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
Mexico’s Senate is now in the process of selecting the country’s new information commissioners who will be at the center of pivotal transparency and human rights decisions for years to come. The competition is intense, with 158 candidates vying for the seven top positions at the Federal Access to Information Institute (IFAI). Continue reading
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
In a case that has important ramifications both for access to information and for human rights investigations in Mexico, a federal judge declared last week that the country’s information commissioners can and should determine whether an infamous 2010 massacre of 72 migrants in Tamaulipas state by alleged agents of the Zetas drug cartel might constitute a grave violation of human rights under established international legal norms. Continue reading
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
Four months before the feared Zetas drug cartel kidnapped and murdered 72 migrants in northeastern Mexico, the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City said that narcotrafficking organizations in that region operated with “near total impunity in the face of compromised local security forces.” As the date of the massacre drew nearer, another U.S. agency, the Drug … Continue reading
In this week’s edition of Proceso magazine, award–winning journalist Marcela Turati uses a set of declassified U.S. diplomatic cables from our Mexico/Migration Project collection to shed new light on what she calls “the collusion of Mexican municipal, state and federal officials” with the murders of hundreds of migrants in and around San Fernando, Tamaulipas, by a … Continue reading
Mexican officials sought to minimize “the state’s responsibility” for the slayings of scores of migrants and other travelers kidnapped from intercity buses as part of a drug cartel turf war in the northern state of Tamaulipas, according to a declassified report from U.S. officials in Mexico. This and related records were obtained by the National Security … Continue reading
The organization Article 19 announced it has launched a campaign directed at Mexico’s Federal Access to Information Institute (Instituto Federal de Acceso a la Información – IFAI) to secure the release of investigative documents relating to the 2010 killing of 72 migrants in Mexico’s northern region of San Fernando, Tamaulipas. Article 19 has argued that … Continue reading
Migration Declassified 