Over a year ago, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture argued that torture is a widespread practice in Mexico—an accusation that the Mexican government vehemently rejected. For many observers, the angry reaction by the Mexican government was specifically due to the link between the term “widespread” and International Criminal Law—more specifically, to the classification of crimes against humanity. For over two decades now, subsequent Mexican governments have dealt with the pressures generated by the nonbinding recommendations of the UN treaty bodies, the Human Rights Council´s mandate holders and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the binding rulings of the Inter-American Court on Human Rights. But facing the possibility of individual criminal accountability is an entirely different matter. The new groundbreaking report by the Open Society Justice Initiative has put domestic and international spotlights on this controversial but inevitable discussion about the possible perpetration of crimes against humanity in Mexico.
Of course, the argument that government forces and organized criminal groups are perpetrating crimes against humanity in the context of the country’s brutal “drug war” is not new. It has been on the table—and on the desk of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC)—for a few years now. But the Open Society report is, to date, the most detailed, rigorous and forceful elaboration of this position. Largely based on the careful and systematic review of official data, the report makes a convincing claim that “there is a reasonable basis to believe that both state and non-state actors have committed crimes against humanity in Mexico”. The report’s main recommendation, however, is not that the Prosecutor of the ICC should formally open a “preliminary investigation” on the situation. Rather, the report suggests the establishment of an “internationalized investigative body, based inside Mexico, which is empowered to independently investigate and prosecute atrocity crimes as well as cases of grand corruption”. In general terms, this might look similar to the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), the United Nations independent international body established, at the request of the Guatemalan government, to investigate criminal groups that have infiltrated state institutions.
