AMID BRUTALITY AND IMPUNITY ATROCIOUS CRIMES COMMITTED UNDER THE PROTECTION OF THE MILITARIZED SECURITY STRATEGY (2006-2018) Editor: José Antonio Guevara Bermúdez Coordinators: Lucía Guadalupe Chávez Vargas Jorge Luis Amaya Lule Authors: Jorge Luis Amaya Lule Natalia Báez Zamudio Ana Lucía Juárez Armenta Daniel Mata Lugo Zhiri Jael Meza Fragoso Translator: Caitlin Cooper Cover illustration: Michelle Velasco Designed by: Gabriela Monticelli Taller de Sueños | [email protected] First edition, October, 2020. Made in Mexico. ISBN: 978-607-97879-6-7 Partial or total reproduction is authorized, if the source is cited Contact Address: Tehuantepec #142, Col. Roma Sur, Alcaldía Cuauhtémoc, C.P. 06760, CDMX Telephone: 55 5564 2582 www.cmdpdh.org Social media @cmdpdh /cmdpdh /cmdpdh /cmdpdh Area Directory Comisión Mexicana de Defensa y Promoción de los Derechos Humanos, A.C. Board of Directors Forced Internal Displacement Jacobo Dayán (President) Brenda Gabriela Pérez Vázquez Alejandro Anaya Muñoz (Coordinator) Ana Francisca Vega Lígia de Aquino Barbosa Magalhães Carolina Coppel José Ramón Cossío Díaz Advocacy Luis González Placencia Olga Guzmán Vergara (Coordinator) Mariclaire Acosta Urquidi Jürgen Moritz Miguel Concha Malo María Corina Muskus Toro Pilar Calveiro Garrido Regina Tamés Noriega Research Lucía Guadalupe Chávez Vargas Executive Director (Coordinator) Graciela Rodríguez Manzo Daniel Omar Mata Lugo Jorge Luis Amaya Lule Deputy Director of programs Natalia Paulina Báez Zamudio Rodolfo Franco Franco Asylum Seekers Administration Daniela Reyes Rodríguez (Coordinator) Eduardo Macías Sánchez (Coordinator) Ana Lilia Amezcua Ferrer Ayari Hernández Cervantes Ana Luz Manzano Ortiz Héctor Adrián Avendaño Cortez Yoceline Gutiérrez Montoya Lizbeth Montessoro Elías Psychosocial Support Communication Valeria Patricia Moscoso Urzúa Luis María Barranco Soto (Coordinator) (Coordinator) Karina Álvarez Medrano Norma Isabel García Flores Legal Defense International Justice Consultant Nancy Jocelyn López Pérez (Coordinator) Paulina Vega González Anahí Adriana Ruelas Orozco Carla Sofía Loyo Martínez Forced Internal Displacement Carolina Hernández Nieto Consultant Federico Manuel Rodríguez Paniagua Laura Gabriela Rubio Díaz-Leal Víctor Alonso del Pozo Rodríguez Legal Consultant Institutional Development Sergio Méndez Silva Marycarmen Color Vargas (Coordinator) Riikka Andersson Consultants by Area Giselle Yañez Villaseñor, (Research) Zhiri Meza Fragoso, (Research) Flor de María Gálvez (Research) Aarón González García, (Psychosocial Work and Support) Arturo Mora Huiza, consultor en tecnologías de información (Administration) Pablo Daniel Cabada Rodríguez, (Forced Internal Displacement) CONTENTS Abbreviations 8 Index of Figures 9 1. INTRODUCTION 11 2. TORTURE AS POLICY 15 2.1. The perpetrators 18 2.1.1. The Army 18 2.1.2. The Navy 22 2.1.3. The Federal Police 25 2.2. Summary 27 3. THE PRACTICE OF FORCED DISAPPEARANCE 28 3.1. The perpetrators 32 3.2. Classification of disappearance according to outcome 38 3.3. Summary 39 4. ASSASSINATIONS 40 4.1. The perpetrators and methods of justifying assassination 43 4.2. Geography and techniques of assassination 47 5. THE ARMED FORCES: THE CHIEF CULPRITS OF ATROCIOUS CRIMES 51 6. CONCLUSION 69 ABREVIATIONS BI Infantry Battalion (Batallón de Infantería) BIM Marine Infantry Battalion (Batallón de Infantería de Marina) BRIGIM Marine Infantry Brigade (Brigada de Infantería Marina) CJF Federal Judicial Council (Consejo de la Judicatura Federal) CMDPDH Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights (Comisión Mexicana de Defensa y Promoción de los Derechos Humanos) CMN Case Matrix Network CNDH National Human Rights Commission (Comisión Nacional de los Derechos Humanos) DEA Drug Enforcement Administration FAM Mexican Armed Forces (Fuerzas Armadas de México (SEDENA y SEMAR)) FFE Federal Security Forces of the State (Fuerzas Federales del Estado (SEDENA, SEMAR y Policía Federal)) FEIDT Special Prosecutor’s Office for the Investigation of the Crime of Torture (Fiscalía Especial en Investigación del Delito de Tortura) FGR Office of the Attorney General of the Republic (Fiscalía General de la República) I-Doc Investigation and Documentation System INTERPOL International Criminal Police Organization PF Federal Police (Policía Federal) RM Military Region (Región Militar) RN Naval Region (Región Naval) SEDENA Ministry of National Defense (Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional) SECNAV Naval Sector (Sector Naval) SEMAR Ministry of the Navy (Secretaría de Marina) SIEDO The Assistant Attorney General’s Office for Special Investigations of Organized Crime (Subprocuraduría de Investigación Especializada en Delincuencia Organizada) ZN Naval Zone (Zona Naval) 8 ENTRE LA BRUTALIDAD Y LA IMPUNIDAD INDEX OF FIGURES 21 Figure 1: Justifications of torture. 