Exclusive: Human rights group warns of ‘deep collusion’ between criminals and officials in some parts of country
State actors are involved in disappearances in Mexico at an “alarming” rate, according to a report from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
The sweeping investigation, to which the Guardian was given exclusive access, presents a dire picture of the crisis of disappearances in Mexico, where more than 130,000 people have gone missing, mostly in the last 20 years since the government declared its war on drug cartels.
While criminal gangs are responsible for the vast majority of disappearances, the IACHR report found that “many of the disappearances committed by organised crime occur in deep collusion and coordination with state agents”.
Meanwhile, “disappearances committed [directly] by state agents have not yet been eradicated”, the report reads, noting that, in some parts of the country, at times there were almost as many disappearances carried out by government officials as there were by criminals.
