HISTORY OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN MEXICO: CHARACTERISTICS - HISTORY - 2025

The history of human rights in Mexico begins in the Colony, seeking to protect indigenous people from exploitation by the Spanish. Since then, different actions have been taken to increase individual rights, although not always with success.

As this nation migrated to a neoliberal economy, the conception of these fundamental rights took on more importance.

But their development has had several consequences. For example, Mexico avoided international scrutiny for its human rights violations until the 1990s.

Due to the so-called war on drugs, since 2006 the UN Human Rights Commission has received almost 10,000 complaints of abuse by the Mexican army.

This country has one of the highest rates of human rights violations in the world.

During their efforts to combat organized crime, the security forces have been implicated in serious violations of fundamental rights, including enforced disappearances, torture, and extrajudicial executions.

Another ongoing problem in Mexico is the attack on journalists and activists who denounce political corruption and organized crime.

Additionally, limited access to reproductive and health rights are part of the violations of fundamental rights in that country.

Background

It can be said that the history of human rights in Mexico began with the initiative to protect native indigenous peoples from the exploitation of the Spanish colonizers.

It must be remembered that Europeans did not think that these people were their equals; rather they were perceived as inferior beings.

Law of the Indies

It was the entire body of laws promulgated by the Spanish crown during the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries for the governance of its colonies outside of Europe, specifically in America.

The Burgos Law, published in 1512, regulated the relations between the Spanish and the conquered Indians.

In particular, it sought to ensure the spiritual and material well-being of the natives, who were often abused by Europeans.

The New Law of the Indies (promulgated in 1542) sought to correct the defects of the previous code, but it was met with armed resistance by the colonists.

For this reason, a more permissive version was republished in 1552. Another law of 1573 prohibited unauthorized operations against the natives.

In 1805 a process known as Recopilation emerged. The idea was that this new legislation emerged as a code to treat Native Americans as humans, but this principle was often ignored.

Political Constitution of the Mexican Republic

This document is often called the Constitution of 1857. It is the liberal constitution written during the presidency of Ignacio Comonfort.

It established individual rights such as freedom of the press, freedom of conscience, freedom of expression, and freedom of assembly.

It reaffirmed the abolition of slavery, eliminated the debtor's prison, and abolished all forms of cruel and unusual punishment, including the death penalty. This constitution was valid until 1917.

Constitution of Mexico

It was created in 1917 and is the constitution valid today. This document spoke of human rights as individual guarantees.

Later this caused confusion because these guarantees were not certified as human rights.

In 2011, the reform was carried out that replaced individual guarantees with human rights and their guarantees.

This document reaffirms the rights of indigenous peoples, freedom of expression, the right to protest and freedom of the press.

Violation of human rights

Historically, the problems of violations of individual rights in Mexico derive from the deficiency of its criminal justice system.

This includes torture and other forms of abusive treatment by law enforcement authorities, and the failure to hold officers accountable for rights violations and other criminal activities.

Office of the special prosecutor in 2001

In 2001 a special prosecutor's office was established to investigate and punish past acts of political violence.

These acts included the massacres of protesting students in 1968 and 1971, and the enforced disappearance of government opponents during the Dirty War in the 1970s.

For years, the office's progress was limited by insufficient military cooperation and poor government access to documentation.

In 2003, a court decision was won in which the limitations did not apply to old disappearance cases, as long as the body of the victim had been found.

Shortly thereafter, an arrest warrant was issued against a former officer for his involvement in one of those crimes. But just hours later, the suspect went into hiding and the main witness was found murdered with signs of torture.

Since then, more arrest warrants have been issued, but no official arrests have been made.

Murder of journalists

Since 2000, the number of journalists killed has increased. Almost all of them have been journalists investigating drug cartels or denouncing corruption.

Attacks and harassment against them are also common, which is why journalists resort to self-censorship.

From 2000 to 2016, 124 murders of journalists have been documented. In 2016, 509 people had requested protection under a 2002 law that sought to protect human rights defenders and journalists.

Protection has often been very slow or, in some cases, insufficient

Enforced disappearances

Since 2006, Mexican security forces have participated in a number of enforced disappearances; more than 27,000 people are estimated to have disappeared since that year.

The prosecution and police have failed to investigate those responsible for the disappearances. Authorities have also had trouble identifying the remains of the bodies found at various locations across the country.

Extrajudicial executions

The killing of civilians by the security forces has increased over the years.

For example, in 2016 it was concluded that the federal police had killed 22 of the 42 civilians who died in a confrontation in the Tanhuato municipality.

In that year, the federal court acquitted at least eight soldiers guilty of those homicides.

Military abuses and impunity

More than 10,000 complaints of abuse by the military have been received since 2006, including more than 2,000 complaints during the current administration.

In 2014, the Code of Military Justice was amended to require that abuses committed by members of the military against civilians be handled by the criminal justice system rather than the military system.

Historically, this system has failed to hold members of the military accountable for abuses.

References

1. Mexico 2016. Recovered from hrw.org
2. The revolution in crisis: a history of human rights in Mexico 1970-1980. Recovered from shareok.org
3. Mexico, human rights overview. Recovered from pantheon.hrw.org
4. Americans covering Mexico drug trade face assassination threat (2007). Recovered from washingtonpost.com
5. Human rights in Mexico. Recovered from wikipedia.org
6. Federal Constitution of the united Mexican states of 1857. Recovered from revolvy.com
7. Laws of the Indies. Recovered from britannica.com
8. Human rights violations widespread in Mexico (2017). Recovered from eluniversal.com.mx