The OSAC Program Office is headquartered in Washington, DC and is overseen by a 34-member public-private Council. We'll also touch briefly on how you . VFelbabBrown. In August the Mexico City congress approved a reform allowing LGBTQI+ children ages 12 years and older to legally change their gender on their birth certificate. Indigenous defendants who did not speak Spanish sometimes were unaware of the status of their cases and were convicted without fully understanding the documents they were instructed to sign. The National Commission to Prevent and Eradicate Violence against Women is responsible for leading government programs to combat domestic violence. 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. osac mexico 2021 crime and safety report. The CABs were widely alleged to administer these elections with a bias against new, independent unions. It may exercise its power to call before the Senate government authorities who refuse to accept or enforce its recommendations. In October and November, I spent several . The law prohibits compulsory overtime. montirex junior pants (84) 3222-8522 ontario fishing license refund sejanatal@gmail.com A Mexico City municipal law provides increased penalties for hate crimes based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The CNDH reported that assailants killed 12 human rights defenders from January to July. In February 2020, it called on El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico to protect the rights of migrants and refugees to leave their country of origin, noting that asylum applications from . On February 19, a constitutional reform eliminated presidential immunity for corruption and other crimes. According to The Yucatan Times, OSAC officials said U.S. citizens heading south of the border should be aware of the rampant crime in Mexico, including the risk of robbery, sexual assault and illegal drug use, even in popular tourist destinations. While penalties for conviction of forced labor were commensurate with those for similar crimes, very few cases were successfully prosecuted. It is also a criminal offense in all states. Between January and June, state authorities opened 129,020 new domestic violence investigations. This decision prevented a protection union from attempting to stop the strike by filing a challenge to the Mineros Unions control of the existing collective bargaining agreement at the San Martin mine in Sombrerete, Zacatecas. As of December 2020 the Prosecutor Generals Office was investigating 3,703 torture-related inquiries under the previous inquisitorial legal system (initiated prior to the 2016 transition to an accusatorial system) and 565 investigations under the accusatorial system. From 2014 through 2019, the CNDH received nearly 3,000 . On August 7, several journalist organizations, including the Puebla Network of Journalists, National Network of Journalists, Communication, and Information on Women, and International Network of Journalists with a Gender Vision, issued a statement denouncing increased levels of violence against female journalists in Puebla from security forces and criminal organizations. The midterm elections, the largest in the countrys history due to the record number of more than 20,000 offices up for election, had a 52 percent turnout, a record for a nonpresidential election. There were 600 federal labor inspectors to cover the entire country; 60 percent of state level labor authorities had fewer than 10 inspectors. On February 6, the federal Law Against Digital Harassment took effect. The 45,000-person Jewish community experienced low levels of anti-Semitism. If you are traveling for university-related purposes to an area on the University Travel Warning List, you need to follow the instructions below to gain university approval. There is no single independent oversight mechanism to review police actions, but many federal and state security and justice sector institutions have internal affairs units providing internal supervision and promoting best practices for transparency and accountability. The CNB reported that during that period, of the 3,025 bodies exhumed, authorities identified 1,153 and returned 822 to their families. In July unknown assailants abducted and killed Aranza Ramos in the state of Sonora. According to the Mexican Commission for the Promotion of Human Rights, from 2006 to 2020, federal authorities issued 27 sentences for torture. Last Update: Reissued with updates to health information. Civil society groups claimed police routinely subjected LGBTQI+ persons to mistreatment while in custody. Reproductive Rights: There were no confirmed reports of coerced abortion or involuntary sterilization on the part of government authorities. The CABs operate under a tripartite system with government, worker, and employer representatives, with worker representation on the CABs selected based on majority representation, which was held by entrenched nondemocratic unions that sign protection contracts with complicit employers to secure low wages. 