Citizens have access to an independent judiciary in civil matters to seek civil remedies for human rights abuses. In addition to the outstanding Zeron arrest warrant, the Special Unit for the Investigation and Litigation of the Ayotzinapa case issued 12 warrants and made 10 arrests for investigative irregularities, such as torture and obstruction of justice. In addition to shelters, womens justice centers provided services including legal, psychological, and protective; however, the number of cases far surpassed institutional capacity. The OSAC information exchange mechanism also . Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the MORENA party coalition won the presidential election in generally free and fair multiparty elections in 2018. Wages were illegally withheld until the end of the harvest to ensure that the workers did not leave. Rape and Domestic Violence: Federal law criminalizes the rape of men and women, including spousal rape, and conviction carries penalties of up to 20 years imprisonment. According to advocacy groups, no information was available concerning the criteria through which the government chooses media outlets for public advertising. Defendants may not be compelled to testify or confess guilt. The government continued implementing the labor reforms in a phased manner, with the reform coming online in eight states in November 2020, and phase two started on November 3 with 13 states, and phase three to be concluded on May 1, 2022, for the remaining states. In July 2020 the CNB launched a public version of the National Registry of Disappeared and Missing Persons. The CNDH headquarters are located in Mexico City. Documentation supporting a persons identity and origin was lacking. According to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) 2016 survey, 18 percent of women ages 15 and older reported having experienced physical violence at the hands of their current or most recent partner, and 6.5 percent reported having experienced sexual violence. OSAC 2021-N-0015, Guiding Principles for Scene Investigation and Reconstruction (added September 7, 2021 and sent to ASB for further development and publication). The CNDH may take on cases from state-level commissions if it receives a complaint that the state commission has not adequately investigated the case. Freedom to Participate in the Political Process, Section 4. The CNDH reported indigenous women were among the most vulnerable groups in society. In October and November, I spent several . After accumulating nine hours of overtime in a week, a worker earns triple the hourly wage. The government continued to pursue the extradition of Tomas Zeron from Israel. In June the government amended the General Law on Womens Access to a Life Free of Violence to include media and digital violence as a form of violence against women. When authorities fail to accept a recommendation, the CNDH makes that known publicly. Nonetheless, NGOs and media reported on sexual exploitation of minors, as well as child sex tourism in resort towns and northern border areas. State and federal prosecutors are independent of the executive branch and have the final authority to investigate and prosecute security force abuses. This decision prevented a protection union from attempting to stop the strike by filing a challenge to the Mineros Unions control of the existing collective bargaining agreement at the San Martin mine in Sombrerete, Zacatecas. INEGI reported in 2017 that 23 percent of working women experienced violence in the workplace within the past 12 months and that 6 percent experienced sexual violence. Workers had to buy food and other items at the company store at high markups, at times leaving them with no money at the end of the harvest after settling debts. Mexico has relied heavily on the military for drug control and to fight organized crime, leading to widespread human rights violations. Between January and May there were an additional 20 complaints of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment against the National Guard, 20 against the army, and 11 against the National Migration Institute. Twitter users posted threats against journalists. The law prohibits children younger than age 15 from working and allows those ages 15 to 17 to work no more than six daytime hours in nonhazardous conditions daily, and only with parental permission and permission from the labor authority. This was a common practice in the maquiladora sector, in which employers forced workers to take leave at low moments in the production cycle and obliged them to work in peak seasons, including the Christmas holiday period, without the corresponding triple pay mandated by law for voluntary overtime on national holidays. The NGO Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights identified 15 incidents between January and July of mass forced internal displacement (defined as the displacement of at least 10 families or 50 individuals) due to violence. According to several NGOs and unions, many workers faced violence and intimidation perpetrated by protection union leaders and employers supporting them, as well as other workers, union leaders, and vigilantes hired by a company to suppress opposition to an existing union in bargaining-rights elections. A Mexico City municipal law provides increased penalties for hate crimes based on sexual orientation and gender identity. They were vulnerable to abuse from staff members, other patients, or guests at facilities where there was inadequate supervision. The National Guard, which began operations in 2019, is a civilian institution reporting to the Secretariat of Public Security and Civil Protection. 