osac crime and safety report: mexico

In-person classes resumed in October 2021, but with limited . Zeron led the investigation of the case by the former criminal investigations unit in the Attorney Generals Office at the time of the students disappearances. Organized criminal groups were implicated in numerous killings, acting with impunity and at times in collusion with corrupt federal, state, local, and security officials. The reforms call for the creation of independent labor courts to replace the Conciliation and Arbitration Boards (CABs) that favored corporatist unions in the resolution of disputes and facilitated the registration of protection contracts. Civil society groups reported families living in inhuman conditions, with inadequate and cramped housing, no access to clean water or bathrooms, insufficient food, and without medical care. Many workers were compelled into forced labor through debt bondage, threats of violence, and nonpayment of wages by recruiters and employers. Access to justice was limited. Between 2017 and August the Office of the Special Prosecutor for Crimes against Journalists, a unit in the Prosecutor Generals Office, charged 136 public servants for crimes against journalists. In July the Mexico City congress passed a law to provide, promote, and protect LGBTQI+ human rights. In its data collection, the government often merged statistics on forcibly disappeared persons with missing persons not suspected of being victims of forced disappearance, making it difficult to compile accurate statistics on the extent of the problem. NGOs operated 85 percent of the facilities, and government organizations operated the remaining 15 percent. The OSAC information exchange mechanism also . The previous platform lacked interconnectivity between states and failed to connect family members effectively to the remains of their missing relatives. As of September no alleged perpetrators of the disappearances had been convicted, and 78 of those initially accused were released due to lack of evidence, generally due to irregularities in their detention, including confessions obtained through torture. Workers argued that the protectionist union holding the collective bargaining agreement pressured workers to legitimize the agreement, offered bribes, and tampered with ballots. Last Update: Reissued with updates to health information. The report noted 40 state prisons experienced overcrowding. Reforms to the Prosecutor Generals Office split the Office for Combating Violence Against Women and the Trafficking in Persons offices in an effort to elevate these issues by giving each its own special prosecutor general. The deadline for unions to amend and register their statutes, originally set to expire in May 2020, was suspended due to COVID-19, reestablished in late 2020, and continued as of November. Social programs to combat child labor did not address all sectors where child labor occurred. In May 2020 a constitutional amendment established the disability pension as a constitutional right, prioritizing children, indigenous, and Afro-Mexican persons with disabilities younger than age 64 who lived in poverty. In many parts of the country, human smuggling organizations wielded significant power, and media alleged frequent collusion among local authorities. The CNDH may take on cases from state-level commissions if it receives a complaint that the state commission has not adequately investigated the case. As of December 2020 the Prosecutor Generals Office reported a total of 2,041 federal investigations underway into disappearances involving approximately 3,400 persons. There were no reports of political prisoners or detainees. There were numerous instances of criminal armed groups extorting, threatening, or kidnapping asylum seekers and other migrants. Ramos had been searching for her missing husband for the previous seven months as a member of two search collectives. Sexual Harassment: Federal law prohibits sexual harassment and provides for fines from 250 to 5,000 times the minimum daily wage, but the law was not effectively enforced. The law describes femicide as a gender-based murder under any of the following seven circumstances: signs of sexual violence, previous violence, emotional connection to the perpetrator, previous threats, harassment history, victim held incommunicado prior to deprivation of life, or victims body exposure in a public place. On June 17, while journalist Gustavo Sanchez Cabrera was riding his motorcycle, two unidentified individuals in a car crashed into him, exited the car, and fatally shot him. For example, Felipe Orozco, hospitalized multiple times for mental disabilities, reported that mental health professionals from a psychiatric hospital in Puebla shackled him naked with a padlock during the nights for two and one-half weeks. GitHub export from English Wikipedia. There were 600 federal labor inspectors to cover the entire country; 60 percent of state level labor authorities had fewer than 10 inspectors. During the electoral season (September 2020 to June), assailants killed 36 candidates and 64 politicians. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor, c. