The war on drugs in Mexico led to the execution of innocent civilians by state agents to show off operational results, according to a book that investigated more than 1,800 homicides since 2006, most of them unpunished.
“Permission to kill“, an investigation led by two journalists and a human rights specialist, claims that the murders involve the last three governments and constitute “war crimes“.
The aim of this practice is to demonstrate a supposed effectiveness in combating crime, measured by the number of confrontations and suspected criminals arrested or killed, the authors explained in an interview with AFP.
Such degradation is encouraged by the exclusive use of force to confront organized crime, to the detriment of alternatives such as combating impunity – which exceeds 90% – and reducing poverty.
“We wanted to tell the stories and (…) show how systemic (the executions) are. It’s not a collection of anecdotes,” he explains. Daniel Morenoauthor and director of the news portal Animal Político.
“There is a constant in these three governments of attacking the civilian population and leaving the attackers unpunished,” adds Moreno, referring to the administrations of Felipe Calderon (2006-2012), Enrique Pena Nieto (2012-2018) and the outgoing Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
Researchers identified 494 crimes (mainly executions and forced disappearances) during Calderón’s government, 808 under Peña Nieto and 489 in the first four years of López ObradorThey warn that these numbers do not represent the total number of cases.
Similarity with Colombia
The military’s defense ministry did not respond to AFP’s request for comment on the allegations made in the book.
More than 450,000 Mexicans have been killed and some 100,000 have disappeared during the U.S.-sponsored anti-drug military offensive launched by conservative President Calderón in 2006, according to official figures.
Under a policy whose slogan is “hugs, not bullets,” López Obrador claims that he has reoriented efforts to address the causes of violence, such as poverty and unemployment, rather than fighting the cartels. According to the leftist president, homicides (18%) and the lethality of the confrontations have decreased during his government.
“There was less use of force and more respect for life,” he said last Sunday during his last management report.
However, “Permission to Kill” examines cases in the three administrations in which it has not been possible to prove that the victim had arrest warrants, had confronted the authorities or was “part of a criminal group,” Moreno points out.
Paris Martínez, co-author of the book, sees similarities with the more than 6,000 murders and disappearances committed by the Colombian army between 2002 and 2008, in the case known as “false positives,” whose intention was to show “effectiveness” against irregular groups.
Without punishment
The report, in which human rights expert Jacobo Dayán participated, also denounces a repeated failure to investigate or punish the responsible officers or officials, some of whom are still active or have been promoted.
“They end up arresting those who fired, not those who designed the strategy,” and in any case “impunity” prevails, Moreno adds.
Of the more than 1,800 cases investigated, only 133 resulted in convictions, the authors explain.
They also list several factors that they believe indicate that there is an “internal armed conflict” in Mexico: almost 6,000 battles officially reported between 2007 and 2022, territorial control by cartels, forced recruitment and the “systematicity” of executions.
The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) – the body that judges war crimes and crimes against humanity – has maintained a file on Mexico since 2010, in which one of those under investigation is former President Calderón.
The authors will hand over their work to the ICC’s Mexico office this month to “enrich” the investigation, “no longer with a handful of cases but with a complete file,” Martinez said.
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