- Mexican security forces have committed crimes against humanity, with mass disappearances and extrajudicial killings rife during the country's decade-long drug war, according to a report released by rights groups on Monday, June 6, Reuters reports.
The 232-page report, published by the Open Society Justice Initiative and five other human rights organizations, warned that the International Criminal Court could eventually take up a case against Mexico's security forces unless crimes were prosecuted domestically.
"We have concluded that there are reasonable grounds to believe there are both state and non-state actors who have committed crimes against humanity in Mexico," the report said.
Mexico’s drug war has resulted in the most violent period in the country’s modern history, with more than 150,000 people killed since 2006, Reuters says.
Consistent human rights abuses — including those committed by members of the Zetas drug cartel— satisfied the definition of crimes against humanity, the report said.
The authors recommended that Mexico accept an international commission to investigate human rights abuses.
A series of shootings of suspected drug cartel members by security forces, with unusually high and one-sided casualty rates, have tarnished Mexico's human rights record.
"Resorting to criminal actions in the fight against crime continues to be a contradiction, one that tragically undermines the rule of law," the report stated, according to Reuters.