10/22/21- (written by rramos)- Justice in Mexico has released the third edition of Organized Crime and Violence in Mexico, coordinated by Laura Y. Caldern, Kimberly Heinle, Rita E. Kuckertz, Octavio Rodrguez Ferreira, and David A. Shirk.Previously titled Drug Violence in Mexico, the release marks the third consecutive year in which the report has been issued under its current name, in . Although the law requires entities recruiting for overseas employment to register with the STPS, there is no enforcement mechanism, and only a handful of recruiters complied. The government deployed hundreds of security forces to contain the caravan. Federal funding assisted the operation of more than 69 shelters, external attention centers, emergency houses, and transition houses. In November 2020 a judge suspended five officials from the Mexico City Prosecutor Generals Office for failing to search for Fatima within 72 hours after she went missing. Citizens hoping to obtain temporary, legal employment in the United States and other countries frequently paid recruiters hundreds or thousands of dollars in prohibitive fees to secure jobs, and many prospective workers were promised jobs that did not exist. Political parties nominated more female candidates for public office in the midterm elections than ever before, including half of their candidates for governor in the 15 races up for election. There were no reports of political prisoners or detainees. Federal law prohibits torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, as well as the admission of confessions obtained through illicit means as evidence in court. High levels of impunity, including for killings or attacks on journalists, resulted in self-censorship and reduced freedom of expression and the press. Citizens generally registered the births of newborns with local authorities. such as having witnessed the commission of a crime; in a 2018 report, the domestic think tank Mexico . The Federal Center and the new federal labor courts are designed to handle all matters related to collective bargaining agreements, but until the Federal Center establishes its offices in all the states, labor disputes in states without a Federal Center presence are to be handled by the CABs. He fled to Israel, and the government requested that the Israeli government issue an arrest warrant and extradite him. Municipal candidates and challengers seeking to oust incumbents were the most common victims of political violence, with victims spread across the political spectrum. The current U.S. Department of State Travel Advisory at the date of this report's publication assesses Peru at Level 2, showing travelers should exercise increased caution. Here then is a recap of key crime and anti-crime events and developments in Mexico in 2020, and of the bleak prospects for 2021. On August 28, approximately 500 migrants, the majority from Haiti, started a caravan from Tapachula to Mexico City to obtain expedited asylum processing. Children constituted 19 percent of irregular migrant flows identified by authorities; 30 percent of them were unaccompanied. Government authorities also reported an increase of 73 percent in online child pornography distribution during the pandemic. Politicians publicly discredited and criticized such journalists, however. OSAC 2021-N-0016, Standard for Initial Response at Scenes by Law Enforcement (added September 7, 2021 and sent to ASB for further development and publication). The armed forces operated a military justice system to hold human rights abusers accountable. Human rights and environmental activists, many from indigenous communities, continued to be targets of violence. According to the victims mother, police detained and interrogated him without reasonable suspicion or probable cause. In rural areas in 2019, the cause of most maternal deaths was obstetric hemorrhage. Do not travel to the Colombian border area in the Loreto Region because of crime, or the area in central Peru known as the Valley of the Rivers Apurimac, Ene, and Mantaro (VRAEM) because of crime and terrorism. Between January 1 and August 4, it received 4,119 reports of missing persons and located 3,805 alive and 277 deceased. Posted at 01:41h . Children performed dangerous tasks in agriculture in the production of beans, chili peppers, coffee, cucumbers, eggplants, melons, onions, tomatoes, and tobacco. The most common aggressions were intimidation and harassment, followed by threats and physical attacks, according to civil society groups. osac mexico 2021 crime and safety report. The government generally exempted accompanying adults from detention to preserve family unity. Forced internal displacement disproportionally affected indigenous communities. Several outbreaks of COVID-19 resulted in multiple deaths. Note: The safety and security equipment and services sector encompasses several different segments, including some defense products. The STPS is responsible for carrying out child labor inspections and refers cases of child labor to the Prosecutor Generals Office for sanctions. Censorship or Content Restrictions: Human rights groups reported that some state and local governments censored media. Security forces responded by killing four suspects and arresting 25. Some companies reportedly did not implement effective protective measures for employees, and one factory, owned by Eaton Corporation in Baja California, was operating illegally and was closed after it placed chains on its doors to prevent 800 workers from leaving. As a result the number