33 Figure 2: Victims of disappearance by institution involved. 34 Figure 3: Disappearances by year and State/entity. (Personas desaparecidas por año y estado.) 35 Figure 4: Victims of disappearance by type of perpetrator. 39 Figure 5: Victims of disappearance reported in Recommenda- tions issued by the CNDH during the period 2006-2019. 44 Figure 6: Justifications used by the perpetrators. 47 Figure 7: Map of assassinations in Mexico. 49 Figure 8: Assassination combined with additional crimes. 56 Figure 9. Operational command structure. SEDENA. 58 Figure 10: Operational Structure of Territorial Commands of the Ministry of National Defense and cases attributed to their units (CNDH recommendations December 2006 to June 2019). 60 Figure 11. Operational command structure of the 11th Military Region including accusations. 61 Figure 12. Operational command structure of the 9th Military Region including accusations. 63 Figure 13. Operational command structure. SEMAR. 65 Figure 14: Operational Structure of Territorial Commands of the Ministry of the Navy and cases attributed to their units (CNDH recommendations December 2006 to June 2019). 66 Figure 15. Operational command structure of the 1st Naval Re- gion with accusations. 9 ENTRE LA BRUTALIDAD Y LA IMPUNIDAD 1. INTRODUCTION This is the second report prepared by the Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights (CMDPDH) documenting the serious crimes committed by Mexican national security agents during operations carried out in the fight against drug trafficking and criminal organizations. The document comprises four sec- observed within the cases selected tions which describe the most signif- for this report. icant findings of this analysis. The first For the purposes of this analysis, three sections demonstrate, using the researchers used the “Investi- different descriptive tools, the oper- gation and Documentation System ational patterns exercised by author- (I-Doc)” from Case Matrix Network.1 ities in the torture, forced disappear- This platform enables the analysis of ance and assassination of civilians; the cases concerning crimes perpetrated fourth section names the authorities by state agents and facilitates sever- discovered to be primarily responsible al aims. I-Doc aids the identification for the perpetration of these crimes. of operational patterns employed by Each section aims to contribute the authorities, supports the catego- information regarding the ways in rization of crimes as generalized or which crimes were committed and by systematic, and is useful for assessing whom. Through the construction of whether an offense pertained to a de- narrative timelines, patterns can be fined policy within a given time. We 1 Case Matrix Network’s Investigation and Documentation System (I-DOC) is inten- ded for use by the CMDPDH thanks to funding from the European Union and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 11 seek to contribute to the documented construction of the context in which serious human rights violations and crimes against humanity have been perpe- trated over the past 15 years. By means of this investigative tool, 301 cases of serious crimes were system- atized as recounted in 268 recommendations issued by the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) between 1 December 2006 and 30 June 2019. A to- tal of 1,712 victims were identified, of whom 1,195 were tortured, murdered and/ or forcibly disappeared; the rest were victims of arbitrary detention or property rights violations as a result of theft or damage to their homes incurred during their detention or that of their families. It should be noted that the recommendations are public documents contain- ing facts investigated and verified by the CNDH and which are considered to be true; thus, they are not disputed by the institutions identified as responsible, since by accepting these recommendations, the findings, conclusions, and attri- bution of institutional responsibility for the events are thereby acknowledged. 2 From December 1, 2006 to June 30, 2019, the CNDH issued 999 recommen- dations, 21 of which were published as “serious violations.” Upon reading and analyzing the recommendations in their entirety, it was concluded that an addi- tional 2473 recommendations should be added to these 21, since they describe cases containing sufficient elements to be considered serious crimes commit- ted or sponsored by the state apparatus. For this reason, when we mention recommendations which register cases of serious human rights violations, we are referring to the recommendations compiled as a result of CMDPDH’s reas- sessment and analysis; in other words, 268 recommendations in total. 2 265 of the 268 recommendations analyzed for