MEXICO’S government has shown “total disinterest” in addressing a tidal wave of murders and disappearances, and is systematically violating the rights of Central American migrants, said Human Rights Watch (HRW) yesterday.

In a scathing report, the group’s director for the Americas, Jose Miguel Vivanco, called the human rights situation in Mexico a “catastrophe” due to the brutally violent crimes gripping the country and authorities’ failure to act.

He extended the criticism to President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, an anti-establishment leftist who took office in December 2018 vowing a change in direction for the country.

“What is truly incomprehensible is that Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s government claims to be committed to doing justice in these (murder and missing persons) cases, but doesn’t seem interested in answering a basic question: who are the people responsible for this nightmare?”

He cited the country’s own damning statistics on such violence, which has been driven by powerful drug cartels fighting the army and each other.

Mexico has registered nearly 275,000 murders since the government launched its “drug war” in 2006. More than 60,000 people have gone missing in the same period.

Authorities regularly uncover mass graves with dozens of bodies. But, an estimated 98% of violent crimes are never punished.

The numbers “reflect a disaster, a humanitarian catastrophe in Mexico”, Vivanco told a press conference, presenting the Americas section of HRW’s annual world report.

“We are profoundly disappointed. We are seeing no effort…. The government is trying to wash its hands” of the situation, he said.

The report also accuses Mexico of violating migrants’ rights, sometimes abetted by the US.

Migrant detention centres in Mexico are “overcrowded, with detained migrants experiencing inhumane conditions, including extreme heat, bug infestations, lack of access to basic hygiene, limited medical services and poor-quality food”, it said.

The “Remain in Mexico” policy implemented by US President Donald Trump’s administration, which has returned more than 40,000 asylum seekers to Mexico while their cases are processed, also violates migrants’ rights, said the report.

It said many asylum seekers are being returned to “dangerous and unlivable conditions in Mexico”. – AFP, January 16, 2020.