of pretrial detainees increased 25 percent since 2018, and pretrial detainees comprised 40 percent of all prisoners, according to government figures. The Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC) was created in 1985 under the Federal Advisory Committee Act to promote security cooperation between American private-sector interests worldwide and the U.S. Department of State. The constitution and law prohibit discrimination with respect to employment or occupation. In July the secretary of the navy publicly apologized to families of the victims, marking the first time the armed forces apologized for committing forced disappearances. In July unknown assailants abducted and killed Aranza Ramos in the state of Sonora. In May 2020 the CNDH reported that children were subjected to abuses such as torture, sexual violence, and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment at Ciudad de los Ninos, a private institution in Salamanca, Guanajuato. Sanchez was a reporter for Facebook-based Panorama Pacifico and was in the protection mechanism after suffering an attempt on his life in July 2020. Criminal groups became increasingly involved in the illegal timber trade in Chihuahua, which accounted for 70 percent of the wood consumed in the country. The Catholic Multimedia Center reported that criminal groups harassed priests and other religious leaders in some parts of the country and subjected them to extortion, death threats, and intimidation. NGOs reported no changes in the mental health system to create community services or any efforts by authorities to have independent experts monitor human rights abuses in psychiatric institutions. Between January and July COMAR processed approximately 25,000 cases. It was created in 2019 to bring together national and international forensic experts to help identify 37,000 unidentified remains held in government facilities, coordinate implementation of the general law on forced disappearances, and allocate resources to state search commissions. The Puebla state government sued the news outlet E-Consulta seven times due to its reporting. Any corporate, non-profit, academic, faith-based or other U.S.-incorporated organization of any size with operations outside the United States may apply to join. Pretrial Detention: Lengthy pretrial detention was a problem, and authorities did not always promptly release those detained unlawfully. President Lopez Obrador condemned the threats, and the Interior Secretariat confirmed that authorities would grant Uresti protection measures. Corruption: There were numerous reports of government corruption during the year. Sometimes family members arranged marriages for girls younger than 18. According to the NGO Freedom House, Researchers continued to document cases of journalists, human rights lawyers, activists, and political figures targeted with Pegasus spy software. From 1979 to 2020 only eight women had become governors. The law states that the principle of gender parity should be observed in the designation of cabinet members, selection of candidates for public office by every political party, and designation of members of the judiciary. The Yucatan Peninsula Campeche, Quintana Roo, and Yucatan states has not suffered the same level of escalating violence seen in other parts of Mexico; however, there is some narco-related violence that affects Cancun (usually not in the . The law prohibits compulsory overtime. Drug traffickers involved in illegal logging recruited and kidnapped indigenous persons and children in isolated or displaced communities, withheld their wages, forced them to conduct illicit activities, and often threatened death if they tried to leave. In 2016, the most recent data available, INEGI reported that 44 percent of persons working in agriculture were day laborers. In 2019 the Federal Police was disbanded, and in May 2020 all remaining assets and personnel transferred to the National Guard. In June unknown assailants killed Javier Barajas Pina in the state of Guanajuato. It is also a criminal offense in all states. On the OSAC Registry. Global AIDS Coordinator and Global Health Diplomacy, Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, Special Representative for Syria Engagement, U.S. Security Coordinator for Israel and the Palestinian Authority, Office of the U.S. The Mexico 2017 Crime and Safety Report for Mexico City by the US Department of State's Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC) indicates that crimes such as armed robberies, kidnappings, car thefts, credit card fraud and residential theft are "daily concerns" (US 24 Feb. 2017). The constitution allows any person to arrest another if the crime is committed in his or her presence. In May in Chicoloapan, state of Mexico, municipal police beat and detained supporters of feminist groups as they led a protest against gender-based violence and political parties. After the STPS canceled the vote, in May the rapid response mechanism under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement commenced, and the government agreed to review a denial of freedom of association and collective bargaining rights at the plant, confirming the denial of rights. Most internal affairs units, however, were insufficiently staffed and funded. From 2014 through 2019, the CNDH received nearly 3,000 . Informal workers were in every sector of the economy, with agriculture as the sector with the greatest number of informal workers. You can add more than one country or area. Several indigenous communities denounced the governments plan to build the Mayan Train, an estimated $7.5 