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Observations of the Mexican State

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Observations of the Mexican State Anexos: (1) No. OEA-00378 Washington, D.C., 29 de febrero de 2016 Señor Secretario Ejecutivo: Por su conducto me dirijo a la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos (CIDH) y me refiero a la nota número OEA-03636 del 15 de diciembre pasado, por la que se presentaron las observaciones del Estado mexicano al proyecto de informe sobre la situación de los derechos humanos en México elaborado por la CIDH. Al respecto, en virtud de la relevancia de los comentarios y de la información que el Estado mexicano presenta en el documento de referencia y en seguimiento a la nota número OEA-03651 del 16 de diciembre pasado, por la que se solicitó a esa CIDH que al momento de publicar el informe definitivo, se publicara igualmente el documento por el que se trasmitieron dichas observaciones, en anexo se remiten las observaciones del Estado traducidas al idioma inglés, a fin de que sean publicadas en conjunto con el documento original del Estado remitido mediante comunicación OEA-03636. Aprovecho la oportunidad para reiterarle las seguridades de mi más atenta y distinguida consideración. Emilio Rabasa Embajador Representante Permanente Al Sr. Emilio Álvarez Icaza Longoria Secretario Ejecutivo de la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos Organización de los Estados Americanos Washington, D.C. INTER-AMERICAN COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS REMARKS BY THE MEXICAN STATE REGARDING THE DRAFT REPORT ON THE STATUS OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN MEXICO REPLY BY THE MEXICAN STATE IN RESPONSE TO THE NOTE, DATED NOVEMBER 24, 2015, FROM THE INTER-AMERICAN COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS Mexico City, December 15, 2015 2 INDEX I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY / PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS........................................... 6 II. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... 9 III. GENERAL AND METHODOLOGICAL REMARKS ........................................................ 10 1. Theme and Structure of the Report....................................................................... 10 2. Lack of Information and Assessment regarding the Structure of the Mexican State and regarding Progress on Human Rights Issues.............................................. 12 3. Determining Time Criteria..................................................................................... 19 4. Choice and Use of Information Sources................................................................ 21 a) Quantitative Observations on the Sources of Information Used ........................ 23 b) Remarks on the Use of Information Gathered During the Visit......................... 24 c) Qualititive Remarks Regarding the Sources of Information Used..................... 25 IV. REMARKS ON THE CHAPTER ON THE STATUS REGARDING VIOLENCE IN MEXICO30 1. Remarks Regarding the Methodology................................................................... 30 2. Remarks on the Premises and Factors on Which the Chapter is Based on....... 32 a) State Role Players ................................................................................................. 32 b) Organized Crime................................................................................................... 38 c) Other Role Players................................................................................................ 39 d) Otros factores ........................................................................................................ 40 V. REMARKS ON SPECIFIC ISSUES IN THE REPORT.......................................................... 45 1. Disappearances and Forced Disappearances........................................................ 45 a) Ayotzinapa............................................................................................................. 48 b) Disappearance of Migrants .................................................................................. 50 c) Disappearance and Forced Disappearance of Women....................................... 51 d) Disappearance of Boys and Girls......................................................................... 53 2. Extrajudicial Executions......................................................................................... 54 3. Torture ..................................................................................................................... 56 4. Specific Situations.................................................................................................... 58 a) Tlatlaya.................................................................................................................. 59 b) Apatzingán ............................................................................................................ 60 3 5. Impact on Specific Groups ..................................................................................... 60 a) Women................................................................................................................... 60 b) Indigenous Towns and Communities................................................................... 62 c) LGBTI Individuals................................................................................................ 64 d) Boys, Girls and Adolescents ................................................................................. 65 e) Migrants and Forced Domestic Displacement .................................................... 66 6. Situation of Abducted Persons ............................................................................... 69 a) Arbitrary Forms of Abduction: house arrest, excessive use of preventive custody and equivalent to in flagrante delicto......................................................................... 69 b) Detention Conditions ............................................................................................ 70 7. Situation of Defenders of Human Rights and Journalists and Freedom of Speech .............................................................................................................................. 71 a) Defenders of Human Rights................................................................................. 71 b) Situation of Journalists and Attacks against the Freedom of Speech................ 75 VI. REMARKS ON THE RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS.................................. 77 VII. ANNEX ....................................................................................................................... 79 4 5 REMARKS BY THE UNITED MEXICAN STATES REGARDING THE DRAFT REPORT BY THE INTER- AMERICAN COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS AS A RESULT OF ITS VISIT TO MEXICO I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY / PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS The visits made by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) require the greatest display of openness and cooperation by the States. Precisely, within that spirit and with a confident spirit of international cooperation, the Mexican State invited the IACHR to conduct a visit to assess the status of human rights in Mexico. The visit was carried out from September 28 to October 2, 2015, and turned out to become the final draft report which the IACHR presented on November 24, 2015. This document on remarks by the Mexican State regarding the aforementioned draft report is comprised of three sections. In the first section, general and methodological remarks regarding the document. In the second sections, the IACHR’s theory regarding the situation of violence in Mexico, its causes and consequences, is discussed and dismissed. In the third section, remarks are made on specific issues concerning each of the issues considered in the above-mentioned draft report. In each of these sections, the State makes substantive remarks on different aspects of the IACHR’s draft report. Additionally, it poses questions it considers should be carefully addressed by the IACHR prior to the final drafting and eventual approval of its report. In keeping with the spirit contained in the Commission’s Rules of Procedure, the IACHR is urged to carefully consider and include all the information provided to it, before, during and after its visit, as well as the information contained within the body of this document. This is to ensure a modicum of a sense of justice and legitimacy by said Commission and provide the document with the necessary usefulness in order to strengthen the efforts by the Mexican State to foster and protect the human rights of all. In this regard, we call to the attention of the IACHR Article 57 of its own Rules of Procedure, in Paragraph f it points out that the Commission’s remarks should be made based on a series of specific rules, including that “the State shall provide (…) any document related to the observance of human rights that (…) may consider necessary for the presentation of its reports”. This is to say that not only would the State have the obligation to provide the Commission with the relevant documents – which it did at all times – but also the State itself must be entitled to it being duly considered, before the IACHR fine-tunes it to consider its report and how it will eventually be published (Article 60 of the Rules of Procedure). This is to say that there is a legitimate expectation by the State that the IACHR should use and promptly specify the information provided, particularly regarding the use of sources and methodology, the material, spatial and temporary scopes of the report and, of course, the manner in which said information was considered. Regardless of the above, the Mexican State considers that the visit
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