Juan de Dios Hernández Monge*
The extrajudicial executions in Iguala and
the enforced disappearance of 43 students from Ayotzinapa has shaken the whole
world, but that has not been enough for the government to make the minimum
effort to procure and dispense justice: trying to deceive the whole world and
to protect themselves from international criminal responsibility as they are
incurred..
On September 27, 43 students were detained
illegally by repressive elements of the State and they taken in official
vehicles to a place known September 27, 43 students were detained illegally by
repressive elements of the State and they taken in official vehicles to an
unknown place. While they were abducted
and placed outside the protection of the law, the Mexican State has
systematically refused to admit that we are facing a crime against humanity and
has not notified the relatives about the fate or whereabouts of the
disappeared. The
above implies that they are elements of the body of a crime of enforced
disappearance of person, laid down in article 7 of the Rome Statute, which
states: "'Forced disappearance of persons means the arrest, detention or
abduction of persons by a State or a political organization, or with its
authorization, support or acquiescence, followed by a refusal to admit that
deprivation of freedom or to give information on the fate or whereabouts of
those persons, with the intention of leaving them outside the protection of the
law for a prolonged period."
In the crimes against humanity the
perpetrator is always the State, through individuals who act on its behalf,
i.e. with the acquiescence; this happened in this case. But,
however that before the national and international media the government speaks
of disappearance, in the track of the facts, the Council of the Federal
Judiciary reported that, by the facts of the 26 and 27 September in Iguala,
were appropriated by the PGR, before the first district court in federal
criminal proceedings of Tamaulipas, in the cause 100/2014, 24 municipal police
for the crime of organized crime and illegal deprivation of liberty in the form
of kidnapping.
We see in this conduct the modus operandi
of the Mexican State to evade the action of the international justice and
promote impunity for the material and intellectual authors. It is clear that
the guaranteed impunity serves as breeding ground for crimes against humanity
continue to be perpetrated throughout the country. Nevertheless,
the constitutional article 21 says that the Federal executive one will be able,
with the approval of the Senate in every case, to recognize the jurisdiction of
the International Penal Court (CPI). Our country recognized the jurisdiction of
the ICC, so that crimes against humanity must be prosecuted in the international
arena where, as in this case, negative for an investigation, determining
responsibility and subjecting the material and intellectual perpetrators the
course of justice. Furthermore, although there is a law of the state of
Guerrero on the Prevention and Punishment Forced Disappearance of People, which
establishes the supplementary use of international treaties on the matter
(which in this case is represented by the Rome Statute), it has not been
applied.
It is appropriate to invoke the jurisdiction
of the ICC given that Mexico is part of this international treaty, denouncing
the crimes referred to in Article 5 as crimes against humanity and occurred in
Mexican territory; you must invoke the authority of the ICC Prosecutor to
initiate an investigation into this crime has not been prosecuted for those
responsible, and among the offenses for which the municipal police are being
processed are neither forced disappearance of person or extrajudicial execution
or torture. There has been no investigation more than 30 days after the event
occurred.
We consider it essential to move to a new
stage, creating a culture of international condemnation to break the historical
silence, that can build a collective memory for the discovery of truth and
using their own instruments, judge criminals against humanity. We must put the
Mexican State in the dock, which would open the possibility of breaking the
veil of impunity, or at least demonstrate the ineffectiveness and complicity of
the entire legal system.
Considering the aspects of the situation,
it is not enough visible tragedy; by the pain of the bereaved; because there
can be no forgiveness or forgetfulness; that those responsible should be
punished; because it is an ethical imperative to fight against impunity, and
because the Mexican government who appears as a perpetrator of many crimes
against humanity, is that we should report it to the ICC prosecutor. This would
be just the beginning of an unprecedented period of social struggle, which for
the first time legally confront the state in the international arena.
*Lawyer for the students
Traducción Jessica Budd
