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99% of the crimes in Mexico are never resolved
By: Terry Ahtziry Cardenas Banda, attorney and law professor
Killings, torture, disappearances, corruption, violence, extortion, kidnapping, rape, and human trafficking are just some of the numbers of crimes that go uninvestigated in Mexico, these reflects a judicial system in crisis with a severe problem of impunity, according to Rights Watch.
“Mexico lives in the darkness, the impunity rises over the years, and authorities neglect to obey the law and seek for justice. It is time to take responsibility and change some practices,” said Dustin Sharp, President of Rights Watch.
In a recent report, the Global Index of Impunity of Mexico (IGI-MEX) highlighted that Mexico ranks fourth internationally and occupies first in the Americas in terms of impunity and points out that impunity in Mexico has increased to 99% if we include crimes that are never reported by citizens.
In 2017, Mexico registered 32,277 disappearances, which none were solve. As well, Mexico reported abuses of power by police and the armed forces with no action taken. Journalists and Human Rights Activist are another target of Mexico’s impunity, over the past years it have been registered more than 23 disappearances and 48-death in 2017.
“Mexico has show no interest in solving crimes and restoring justice,” said Lucia Alfaro, Regional Director of Rights Watch. The lack of interest of the government and officials that Mexico has show, makes the image clear: corruption, violence, and organize crime has conquer Mexico.
The Mexican government argued that Mexico has made progress on judicial reforms, emphasizing that the Mexican state is constantly working to deal with violence, solve crimes and guarantee security in order to improve access to justice.
Reality seems to be different, over 120,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence in Mexico from 2006 to 2016, and the number seems to rise every day. Migrants faced kidnap, sexual abuse, and human traffic, which are never punished. Mexico continues to live under the threat of murder, kidnapping, extortion, sexual violence, human trafficking, and many other crimes.
Impunity is a strong problem in the country that violates human rights, undermines the Constitution and its constitutional principles leaving a non efficient system with no justice. Impunity violates human rights, by generating violations of rights and not solving current crimes and problems.
According to the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy impunity is “that remains without punishment.” We must evaluate the factors for which crimes in Mexico are going unpunished, which is what leads to a collapsed system of justice and a security system with poor functioning, there are several factors among which stand out: a low index of judges, police bodies with lack of effectiveness, lack of external accountability, corruption and a poorly prepared system.
The IGI-2017 states that “the problem of impunity in Mexico is functional and structural, it was not born with the current government, however there is a critical increase in crime statistics.”
It is time to urge the Mexican government to take actions to face impunity, encourage the authorities to obey the law, seek justice and ensure measures to comply with the reforms. Likewise, civil society must carry out joint work with the government to attack this phenomenon and enforce the laws.
