Ayotzinapa and Beyond: Documenting the Drug War’s Hidden Atrocities

As independent forensic experts cast further doubt on the Mexican government’s account of the September 2014 disappearance of the 43 students from Ayotzinapa Normal School in Iguala, Guerrero, a new examination of declassified U.S. archives sheds light on the alarming pattern of drug war atrocities that predate the Ayotzinapa case. In a new article for … Continue reading →

Documenting Mexico’s Recurring Nightmare

As demonstrators across Mexico take to the streets to protest the government’s involvement in the September 2014 disappearance of 43 students in Iguala, Guerrero, a case bearing many of the same grim hallmarks is getting renewed attention. Today, in a new article for The Nation, I examine newly-declassified evidence of police involvement in the 2011 … Continue reading →

On International Right to Know Day, a Call to Declassify Migrant Massacres in Mexico

Yesterday, on International Right to Know Day (#IRTKD2014), our friends at the Foundation for Justice (FJEDD) and Article 19 (A19) in Mexico launched a brand new website calling on Mexico’s Attorney General (PGR) to follow the law and declassify investigative files pertaining to the 2010 and 2011 migrant massacres in San Fernando, Tamaulipas, as well as … Continue reading →

Mexican Prosecutor’s Office Ordered to Release Records on San Fernando Massacre

This week, Mexico’s new information commissioners for the first time ordered the federal prosecutor’s office to open certain investigative files relating to the discovery of some 200 bodies in mass graves in the state of Tamaulipas in April 2011. The victims, many of them migrants headed toward the U.S-Mexico border, were pulled from intercity buses … Continue reading →

Four Years Later, Mexican Migration Agency Makes First Disclosure on 2010 San Fernando Massacre

INM Invokes Human Rights Clause of Mexican Access Law; Says Right to Information is “a Fundamental Human Right”; Cites Presumption of Disclosure Nearly four years later, Mexico’s federal migration agency has for the first time released declassified files on the August 2010 San Fernando massacre—in which 72 migrants were pulled from buses in Mexico’s northern … Continue reading →

Mexican Court Orders Release of Documents on Massacre Investigations

Judge Rules Mexican government must disclose evidence of grave human rights violations Migrant killings in Tamaulipas, Cadereyta, prima facie human rights violations Landmark decision upholds right to truth, cites “interest of society” in “avoiding impunity and the repetition of such acts in the future” This post was co-authored by Michael Evans and Jesse Franzblau of the … Continue reading →

Three Years Later, Still No Justice for 2011 San Fernando Killings

On April 1, 2011, Mexican authorities discovered the first of several mass graves in Tamaulipas state that all told would contain the bodies of nearly 200 people. The victims, many of them migrants headed toward the U.S-Mexico border, were pulled from intercity buses and executed by the Zetas criminal organization with the alleged complicity of … Continue reading →

Migrant Massacre Focus of Legal Effort against Mexico’s Human Rights Commission

Declassified State Department Cables Among Evidence Supporting Claim Citing violations of the Mexican constitution, international treaties and Mexican law, victims and surviving family members of the 2010 San Fernando massacre, along with the Fundación para la Justicia (FJEDD) and other groups, have initiated legal action against Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) and are challenging … Continue reading →