The three human rights agencies that filed the report want the ICC to examine alleged crimes against humanity committed between 2006 and 2012 by the police and military forces fighting drug cartels in Baja California state.
Police would typically arrest suspects without warrants on the pretext that they were caught committing crimes, the report claims. Detainees would then be tortured into confessing membership in criminal gangs and paraded as evidence of progress in the “war on drugs.”
Police are also accused of orchestrating “disappearances” for which drug cartels were blamed. Human Rights Watch says the targets were generally poor or working-class people.
The report was filed by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), the Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights (CMDPDH) and the Northwest Citizens’ Commission on Human Rights (CCHR).
Paulina Vega, the vice president of FIDH and a CMDPDH board member, said that the international court was a last resort: “Given the lack of response on the part of the Mexican authorities to the victims’ clamor for justice,” only the ICC can ensure that the crimes are punished, she says. FIDH and CMDPDH previously requested an ICC investigation in 2012.
Under the terms of the Rome Statute establishing the ICC, which took effect in Mexico in 2006, a preliminary examination is a precursor to a full investigation by the court.
