Dominican Republic
- Comisión de Justicia y Paz de Colombia, Colombia
- Comisión Ecuménica de Derechos Humanos- CEDHU, Ecuador
- Comisión Mexicana para la Defensa y Promoción de los Derechos Humanos- CMDPDH, Mexico
- Comité de América y Caribe para la Defensa de los Derechos de las Mujeres- CLADEM
- Comité de Familiares de las Víctimas- COFAVIC, Venezuela
- Conectas Derechos Humanos, Brazil
- Cooperativa Nadia Echazu, Argentina
- Coordinadora de Trabajo Carcelario (Rosario - Santa Fe), Argentina
- Coordinadora Nacional de Derechos Humanos, Peru
- Corporación Humanas, Chile
- Defensa de Niñas y Niños Internacional- DNI, Costa Rica
- Dejustica, Colombia
- Derechos Humanos Integrales en Acción, A.C.
- Documenta, análisis y acción para la justicia social, Mexico
- Drug Policy Project, Institute for Policy Studies, United States
- Due Process of Law Foundation- DPLF, United States
- Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights- EIPR, Egypt
- Equipo de Reflexión, Invetigación y Comunicación de la Compañía de Jesús, Honduras.
- EQUIS- Justicia para las Mujeres, Mexico
- Escuela de Derechos Humanos de la Defensoria del Pueblo, Venezuela
- Escuela Nacional Sindical, Colombia
- Espacio Público, Venezuela
- Espolea, Mexico
- Fundación Memoria Histórica y Social, Argentina
- Fundación Myrna Mack, Guatemala
- Fundar Centro de Análisis e Investigación, Mexico
- Global Exchange
- Grupo Interdisciplinario por los Derechos Humanos- GIDH, Colombia
- Instituto Brasileiro de Análises Sociais e Econômicas- IBASE, Brazil
- Instituto de Estudios Comparados en Ciencias Penales de Guatemala –ICCPG, Guatemala
- Instituto de Estudios Legales y Sociales- IELSUR, Uruguay
- Instituto de Género, Derecho y Desarrollo- INSGENAR, Argentina
- Intercambios, Argentina
- International Commission of Jurists- ICJ
- International Drug Policy Consortium- IDPC
- JASS - Asociadas por lo Justo
- Justiça Global, Brazil
- Madres de Plaza de Mayo, Línea fundadora, Argentina
- Movimiento Autónomo de Mujeres, Nicaragua
- Movimiento por la Paz con Justicia y Dignidad, Mexico
- Oficina Jurídica para la Mujer de Cochabamba – OJM, Bolivia
- Paz y Esperanza, Peru
- Plataforma Interamericana de Derechos Humanos, Democracia y Desarrollo- PIDHDD Regional
- Programa de Derechos Sexuales y Reproductivos de la Facultad de derecho y Ciencias Sociales de la Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina
- Red SurDH, Venezuela
- Release, United Kingdom
- RESURJ
- Sinergia, Asociación Venezolana de Organizaciones de Sociedad Civil, Venezuela
- Stop the Drug War. Org
- Students for Sensible Drug Policy, United States
- Unidad de Protección a Defensoras y Defensores de Derechos Humanos – UDEFEGUA, Guatemala
- Washington Office on Latin America- WOLA, United States
- Instituto Lationamericano de Seguridad y Democracia- ILSED
Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales
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- Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP)
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