Napoleongomezurrutia

MEXICO EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Mexico is a multiparty federal republic with an elected president and bicameral legislature. Citizens elected President Felipe Calderon of the National Action Party (PAN) in 2006 to a six-year term in generally free and fair multiparty elections. Security forces reported to civilian authorities. The most serious human rights issues in the country arose from the fightagainst organized crime, which involved frequent clashes between security forces and Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs). TCOs and gangs linked to them battled each other to establish or maintain control of trafficking routes and markets. In multiple instances, TCOs used brutal tactics against members of the public. TCOs remained the most significant perpetrator of violent crimes in thecountry, showing disregard for civilian casualties, engaging in human trafficking, and intimidating journalists and human rights defenders with violence and threats. Sometimes in the context of the fight against TCOs, but also at times unrelated to it, security forces reportedly engaged in unlawful killings, forced disappearances, and instances of physical abuse and torture. The following problems alsowere reported during the year by the country’s National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) and other sources: kidnappings; physical abuse; poor, overcrowded prison conditions; arbitrary arrest and detention; corruption and lack of transparency that engendered impunity within the judicial system; and confessions coerced through torture. Societal problems included: killings of women; domestic violence;threats and violence against journalists and social media users, leading to self-censorship in some cases; trafficking in persons; social and economic discrimination against some members of the indigenous population; and child labor. Despite some arrests for corruption, widespread impunity for human rights abuses by officials remained a problem in both civilian and military jurisdictions. Section1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom from: a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life Security forces, acting both in and out of the line of duty, killed several persons during the year.

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On June 17, Joaquin Figueroa Vasquez was killed in a high-speed chase in a joint operation by state and federal security forces in the state of Veracruz and presentedas an alleged TCO member. The autopsy report stated that the cause of death was a bullet wound to the head. Figueroa’s family claimed that this wound and the others that Figueroa sustained were evidence of torture and a subsequent execution-style killing. In collaboration with the human rights nongovernmental organization (NGO) Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights(CMDPDH), Figueroa’s family submitted information regarding the case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). The CNDH was also investigating the case at year’s end. On October 28, a military court found two officers and twelve soldiers guilty of violence resulting in the killings of three individuals at a military check point in La Joya, Sinaloa, in July 2007. The sentences rangedfrom 16 to 40 years in prison. NGOs and the CNDH advocated on behalf of the families involved. There were no developments in the following two high-profile cases from 2010: In March 2010 soldiers killed two students at Monterrey Technological University. Despite a subsequent CNDH report that determined through a thorough investigation that guns were planted at the scene and evidence was tamperedwith, no arrest had been made at year’s end. In June 2010 the CNDH concluded that the Secretariat of National Defense (SEDENA) altered the location in which Martin and Bryan Almanza Salazar, ages five and nine, respectively, were shot and killed in April 2010 to create the impression that the shots occurred during a firefight with a criminal gang. The CNDH concluded that the children had been killed...