Human rights activists have returned to San Diego after a two-week fact-finding mission in Mexico. They were looking into human rights abuses south of the border and say a U.S-Mexico partnership to fight organized crime may be contributing to those abuses.
The activists interviewed more than 60 people who allege they experienced abuse at the hands of Mexican authorities, including kidnappings and killings of relatives. They will release some of these interviews to the public after determining which can be published without endangering lives.
Benjamin Prado, program coordinator for the American Friends Service Committee, said the U.S. Merida Initiative is to blame for some of the abuses because it provides military training and weapons to Mexican security forces. The U.S. State Department describes the initiative as "an unprecedented partnership between the United States and Mexico to fight organized crime and associated violence while furthering respect for human rights and the rule of law."
“While they are training and professionalizing security forces, these security forces seem as though they are actually attacking people," Prado said.
In 2014, 43 students disappeared from southern Mexico after corrupt police officers shot at them and handed them over to a drug cartel for execution. Some of the weapons involved originated in the U.S.
The activists will lead a delegation to Washington, D.C., in September to share with officials the testimonies they collected. Mexican victims of human rights violations and their relatives will also join.
"So the U.S. population can hear firsthand accounts of these atrocities going on by the Mexican state, and all under the guise of the war on drugs, which is translating into a war against the people," Prado said.
The organizations Raíces Sin Fronteras and the Binational Front of Indigenous Organizations were involved in the mission.