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment, d. Discrimination with Respect to Employment and Occupation. Penalties ranged from monetary fines to the cancellation of candidacies. Reproductive Rights: There were no confirmed reports of coerced abortion or involuntary sterilization on the part of government authorities. For example, journalists in Nogales, Sonora, said they were aware of unspoken red lines in covering organized crime and that crossing lines, such as mentioning the name of an alleged assailant, could result in personal harm. Of the 500 legislators in the Chamber of Deputies, 250 were women, 1 percent more than after the 2018 elections. Despite these prohibitions, there were reports of security forces torturing suspects. In rural areas in 2019, the cause of most maternal deaths was obstetric hemorrhage. Federal and state labor inspectorates conducted nearly 30,000 labor inspections in formally registered businesses in 2020 but did not conduct inspections in the informal sector. Coordinator for the Arctic Region, Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources, Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization, Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security, Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance, Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation, Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights, Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, Office of International Religious Freedom, Office of the Special Envoy To Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment, Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, Office of the Science and Technology Adviser, Bureau of the Comptroller and Global Financial Services, Bureau of Information Resource Management, Office of Management Strategy and Solutions, Bureau of International Organization Affairs, Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, U.S. The STPS certification of the new election set November 3 as the date for termination of the existing agreement, thus establishing that representation rights would be determined under the new labor reform rules and institutions. In June President Lopez Obrador announced that forensic scientists at the University of Innsbruck conclusively identified the remains of Jhosivani Guerrero, marking the third body identified of the 43 disappeared students. State human rights commissions investigate state and municipal police forces and can issue similar recommendations. Legally mandated joint management and labor committees set standards and are responsible for overseeing workplace standards in plants and offices. TYT.-. The law prohibits minors from working in a broad list of hazardous and unhealthy occupations. According to National Security Secretariat statistics, between January and June, state-level prosecutors and attorneys general opened 495 femicide investigations throughout the country, exceeding the 477 state-level femicide investigations opened in the first half of 2020 (statistics from state-level reports often conflated femicides with all killings of women). The law prohibits such practices and requires search warrants. As of August 25, former governor of Chihuahua Cesar Duarte was awaiting an extradition decision. Despite a 2017 injunction issued by a state district judge to prevent further grave abuses at the institution, the CNDH reported state authorities failed to supervise the conditions at Ciudad de los Ninos. The Puebla state government sued the news outlet E-Consulta seven times due to its reporting. Journalists who asked difficult questions of government officials during press engagements received attacks via Twitter. From 2013 through . Nonetheless, NGOs and media reported on sexual exploitation of minors, as well as child sex tourism in resort towns and northern border areas. Freedom of Association and the Right to Collective Bargaining, b. The Monterrey Country Council is active, meeting quarterly. Ecuador 2019 Crime & Safety Report: Guayaquil The current U.S. Department of State Travel Advisory at the date of this report's publication assesses Ecuador at Level 1, indicating travelers should exercise normal precautions. On August 30, the Extraordinary Mechanism for Forensic Identification became fully operational. During the COVID-19 pandemic, indigenous persons faced additional hardships in accessing educational services. Conflicts arose from the interpretation of indigenous communities self-governing normative systems. Uses and customs laws apply traditional practices to resolve disputes, choose local officials, and collect taxes, with limited federal or state government involvement. In July the army provided reparations to two of the three families of persons killed in July 2020 by soldiers in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, during an encounter with suspected cartel members. According to civil society organizations, up to 3,250 persons, mostly women and children from indigenous communities, were forcibly displaced in July in Chenalho and Pantelho, Chiapas, due to territorial disputes between armed groups. The board identified 3,286 homes in five states for relocation before completion of the construction project. The situation of agricultural workers remained particularly precarious, with similar patterns of exploitation throughout the sector. In the first six months of the year, Article 19 registered 362 attacks against journalists and accused public officials of