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. During the COVID-19 pandemic, indigenous persons faced additional hardships in accessing educational services. Inspectors generally were permitted to examine the informal sector only in response to complaints. Factors associated with maternal deaths included parents with lower levels of education, poor hospital infrastructure and human capacity, and lack of access to maternity care, especially for pregnant women living in rural areas. Significant human rights issues included credible reports of: unlawful or arbitrary killings by police, military, and other governmental officials; forced disappearance by government agents; torture and degrading treatment by security forces; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrest or detention; restrictions on free expression and media, including violence against journalists; acts of corruption; insufficient investigation of and accountability for gender-based violence, including but not limited to domestic and intimate partner violence; crimes involving violence or threats of violence targeting persons with disabilities; and crimes involving violence or threats of violence targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex persons. In many parts of the country, human smuggling organizations wielded significant power, and media alleged frequent collusion among local authorities. In August 2020 attackers fired multiple shots at the building housing the printing facilities of El Diario de Iguala. Three states have state-level IDP laws, but the country does not have a federal internal displacement law, which created challenges in resource allocation and interagency governmental coordination. The law mandates that all discrimination cases, including sexual harassment, bypass formerly mandatory conciliation and proceed directly to the labor courts. In July an arrangement was reached on a course of remediation, which included a new collective bargaining agreement legitimization vote under the supervision of the STPS, with observers from the National Electoral Institute and the International Labor Organization. Enforcement was inadequate in many small companies, in agriculture, and in construction, and nearly absent in the informal sector in which most child laborers worked. Independent Monitoring: The government permitted independent monitoring of prison conditions by the International Committee of the Red Cross, CNDH, and state human rights commissions. The government made efforts to prevent, investigate, and punish acts of disappearance involving government agents. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, 2021 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, Section 1. Individual employees or unions may complain directly to inspectors or safety and health officials. Human rights and environmental activists, many from indigenous communities, continued to be targets of violence. This mass displacement elevated the groups risk of malnutrition and health maladies. Observers from grassroots labor rights groups, international NGOs, and multinational apparel brands reported that employers in export-oriented supply chains increasingly used hiring methods that lessened job security. Some prisons were undersubscribed, while others were overcrowded. Institutionalized Children: Civil society groups expressed concern regarding abuse of children with mental and physical disabilities in orphanages, migrant centers, and care facilities. Between January and June, state authorities opened 10,458 new rape investigations. The government investigated and prosecuted some of these crimes, but the vast majority remained uninvestigated and unprosecuted. Municipal police arrested eight women and one man, later releasing all detainees. A warrant for arrest is not required if an official has direct evidence regarding a persons involvement in a crime, such as having witnessed the commission of a crime; in a 2018 report, the domestic think tank Mexico Evalua determined that 90 percent of all arrests fell under this category. a > September,. The group reported 16 acts of aggression against female journalists between January and July and called on the Puebla governor to guarantee the adoption of public policies to respect, protect, and guarantee the exercise of journalism. As published in The Yucatan Times, OSAC . Use this as a starting point to plan your trip to Mexico and you can be sure you'll have a safe and enjoyable time. OSAC 2021-N-0016, Standard for Initial Response at Scenes by Law Enforcement (added September 7, 2021 and sent to ASB for further development and publication). As a result the new Chamber of Deputies had 37 indigenous deputies, six Afro-Mexican deputies, four LGBTQI+ deputies (including two transgender deputies), and eight deputies with disabilities. In June a federal judge sentenced Juan Francisco Picos Barrueto to 32 years in prison for the 2017 murder of journalist Javier Valdez Cardenas. The army and the navy have human rights units to create protocols and training. Your well-being is our first priority. There were repeated reports of excessive use of force by police officials when detaining people or policing protests and by members of the National Migration Institute (INM) and the National Guard against migrants. NGOs reported authorities had not implemented programs for community integration. As of June, 58 percent of women in federal prison and 51 percent in municipal and state prisons were in pretrial detention, while 42 percent of men in the federal and local judicial system were in pretrial detention, according to a report from the Secretariat of Security and Civilian Protection. By law a union may call for a strike or bargain collectively in accordance with its own statutes. While the Supreme Court upheld the