WOLA: Advocacy for Human Rights in the Americas
4 Nov 2014 | Video

Human Rights in Mexico: Recent Abuses Highlight Persistent Challenges

Sponsored by Amnesty International, JASS (Just Associates), the Latin America Working Group, RFK Center for Justice and Human Rights, and the Washington Office on Latin America.

Featuring:

Stephanie Erin Brewer
International Coordinator, Miguel Agustín Pro Juarez Human Rights Center, Mexico City

María Luisa Aguilar Rodríguez
International Coordinator, Tlachinollan Human Rights Center, State of Guerrero

Perseo Quiroz
Executive Director, Amnesty International—Mexico

Friday, October 31, 2014 
10:00 a.m. –11:00 a.m.
1539 Longworth House Office Building
New Jersey Ave. & C St. SE
Washington, DC 20515

The recent killing of three students and disappearance of 43 others from a teachers’ college in the southwestern state of Guerrero by local police with links to organized crime, has raised serious questions about the scale of criminal groups’ penetration of local governments and law enforcement. The students remain disappeared and it is feared that their remains may be among the 11 mass graves found near the city where they disappeared.

Another case, in Tlatlaya, the State of Mexico, near Mexico City, highlights a disturbing pattern of abuse by Mexico’s armed forces. On June 30, 22 people were killed by the Mexican army. The army first described the incident as a shootout with a criminal gang, but subsequent investigations by U.S. news sources and Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission revealed that 15 of the individuals, including two teenagers, were likely victims of extrajudicial executions.

Please join us for an informative public event with experts from Mexico to discuss these pressing cases and other grave human rights violations in Mexico, as well as their implications for U.S. engagement with the Mexican government on human rights concerns.