Report says human rights abuses widespread in Mexico. Also notes that sky is blue.

Mexican police and military forces practice torture all too often, according to international human rights activists and experts. | Photo: AFP

The human rights experts confirmed that torture, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions are generalized in Mexico.

Mexico is going through a “grave human rights crisis” characterized by a grave and generalized situation of torture practices, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions, said James Cavallaro, Inter-American Commission for Human Rights expert for Mexico and first vice president of the IACHR, in an interview Monday with Aristegui CNN.

“We received tens of testimonies regarding the situation of enforced disappearances, extrajudicial executions, very grave cases as Tlataya, Apatzingan, Tanhuato, and very serious cases of torture,” he added.

His words come almost simultaneously with the announcement by a federal judge that four of the seven Mexican troops involved in the Tlataya massacre were ordered released from jail, a decision the federal Attorney General's office (PGR) said it would appeal the decision.

“There is no other conclusion, other than the situation in Mexico is grave. Grave crisis describes the situation the country is going through,” Cavallaro added.

Mexico is possibly one of the most dangerous countries in the world to be a journalist or a human rights activist.

The expert said he visited Mexico City and that IACHR experts then divided into different groups who visited various states, including Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, Veracruz, Guerrero and Tabasco.

“Everybody came back after meeting with the civil society and victims and we all came back very impressed on how grave the situation is in the country,” he reiterated.

Cavallaro hinted he and his group of experts do not agree with the Mexican government or President Enrique Peña Nieto who claim the situation of human rights in the country is under control. At the United Nations 70th General Assembly, the Mexican president boasted a human rights situation that does not exist in Mexico.

Recently, the IACHR released a statement saying that the practice of torture in Mexico was out of control, while United Nations human rights expert Juan Mendez warned that enforced disappearances and human rights violations in Mexico were widespread and generalized.

Cavallaro said that the IACHR has years of documents, evidence and studies regarding the seriously bad human rights situation in Mexico.

However, he said, “on the ground we were able to prove more conclusively and in a highly impacting manner that the situation in Mexico is seriously bad.”

The specialist said that in connection with the search for the 43 missing Ayotzinapa students “various mass graves were discovered and in them a total of 400 people of the so called 'the other missing people from Iguala.'”

The situation is so grave in Mexico, Cavallaro continued, that people told them they were unfortunately happy that the Ayotzinapa case got so much attention.

“They told us 'thanks to God, now they are going to listen to us' regarding their missing loved ones. We were impacted by their testimonies saying they'd been looking for their missing relatives for years, while the authorities simply didn't care,” Cavallaro said.

The head of the IACHR, Mexican human rights activist Emilio Alvarez, was appalled that in Mexico 15 out of 32 states do not contemplate torture as a crime in their penal codes.

“You cannot even call torture a crime in these states,” he added. “There is a context of generalized violence in the country, a phenomenon that is linked to insecurity.”

He noted that there are many instances where public officials participate in crimes, but are shielded by impunity.

Alvarez also said that there is a grave element in all prosecutors’ offices in Mexico because they do not investigated and those families looking for missing loved ones are frequently threatened.

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