provisions, it noted the need for authorities to obtain a judicial warrant to access user metadata. The reforms provide workers with the right to freely elect union representatives and approve or reject collective bargaining agreements through a secret ballot process before they are registered. In July the Sonora State Prosecutor Generals Office detained Rojos alleged killer. On August 31, the government suspended the two agents for inappropriate conduct. The Federal Center took over registration functions nationwide on November 3 and was preparing to launch a national union registry to contain all files related to union registration and statutes, collective bargaining agreements, and union financial statements. The constitution and law prohibit discrimination with respect to employment or occupation. Violence by organized criminal groups often prompted the incidents, which took place in 10 states and displaced 11,560 persons as of August. As part of that process, the Federal Center published a new legitimization protocol to include a mechanism that allows for submission of complaints regarding alleged irregularities that may happen prior to, during, and after the vote. State labor inspectors, however, reported finding evidence of child labor, particularly in agricultural establishments. 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. The INE requested information from all 32 states, reviewed a sample of 1,177 of the 6,962 federal deputy candidates, and canceled the registration of three candidates for filing false reports. The 27,751 calls to the hotline in May were the most since the creation of the hotline. On June 19, a dispute between factions of the Gulf cartel killed 15 persons in the state of Tamaulipas. The constitution prohibits discrimination based on ethnicity, and a federal law prohibits all forms of discrimination. OSAC has developed into an enormously successful joint venture, with U.S. companies and organizations receiving the tools they need to cope with security issues in a . In July the Supreme Court ruled that authorities at all levels must investigate enforced disappearances, search for disappeared persons, and inform victims of the process. The law provides time limits and conditions on pretrial detention, but federal authorities sometimes failed to comply with them since caseloads far exceeded the capacity of the federal judicial system. The same tribunal rejected registration challenges from four other parties, including former president Felipe Calderons Free Mexico Party, which the INE argued did not produce sufficient evidence of the origin of some funding it received. Indigenous persons in isolated regions reported incidents of forced labor in which cartel members forced them to perform illicit activities or face death. The INE sanctioned 107 persons for gender-based political violence. Children constituted 19 percent of irregular migrant flows identified by authorities; 30 percent of them were unaccompanied. Institutionalized persons with disabilities often lacked adequate medical care and rehabilitation services, privacy, and clothing; they often ate, slept, and bathed in unhygienic conditions. Most internal affairs units, however, were insufficiently staffed and funded. Victims relatives and civil society continued to criticize handling of the original investigation by the Attorney Generals Office, noting there had been no convictions related to the disappearances of the 43 students. This requirement was not followed in all cases, particularly in remote areas of the country. 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. Of the 500 legislators in the Chamber of Deputies, 250 were women, 1 percent more than after the 2018 elections. Some NGOs alleged individuals who organized campaigns to discredit human rights defenders at times acted with tacit support from government officials. 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. In March police officers broke the neck of Salvadoran refugee Victoria Salazar. During the electoral season (September 2020 to June), assailants killed 36 candidates and 64 politicians. Mexico has relied heavily on the military to control drugs and fight organized crime, leading to widespread human rights violations. On January 11, the government ended migratory detention for children. Five states have laws that restrict the publishing of political caricatures or memes. These laws were seldom applied. NGOs reported that acts of excessive use of force and arbitrary detention occurred against female protesters, especially those protesting gender-based violence. Federal law provides for freedom of internal movement, foreign travel, emigration, and repatriation, and the government generally respected these rights. 