2023-09-30 02:22:48
The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, defended that his Government does not violate human rights before the visit of the UN Committee on Arbitrary Detentions, which this Friday presented its report on the country, where almost four out of every ten prisoners have no a sentence.
“We have always been committed to ensuring that injustices are not committed, in our Government torture is not allowed, disappearances are not allowed, massacres are not allowed, violation of human rights is not allowed,” said the president in his press conference. morning. “It is not a repressive government, like those before, that is why international human rights organizations can act with absolute freedom. And when it comes to torture and there are recommendations from international organizations, action is taken immediately,” he added.
The presence of the United Nations
The UN Committee presented its report after a stay of more than 10 days in which it met with representatives of government institutions, human rights commissions, civil society organizations and other interested actors. The delegation went to places of “deprivation of liberty”, including prisons, police stations and institutions for minors, migrants and people with psychosocial disabilities.
As an emblematic event, the UN cited the case of Hugo Martínez Gorostieta, arbitrarily detained in 2008 in Mexico City, where the police tortured him to make him plead guilty to kidnapping, which earned him a sentence of 113 years in prison despite the Lack of evidence. López Obrador promised to address this matter, as well as the rest of the recommendations made by the committee. “Yes, of course yes, we would have to see why the recommendation was not followed. It seems strange to me because the instruction is that all these recommendations be applied. Sometimes it has to do with the Judiciary, but we are going to analyze the case,” he said.
The international visit occurs while more than 88,000 people in Mexican prisons, 39% of the total, lack a sentence, according to the National Censuses of Penitentiary Systems of the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI). The institute reported oversaturation in local prisons, with 186,755 inmates, and specialized centers, with 6,858, which together have an occupancy of 107% compared to their official capacity.
“It’s vile propaganda”
The Mexican president also referred to the proposal of the United States Lower House, with a Republican majority, which approved on Thursday an amendment to the State Department budget that would cut aid programs to Mexico until it certifies that the Mexican authorities collaborate to reduce fentanyl trafficking. “It is vile propaganda. You should not take it seriously, it is pure advertising to try to deceive American citizens, but this tendentious, lying, slanderous practice is increasingly worn out, so you should not take it seriously,” Indian.
López Obrador argued that, “since there are elections in the United States, the parties, candidates or pre-candidates use these delicate, regrettable issues of the use and damage caused by fentanyl, as well as the immigration issue, for political purposes.” “And they go to continue with the same thing and more and more daring they are going to come to propose that they are going to bomb Mexico or things like that, laughable, they are very ridiculous,” he added. The proposal has little chance of succeeding in the Senate, because there the majority are Democrats.
The president pointed out that US congressmen should focus their efforts on a plan to care for their young people so that they have free education, work and love so that they do not consume fentanyl. “That’s what they should be doing, not blaming us. We are helping them every day, for humanitarian reasons, because we are concerned about the pandemic due to the consumption of fentanyl in the United States,” he said. “And we are more concerned and it pains us that 100,000 young people lose their lives every year in that country due to fentanyl consumption. And what do they, the legislators, do? Blame Mexico, for no reason,” he added.
Bilateral relations
Friction between Mexico and the United States over drug trafficking grew as both countries approach their respective presidential elections in 2024. López Obrador denies that fentanyl is produced in his country, while Washington maintains that Mexican cartels manufacture this synthetic drug with chemical precursors that come from Asia, particularly China.
The Mexican president and the North American Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, plan to meet next week in Mexico City to discuss the implementation of the Bicentennial Understanding – a common security strategy launched by both countries -, within the framework of a high-level meeting on drug trafficking between the delegations of the two governments.
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