committing 134 of them. During the electoral process the INE received 147 complaints of gender-based political violence, a significant increase from the 47 complaints it received during the 2017-2018 electoral process. There were reports the government did not always investigate and punish those complicit in abuses against LGBTQI+ persons, especially outside Mexico City. Some public officials blocked critical journalists and media from following their social media accounts. See the Department of States Trafficking in Persons Report at https://www.state.gov/trafficking-in-persons-report/. The government increased efforts to target human smuggling organizations. Spousal rape is criminalized in 26 of the 32 states. The Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System reported more than 1,889 killings of women, including 672 femicides, from January to September. In 2016 all civilian and military courts officially transitioned from an inquisitorial legal system based primarily upon judicial review of written documents to an accusatorial trial system reliant upon oral testimony presented in open court. Of the 32 states, 24 criminalize sexual harassment, and all states have provisions for punishment when the perpetrator is in a position of power. Calls included reports of relationship aggression, sexual assault, sexual harassment, rape, and intrafamily violence. The law provides for the right of indigenous persons to elect representatives to local office according to uses and customs law (see section 6, Indigenous Peoples) rather than federal and state electoral law. The government continued to pursue the extradition of Tomas Zeron from Israel. Members of the Mayan community in Campeche reported the National Tourism Board pressured them to cease protesting and agree to leave their lands. The 27,751 calls to the hotline in May were the most since the creation of the hotline. Children performed dangerous tasks in agriculture in the production of beans, chili peppers, coffee, cucumbers, eggplants, melons, onions, tomatoes, and tobacco. Defendants have the right to attend the hearings and to challenge the evidence or testimony presented. By law the government collected biometric data from migrants. The National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) is responsible for independently investigating security force abuses, including killings, and can issue nonbinding recommendations for prosecution. State and municipal laws addressing domestic violence largely failed to meet the required federal standards and often were unenforced. The Yucatan Peninsula Campeche, Quintana Roo, and Yucatan states has not suffered the same level of escalating violence seen in other parts of Mexico; however, there is some narco-related violence that affects Cancun (usually not in the . Veracruz. As of August, 25 of 32 states had specialized prosecutors offices for investigating torture, or specialized investigative units within the state attorney generals office as called for by law. Pretrial Detention: Lengthy pretrial detention was a problem, and authorities did not always promptly release those detained unlawfully. In July the Sonora State Prosecutor Generals Office detained Rojos alleged killer. Several outbreaks of COVID-19 resulted in multiple deaths. Most formal-sector workers (70 percent) received between one and three times the minimum wage. State governments reported investigating 12 suspected forced labor cases in 2020. According to Google Report, Google received 24 requests from authorities in 2020 to remove content 13 from police, eight from government officials, and three from unspecified sources. The states with the most teenage pregnancies were Chiapas, Coahuila, and Guerrero, and Tabasco. Femicide is a federal offense punishable by 40 to 70 years in prison. According to the measurement, which offers a balance for 2020, the capital of Potos has a rate of 37,400 victims per 100,000 inhabitants, only below Toluca, capital of the State of Mexico, with 38,300. The states of Guanajuato, Jalisco, Mexico, Michoacan, Nuevo Leon, Sinaloa, Sonora, Tamaulipas, and Zacatecas, plus Mexico City, accounted for 76 percent of reported disappearances from 2018 to June 30. According to the National Womens Institute, the federal institution charged with directing national policy on equal opportunity for men and women, sexual harassment in the workplace was a significant problem. The Prosecutor Generals Office also obtained an arrest warrant against Lozoyas mother for money laundering, and in 2019 Interpol agents arrested her in Germany. The governments National Protection Mechanism to Protect Journalists and Human Rights Defenders provided panic buttons, bodyguards, and temporary relocation to journalists and human rights defenders. The government increased the CNB budget 8 percent over the 2020 budget. Abuses of persons with disabilities included the use of physical and chemical restraints; physical and sexual abuse; human trafficking, including forced labor; disappearance; and the illegal adoption of institutionalized children. The law provides for eight paid public holidays and one week of paid annual leave after completing one year of work. Mexico is a multiparty federal republic with an elected president and bicameral legislature. The pandemic severely impacted the