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. Federal labor law requires a minimum of 20 workers to form a union. The Quintana Roo prosecutor general confirmed police officers used disproportionate force during the arrest. Of the 32 states, 24 criminalize sexual harassment, and all states have provisions for punishment when the perpetrator is in a position of power. The National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) is responsible for independently investigating security force abuses, including killings, and can issue nonbinding recommendations for prosecution. Members of the Mayan community in Campeche reported the National Tourism Board pressured them to cease protesting and agree to leave their lands. As of August 23, Marin was awaiting trial. Women tended to earn substantially less than men did for the same work. The current U.S. Department of State Travel Advisory at the date of this report's publication assesses Peru at Level 2, showing travelers should exercise increased caution. osac crime and safety report: mexico. The constitution provides indigenous persons the right to self-determination, autonomy, and education. Call this number to report violent crime, arrest, or grave . Office of the Special Envoy for Critical and Emerging Technology, Office of the U.S. Documentation supporting a persons identity and origin was lacking. July 2022. This was a common practice in the maquiladora sector, in which employers forced workers to take leave at low moments in the production cycle and obliged them to work in peak seasons, including the Christmas holiday period, without the corresponding triple pay mandated by law for voluntary overtime on national holidays. A 2019 constitutional amendment grants the president the authority to use the armed forces to protect internal and national security through 2024. As of August there were no developments in the case regarding the abduction and killing of seven-year-old Fatima Aldrighetti Anton. In March attackers shot and killed Father Gumersindo Cortes in Guanajuato. such as having witnessed the commission of a crime; in a 2018 report, the domestic think tank Mexico . Lopez had filed a complaint with the Interior Secretariat asking for greater government intervention in the indigenous Tsotsil regions following increased drug trafficking-related violence. The government continued its efforts to strengthen freedom of association protections, promote union democracy, and improve the ability of workers to bargain collectively. Defendants have the right to an attorney of their choice at all stages of criminal proceedings. Many workers were compelled into forced labor through debt bondage, threats of violence, and nonpayment of wages by recruiters and employers. Some areas of Mexico have increased risk of crime and kidnapping. In April the government passed a penal code reform eliminating the statute of limitations for sexual crimes against minors, including child pornography distribution, child sex tourism, corruption of minors, pederasty, sexual abuse, and rape. Nevertheless, only 2 percent of schoolteachers in the country were trained to teach children with disabilities, according to the civil society organization Yo Tambien. INEGI reported in 2017 that 23 percent of working women experienced violence in the workplace within the past 12 months and that 6 percent experienced sexual violence. OSAC provides the latest safety- and security-related information, public announcements, travel advisories, terrorist group profiles, country crime and safety reports, and more to its constituency of more than 4,600 U.S. companies and organizations with overseas interests. osac mexico 2020 crime and safety report osac mexico 2020 crime and safety report. The rate of aggression against political figures during the election cycle was on par with the 2018 election, one of the most violent political periods in recent history. Of the day laborers, 33 percent received no financial compensation for their work, and only 3 percent had a formal written contract. The Prosecutor Generals Office also obtained an arrest warrant against Lozoyas mother for money laundering, and in 2019 Interpol agents arrested her in Germany. As of October the accused were in a military prison awaiting trial. See the Department of States International Religious Freedom Report at https://www.state.gov/religiousfreedomreport/. by . In most cases the law requires detainees to appear before a judge for a custody hearing within 48 hours of arrest, during which authorities must produce sufficient evidence to justify continued detention. Forced labor persisted in the domestic service and in child-care, manufacturing, mining, food-processing, construction, tourism, begging, street-vending, leather-goods-production, and agriculture sectors, especially in the production of chili peppers and tomatoes. 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. The government did not effectively enforce the law. Here then is a recap of key crime and anti-crime events and developments in Mexico in 2020, and of the bleak prospects for 2021. 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. 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. 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. The Federal Center and the new federal labor courts are designed to handle all matters related to collective bargaining agreements, but until the Federal Center establishes its offices in all the states, labor disputes in states without a Federal Center presence are to be handled by the CABs. In Chiapas in July an unidentified perpetrator killed Simon Pedro Perez Lopez, a human rights activist and member of the Las Abejas de Acteal civil society organization. As of December 2020 the Prosecutor Generals Office reported a total of 2,041 federal investigations underway into disappearances involving approximately 3,400 persons. Most National Guard personnel are seconded from the army and navy and have the option to return to their services after five years. The law allows for the reinstatement of workers if the CAB finds the employer