Surge in Mexico "Privatization of Disappearances" - UN expert

Families of disappeared participate in meeting with Rainer Huhle, of the UN
Foto Sanjuana Martínez

La Jornada: SanJuana Martinez, Part 1 of a two part report

Who disappears people in Mexico? Rainer Huhle, member of the UN Committee against Forced Disappearance and member of the board of the Nurenberg Human Rights Center in Germany, is clear: in addition to disappearances committed by authorities or in collusion with organized crime groups, there is currently a nationwide phenomenon called "the privatization of disappearances". 

"It is a perverse privatization of forced disappearance, because groups that are not the State have copied the technique and made ​​it their own. There are many cases where neither the families of the victims nor authorities have a clear idea of the reason for the disappearance," says the German-born official in an interview with La Jornada during his recent visit to the country to analyze the phenomenon of disappearances.

"In a place like Mexico, where it is easy to disappear people with such impunity, the reasons multiply. And when the lack of investigation is so great, anything can happen. However, regardless of who is responsible, the State has a clear obligation to investigate and punish the crime."

While the Mexican government recognizes about 30,000 disappeared persons in the past seven years, NGOs place the number at more than 300,000, according to a study by Marien Rivera, coordinator of security studies for the Center for Research for Development [CIDE], based on data from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography [INEGI] and the National Public Security System.

For Rainer Huhle, the lack of reliable statistics is one of the characteristics of the crime of disappearance. 

"With so much insecurity as there is in Mexico, people do not dare to report; on the other hand, the judicial authorities in charge of investigations leave the cases aside for lack of interest or inability. We don't manage data; we have no quantitative records. Our ambition isn't to raise or lower numbers. The disappearance of 5,000, 8,000 is no more terrible than that of one person.

"We need to focus on the basis of the problem, which is forced disappearance, that procedure which is so inhuman and so terrible. And if it happens to many people, it is worse, but we prefer not to get into numbers."

The Committee on Forced Disappearances, provided for in the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from that crime, was established two years ago, and it is in a nascent stage. 

"The Convention is a treaty between states, signed by governments. Our role is to insistently remind the Mexican State that it has signed it, and with this, it has agreed to much. Victims have a tool in hand to require that the authorities fulfill what they have signed. It is a right realized in an international convention, a legal instrument of the highest level.

"States must report to us their implementation of the Convention. We don't perform searches; we pressure the State to locate disappeared persons alive. We review cases with all the information provided by civil society, which is always closer to the facts. Our committee has jurisdiction over cases only after they have become active."

Among the functions of the UN committee is performing missions of observation and intelligence gathering to examine any request made by relatives of a disappeared person or their legal representatives to search for and locate them immediately.

Rainer Huhle has extensive experience on disappearances in Chile, Uruguay, Argentina and Peru. In analyzing the Mexican case, he observes a serious situation: the lack of a national DNA bank and data matching for more than 10,000 unidentified bodies. 

"The situation is unacceptable. The government claims that it is due to lack of resources. A DNA test is expensive, but given the gravity of the problem, the government should give priority to this. The identification of remains is an enormous relief for families."

Regarding the impunity that covers up crimes committed by the Mexican Army and Navy, the UN expert clarified: 

"No authority is exempt from the obligations that Mexico has agreed to in the Convention, neither the Army nor the Navy."

Spanish original