economy, resulting in a significant increase in the number of children engaging in child labor. In-country Movement: There were numerous instances of armed groups limiting the movements of migrants, including by threats and acts of kidnapping, extortion, and homicide. The government approved the National Work and Employment Program for People with Disabilities 2021-2024, aimed at strengthening labor inclusion of persons with disabilities and supporting the employment of persons with disabilities in decent work. In April the STPS suspended a legitimization vote at the General Motors plant in Silao, Guanajuato, due to serious irregularities during the vote. Between September 2020 and June, the STPS reported conducting labor inspections in 22,350 work centers nationwide benefiting more than three million workers. Authorities were attempting to extradite Roemer from Israel. In March 2020 a federal judge issued an arrest warrant for Zeron on charges related to his conduct of the investigation, including torturing alleged perpetrators to force confessions, conducting forced disappearances, altering the crime scene, manipulating evidence, and failing to perform his duties. Jewish community representatives reported good cooperation with the government and other religious and civil society organizations in addressing rare instances of such acts. In June the Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision confirming that the exercise of the right to strike suspends the processing of collective conflicts of an economic nature that may be pending before the court and the topics that they present, unless the workers express in writing their agreement to submit the conflict to the decision of the court. The United States Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC) has issued a travel advisory for Americans planning to travel to Mexico for spring break. Under the accusatorial system, judges conduct all hearings and trials and follow the principles of public access and cross-examination. Between January and June, state authorities opened 10,458 new rape investigations. The report singled out Hidalgo, Nayarit, Puebla, Sinaloa, Sonora, and Tamaulipas as the states with the worst prison conditions. On August 31, the government suspended the two agents for inappropriate conduct. By law a union may call for a strike or bargain collectively in accordance with its own statutes. There were accusations of sexual abuse against authorities during arrest and detention. Drug traffickers involved in illegal logging recruited and kidnapped indigenous persons and children in isolated or displaced communities, withheld their wages, forced them to conduct illicit activities, and often threatened death if they tried to leave. As of July the CNB reported that there were 89,572 missing or disappeared persons in the country. On April 24, congress approved a reform to the labor law aimed at banning subcontracting of personnel for core or main economic activities in the public and private sectors. Between January and June, the commission registered that 115,534 women received attention in Justice Centers for Women throughout the country, a 19 percent increase over the same period in 2020. February 27, 2023 endeavor air pilot contract No Comments . Write by: . OSAC membership includes 5,400+ member organizations and 18,000+ individual members from corporate, non-profit, academic, and faith-based groups of every size, all with overseas operations and personnel who are exposed to ever-evolving security issues. In July the Mexico City Prosecutor Generals Office issued the fourth arrest warrant for Roemer. Independent Monitoring: The government permitted independent monitoring of prison conditions by the International Committee of the Red Cross, CNDH, and state human rights commissions. Freedom of Expression, Including for Members of the Press and Other Media, b. Freedoms of Peaceful Assembly and Association, d. Freedom of Movement and the Right to Leave the Country, e. Status and Treatment of Internally Displaced Persons, Section 3. Any corporate, non-profit, academic, faith-based or other U.S.-incorporated organization of any size with operations outside the United States may apply to join. In March the government amended federal labor law to define the minimum wage as the lowest cash amount a worker receives for services rendered during a workday and stipulated it should never be below the inflation rate. In July unknown assailants abducted and killed Aranza Ramos in the state of Sonora. There were credible reports that members of security forces committed some abuses. The government did not effectively enforce the law or regulations. In July the Prosecutor Generals Office arrested seven members, including the leader, of the Tamayo human smuggling organization. Write by: . a > September,. According to the Center for Economic Research and Teaching, most criminal suspects did not receive representation until after their first custody hearing, thus making individuals vulnerable to coercion to sign false statements prior to appearing before a judge. According to the Mexican Social Security Institute, as a result of the law 2.7 million workers of the 4.6 million subcontractors moved from formal subcontracting status to a formal direct employment status. After the STPS canceled the vote, in