AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REPORT 2016/17

Dozens of mass graves were uncovered
throughout the country, often on the initiative
of family groups rather than authorities or
official forensic experts. Local authorities
illegally disposed of over 100 unidentified
bodies in at least one grave in the
municipality of Tetelcingo, Morelos state. The
perpetrators of the killings remained
unidentified.
On 19 June, at least eight people were
killed and dozens injured in Nochixtlán town,
Oaxaca state, during a police operation
following a roadblock as part of a
demonstration against the government’s
education reform. Footage published by
media outlets contradicted the authorities’
original assertion that the policemen were
unarmed.
In August, the National Human Rights
Commission found that federal police
members had tortured at least two people in
the municipality of Tanhuato, Michoacán
state, in May 2015 as part of a security
operation; that at least 22 of the 43 people
killed during the operation were victims of
arbitrary execution; and that the police had
tampered with evidence including by planting
firearms on the victims.
Investigations into the killings by soldiers of
22 people in 2014 in Tlatlaya, Mexico state,
had yet to produce concrete results. The
authorities failed to take responsibility for the
order “to take down criminals” (meant as “to
kill” in this context) that was the basis for
military operations in the area in 2014, or to
investigate any officers with command
responsibility.
No one was known to have been
prosecuted for the killings in 2015 of 16
people by federal police officers and other
security forces in Apatzingán, Michoacán
state; the authorities failed to adequately
investigate the killings or to look into the
responsibility of those in command.
TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT
Impunity for torture and other ill-treatment
remained almost absolute, with numerous
reports of beatings, near asphyxiation with
plastic bags, electric shocks, rape and other
sexual assault taking place during police and
military operations. Sexual violence used as a
form of torture was commonplace during
arrests of women. 1 For the first time in two
years, the Federal Attorney General's Office
announced charges of torture against five
federal officials in April, in response to a
leaked video showing police officers and
soldiers torturing a woman. Also in April, in a
rare case a federal judge sentenced an army
general to 52 years’ imprisonment for having
ordered an operation which involved torture
and homicide as well as destruction of a body
in Chihuahua state in 2008.
In April, the Senate approved a bill for a
General Law on Torture which complied with
international standards. The bill was
amended and remained pending a general
vote in the Chamber of Deputies at the end of
the year.
The Special Unit on Torture of the Federal
Attorney General’s Office reported 4,715
torture investigation files under revision at
federal level.
As in previous years, the special medical
examination procedure of the Federal
Attorney General’s Office for cases of alleged
torture was not applied in most cases, with a
backlog of over 3,000 requests on file. In
many cases, investigations into torture and
other ill-treatment failed to advance without
an official examination.
In September, the Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights (IACHR)
referred the case of 11 women who were
subjected to sexual violence as a form of
torture in San Salvador Atenco in 2006 to the
Inter-American Court of Human Rights, given
Mexico’s failure to fulfil the Commission's
recommendations on the case.
REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS
A record number of asylum claims were
registered, with 6,898 lodged as of October –
93% of whom were nationals of El Salvador,
Honduras and Guatemala. Refugee status
was granted to 2,162 people, despite
estimates that more than 400,000 irregular
migrants crossed Mexico's southern border
each year, half of whom could qualify for
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