fired the worker without just cause and the worker requests reinstatement; however, the law also exempts broad categories of employees from this protection, including so-called employees of confidence and workers in the job for less than one year. Indeed, the Yucatan is one of the only states in Mexico with no transnational criminal organization or terrorist group. Six female candidates became governors, the largest number in the history of the country. Some civil society groups, however, asserted that state commissions were subservient to the state executive branch. The law requires the Secretariat of Health to promote the creation of long-term institutions for persons with disabilities in distress, and the Secretariat of Social Development must establish specialized institutions to care for, protect, and house poor, neglected, or marginalized persons with disabilities. The constitution and law prohibit all forms of forced or compulsory labor, but the government did not effectively enforce the law. The armed forces operated a military justice system to hold human rights abusers accountable. Rape and Domestic Violence: Federal law criminalizes the rape of men and women, including spousal rape, and conviction carries penalties of up to 20 years imprisonment. There were 46 female candidates for governor; from 2012 to 2018, there cumulatively only 42. In April authorities arrested 30 members of the navy and charged them with forced disappearances in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, in 2018. To some of the abusers were reported to be male classmates, but there were also reports sexual! Some detainees complained of a lack of access to family members and to counsel after police held persons incommunicado for several days and made arrests arbitrarily without a warrant. The Federal Center also carries out mandatory pre-judicial conciliations at the federal level, with local conciliation centers carrying out the same function at the state level. 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. > INDUSTRY REPORTING: Expert staff research issues affecting the private . 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. 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. Defendants have the right to attend the hearings and to challenge the evidence or testimony presented. Although the law requires entities recruiting for overseas employment to register with the STPS, there is no enforcement mechanism, and only a handful of recruiters complied. The National Program for the Integral Protection of Children and Adolescents, mandated by law, is responsible for coordinating the protection of childrens rights at all levels of government. The government, in conjunction with international organizations, made efforts to promote the safe, voluntary return, resettlement, or local integration of IDPs. The elections were generally free and fair. Participation of Women and Members of Minority Groups: No laws limit the participation of women or members of minority groups in the political process, and they did participate. In July 2020 legislators approved a law making all judicial sentences public. 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. Journalists who asked difficult questions of government officials during press engagements received attacks via Twitter. Organized criminal groups dominated migrant smuggling operations and often kidnapped, threatened, and extorted migrants to pay a fee for facilitating northbound travel. Sign up with the U.S. State Department's Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP), a free service that alerts the local U.S. Embassy to your presence and connects you to regular updates on traveler safety. According to multiple NGOs, due to COVID-19s impact on the economy, funding sources for womens shelters, including for indigenous women, were insufficient. As of August 27, the suspects were awaiting trial. Several outbreaks of COVID-19 resulted in multiple deaths. That means the homicide crime rate was 29 per 100,000 in 2020. Most formal-sector workers (70 percent) received between one and three times the minimum wage. The guidelines allow internet service providers to deny access to certain applications, content, and services based on commercial criteria, in breach of their obligations to protect neutrality. Online discrimination, harassment, and threats were problems particularly for women journalists and politicians, as well as any individuals and organizations advocating for womens rights. In 2016, the most recent data available, INEGI reported that 44 percent of persons working in agriculture were day laborers. Approximately 23 percent of informal workers (6.8 million persons) were employed by formal businesses or organizations but paid in cash off the books to evade taxes and social security payments. In the June midterm elections, citizens voted for all members of the Chamber of Deputies, 15 governors, state legislators, and mayors across the country. A 2019 CNDH poll found six of every 10 members of the LGBTQI+ community reported experiencing discrimination in the past 12 months, and more than half suffered hate speech and physical aggression. Several indigenous communities denounced the governments plan to build the Mayan Train, an estimated $7.5 billion dual cargo-passenger railroad to cross the Yucatan Peninsula through indigenous lands.

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