Challenging Impunity in Mexico

Apr 30

Last updated May 2021

Mexico faces what the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has called a “severe human rights crisis,” marked by tens of thousands of forced disappearances and summary executions as well as widespread use of torture. Impunity for these abuses has been the norm; accountability, the rare exception.

The University Network has been supporting the work of several institutions in Mexico to determine the causes of large-scale impunity for gross human rights violations, with a focus on the cooptation of state bodies by organized criminal elements.

Together with ITESO (with a team lead by Prof. Alejandro Anaya), University Network students have been working to identify the factors that undermine investigations and protections. The project will develop recommendations, including potential international involvement, to bolster efforts of Mexican authorities and civil society to end the country’s deadly cycle of impunity. A book-length study is forthcoming with ITESO’s academic press. ITESO is a member of AUSJAL, a network of leading Jesuit universities across Mexico, Central, and South America.