(Vår galna värld) Mexico's 'War on Drugs'

Mexico's Military and the ‘War on Drugs’


Security Forces Kill, Torture, and 'Disappear' People With Impunity
“They got into the house, and in a matter of seconds they shot him,” said Gustavo Acosta Reyes, recalling how his son was killed by Mexican navy forces. “My son was shielding me. I was behind him. My son fell at my feet.”
Five years ago, President Felipe Calderón deployed the military to combat the country’s powerful drug cartels. But instead of reducing violence – there have been 35,000 drug-related deaths since then – Mexico’s ‘war on drugs’ has resulted in a dramatic increase in appalling abuses by security forces, a new report says.
Human Rights Watch interviewed more than 200 people in five of the Mexican states that have been most affected by drug-related violence. We found evidence that strongly suggests security forces took part in more than 170 cases of torture, 39 “disappearances,” and 24 extrajudicial killings.
In the states we surveyed, military prosecutors opened 1,615 investigations into crimes allegedly committed by soldiers against civilians – but no soldiers have been convicted. Prosecutors fail to investigate these cases properly, often contending the victims must have been criminals.
The cases with the best evidence are ones where the victim’s family members have visited crime scenes and tracked down witnesses themselves.