Mexican drug wars beset by systematic torture and killings, report finds

[alp227]

Source: The Guardian

Mexico's drug wars are infused with systematic torture, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings carried out by the police, army and navy, according to an investigation by Human Rights Watch.

The report, Neither Rights Nor Security, says such violations are endemic in the military-led counter-narcotics offensive launched by President Felipe Calderón in December 2006. Around 45,000 people have been killed since the start of the offensive, with the killing primarily driven by escalating turf wars between different cartels, as well as attacks by organised criminals on civilians. Calderón has repeatedly stressed that this reality means the state must go after the criminals with all the force it can muster.

The report by the New York-based human rights group feeds into long-standing claims that the military strategy has been counterproductive.

The report says that the failure to improve investigation of all drug-related killings, and of human rights abuses by the security forces in particular, is fuelling the violence. Data on the number of drug-war related homicide investigations is notoriously opaque, and the report contains evidence of systematic coverups by the authorities in most of the documented cases of human rights abuses.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/09/mexico-drugs-war-human-rights

[Vincardog]

1. The War on (some) Drugs is a war on the 99%

[DaveJ]

2. Killed and tortured for selling drugs that the elite use

I could write a long list of the elite who are known users of pot and other illegal drugs, who are incredibly successful and famous, but it goes without saying.

The illegality of recreational drugs is a way of forcing the 99% to fight amongst ourselves. Meanwhile the 1% is behind high security walls using them, because recreational drugs are something only they are allowed to experience.

[RainDog]

3. k&r n/t