May the rapid response mechanism under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement commenced, and the government agreed to review a denial of freedom of association and collective bargaining rights at the plant, confirming the denial of rights. Following Ramos killing, Cecilia Flores, the leader of one of the search collectives in which Ramos participated, received death threats. There were 46 female candidates for governor; from 2012 to 2018, there cumulatively only 42. This process is designed to ensure that you are made aware of the safety and/or health risks associated with . Following the August 2020 killing of Pablo Morrugares, El Diario de Iguala newspaper published a note blaming organized crime and Governor Hector Astudillo Flores administration for violence against journalists and impunity. This limited medias ability to investigate and report, since many of the reporters who were killed covered crime, corruption, and local politics. Federal government funding for womens shelters for the year was the same as in 2020. As of September workers had reviewed and voted on 1,790 collective bargaining agreements, less than 1 percent of the total number of agreements. Call this number to report violent crime, arrest, or grave . Defendants may not be compelled to testify or confess guilt. Indigenous persons in isolated regions reported incidents of forced labor in which cartel members forced them to perform illicit activities or face death. The Catholic Multimedia Center reported that criminal groups harassed priests and other religious leaders in some parts of the country and subjected them to extortion, death threats, and intimidation. Penalties for law violations regarding hours and minimum wage were commensurate with those for other similar laws but were rarely enforced. The reforms establish a four-year timeline for implementation designed to end May 1, 2023, but the government established an accelerated timeline to complete implementation by May 2022 and remained on track to meet that goal. Of the day laborers, 33 percent received no financial compensation for their work, and only 3 percent had a formal written contract. The CNDH maintained a human rights program to inform and assist members of indigenous communities. The CNDH may call on government authorities to impose administrative sanctions or pursue criminal charges against officials, but it is not authorized to impose penalties or legal sanctions. See the Department of States Annual Report on International Parental Child Abduction at https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/International-Parental-Child-Abduction/for-providers/legal-reports-and-data/reported-cases. To some of the abusers were reported to be male classmates, but there were also reports sexual! 2021 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Mexico, An official website of the United States Government, https://www.state.gov/religiousfreedomreport/, https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/International-Parental-Child-Abduction/for-providers/legal-reports-and-data/reported-cases, https://www.state.gov/trafficking-in-persons-report/, https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ilab/resources/reports/child-labor/findings/, https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ilab/reports/child-labor/list-of-goods. Journalists in Iguala, Guerrero, received anonymous messages through social networks, such as Facebook and WhatsApp, threatening them and their families, according to civil society. In addition to the outstanding Zeron arrest warrant, the Special Unit for the Investigation and Litigation of the Ayotzinapa case issued 12 warrants and made 10 arrests for investigative irregularities, such as torture and obstruction of justice. The U.S. government has limited ability to provide . In Baja California Sur, Guanajuato, Michoacan, Nayarit, Nuevo Leon, and Yucatan, the crimes of defamation and libel are prosecuted, with penalties ranging from three days to five years in prison and fines for committing defamation or slander, both considered crimes against honor. Slander is punishable under the criminal laws of the states of Campeche, Nuevo Leon, Sonora, Yucatan, and Zacatecas, with sentences ranging from three months to six years in prison and fines. Reports indicated that women suffered disproportionately from pretrial detention. According to the NGO, institutional staff in Baja California reported that four children with disabilities died within days of each other with no known investigations. Many companies evaded taxes and social security payments by employing workers through subcontracting regimes or by submitting falsified payroll records to the Mexican Social Security Institute. Journalists reported altering their coverage due to a lack of protection from the government, attacks against members of media and newsrooms, and threats or retributions against their families, among other reasons. Voting centers for federal elections were generally accessible for persons with disabilities, and ballots were available with a braille overlay for federal elections in Mexico City, but these services were inconsistently available for local elections elsewhere in the country.

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osac crime and safety report: mexico