In her morning press conference this Monday, the President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, stated that the majority of disappearances in the country are linked to organized crime, rejecting that it is a “generalized and systematic” practice on the part of the State, as stated by the United Nations Committee against Forced Disappearances (CED) last week.
“Unfortunately, the disappearances that exist in Mexico are linked to organized crime in the vast majority of cases. It is not state violence, as it was in the 60s, in the 70s, even in part of the 80s”asserted the President.
Sheinbaum’s statements come after last week the CED activated a procedure under Article 34 of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Forced Disappearances to analyze whether disappearances in Mexico are widespread and/or systematic.
The Mexican leader asserted that the current situation is “very different from the politically motivated disappearances” that occurred in the country in past decades.
“It was not the politically motivated disappearance that occurred in our country, where some activist or even the guerrillas (…) were not judged according to the law, but there were forced disappearances for political reasons”he explained.
He also stressed that this “is very different” from what is currently happening in Mexico, since now the State is not responsible for the disappearances.
“Of course it must be addressed, and that is why the modifications to the laws that we made and everything we are working on on this issue, but it is different, and that is what we want to be clear in these United Nations documents,” he added.
The President pointed out that her Government maintains an open dialogue with international organizations and has insisted that the UN recognize the difference between forced disappearances of the past and current ones.
“This has been expressed several times and we continue working with them to have it recognized in this way,” he stated.
Mexico accumulates more than 133 thousand reports of disappearances, with an increase of more than 5 thousand cases in the last quarter, according to data from the National Registry of Missing and Unlocated Persons (RNPDNO), which counts disappearances since the 1950s.
* * * Stay up to date with the news, join our whatsapp channel * * *
MB
The post Sheinbaum attributes the majority of disappearances in Mexico to organized crime appeared first on Veritas News.