billion dual cargo-passenger railroad to cross the Yucatan Peninsula through indigenous lands. Southern states reported the lowest access to skilled health care during pregnancy due to geographic, financial, and cultural barriers. Minors were recruited or forced by cartels to traffic persons, drugs, or other goods across the border with the United States. In July the army provided reparations to two of the three families of persons killed in July 2020 by soldiers in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, during an encounter with suspected cartel members. Users can access Events, OSAC Analysis reports, Incident reports, and Crime & Safety reports. In August 2020 attackers fired multiple shots at the building housing the printing facilities of El Diario de Iguala. The governments failure to enforce labor laws left workers with little recourse for violations of freedom of association, poor working conditions, and other labor provisions in states that had not yet implemented the new labor justice model. A forensic doctor at the Yucatan Prosecutor Generals Office confirmed that he had suffered sexual abuse. As part of that process, the Federal Center published a new legitimization protocol to include a mechanism that allows for submission of complaints regarding alleged irregularities that may happen prior to, during, and after the vote. The previous platform lacked interconnectivity between states and failed to connect family members effectively to the remains of their missing relatives. The rate of aggression against political figures during the election cycle was on par with the 2018 election, one of the most violent political periods in recent history. In July a joint investigation by media outlets reported a leaked Pegasus list of more than 15,000 individuals as possible targets for surveillance in 2016 and 2017. The Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC) was created in 1985 under the Federal Advisory Committee Act to promote security cooperation between American private-sector interests worldwide and the U.S. Department of State. The National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) is responsible for independently investigating security force abuses, including killings, and can issue nonbinding recommendations for prosecution. State commissions do not have uniform reporting requirements, making it difficult to compare state data and therefore compile nationwide statistics. In July the Sonora State Prosecutor Generals Office detained Rojos alleged killer. Nevertheless, women nationwide faced obstacles to accessing emergency services due to health providers personal objections to emergency contraception or misunderstanding of their legal obligations to provide services. There were reports of numerous forced disappearances by organized crime groups, sometimes with allegations of state collusion with authorities. As of June, 58 percent of women in federal prison and 51 percent in municipal and state prisons were in pretrial detention, while 42 percent of men in the federal and local judicial system were in pretrial detention, according to a report from the Secretariat of Security and Civilian Protection. The government worked with UNHCR to improve access to refugee status and the procedure to determine refugee status, reception conditions for vulnerable migrants and refugee applicants, and integration in local communities (including access to school, work, and other social services) for those approved for refugee and complementary protection status. Sources indicate that organized criminal organizations have been . by . In March 2020 a federal judge issued an arrest warrant for Zeron on charges related to his conduct of the investigation, including torturing alleged perpetrators to force confessions, conducting forced disappearances, altering the crime scene, manipulating evidence, and failing to perform his duties. Government failures to investigate and prosecute attacks on protesters and human rights defenders resulted in impunity for these crimes, consistent with high impunity rates for all crimes. In July 2020 he was arrested in another country pursuant to a Mexican extradition request on charges that he diverted millions of dollars in public funds. Land conflicts, social and ethnic violence, or local political disputes caused other incidents. Federal law prohibits discrimination against persons with physical, sensory, intellectual, and mental disabilities. According to civil society, libel and defamation proceedings tripled from 11 cases in 2019 to 33 cases in 2020. Freedom of expression advocacy groups reported the government, despite reductions in its advertising budgets, continued to have a strong financial impact and influence on the largest media companies. The board identified 3,286 homes in five states for relocation before completion of the construction project. The NGO also reported the existence of multiple unregistered private institutions without licenses operating as orphanages. The law requires children younger than 18 to complete compulsory basic education and to have a medical certificate to work. Most indigenous persons lived in marginalized communities, and the COVID-19 pandemic disproportionally affected these communities, according to the OHCHR. Due to low internet penetration and television ownership in indigenous communities, distance learning was often inaccessible. The law provides time limits and conditions on pretrial detention, but federal authorities sometimes failed to comply with them since caseloads far exceeded the capacity of the federal judicial system.