Peña Nieto All Talk No Action On Human Rights, Says Amnesty International

In a memorandum presented to Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto on Monday, Amnesty International applauded the administration for its international gestures of support for human rights, but expressed concern that Mexico was failing to take concrete steps to tackle ongoing “serious challenges” at home. “While Mexico is an increasingly important actor on the world stage, not only in economic terms but in the field of human rights, it is failing to deliver at home,” said Salil Shetty, the group’s secretary general, in a press release. “I told the President that he must demonstrate he is serious about ensuring human rights not just internationally but for all inside the country as well.”

The group said that in his 40-minute meeting with Peña Nieto, Shetty focused largely on torture and other crimes committed by police and security forces; disappearances; attacks on journalists and human rights defenders; and abuses against women, indigenous peoples, migrants and refugees. In an interview with Animal Politico, Shetty said he had expressed concern to the Mexican president that human rights might not be on his agenda. “The president told me, ‘No, of course not. There’s nothing more untrue, because for me human rights are a great priority’. But I told him that that has to be made visible and actions in support of human rights in the country have to be taken…in this last year of the new government, the country has gone in the wrong direction.”

The Amnesty memo recommends four courses of action, including making a “clear public statement” on a commitment on human rights and “fulfill his promise to address grave human rights challenges”; guarantee that victims of disappearances are searched for and perpetrators brought to justice; take steps to guarantee the safety of human rights defenders and journalists; and ensure justice for migrants targeted for violence and crime. Shetty told Animal Politico that ending impunity was key, saying, “Mexico needs a penal justice system which can put an end to torture and impunity [and] a public-security strategy which respects human rights and punishes those who violated them.”