TWO YEARS AFTER THE NOTIFICATION OF THE ALVARADO ESPINOZA CASE, NON-COMPLIANCE AND SETBACKS

 

Chihuahua, Chih., December 21, 2020. Two years ago, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) notified the conviction of the Mexican State for the forced disappearance of Nitza Paola, José Ángel and Rocío Irene Alvarado in the Benito Juárez ejido, municipality of Buenaventura, in Chihuahua. The events occurred on December 29, 2009 and, since then, their relatives do not know their whereabouts and the case remains in complete impunity.

The IACHR Court's ruling was a timely opportunity not only to provide comprehensive reparations to the families, but also for the Mexican State to adopt structural measures related to the militarization of security, the creation of a single registry of missing persons, the training of security forces, and an express commitment that these events would not be repeated through an act of acknowledgment of responsibility.

Worryingly, the Mexican State has not only made no progress in complying with the sentence, but has also gone backwards in the adoption of these structural measures of non-repetition. This can be evidenced by the issuance of the "Agreement by which the permanent Armed Forces are available to carry out public security tasks in an extraordinary, regulated, controlled, subordinate and complementary manner" issued by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and published in the Official Gazette of the Federation on May 11. The setback is also reflected in the reform to the General Law of Victims in which the Fund for Aid, Assistance and Integral Reparation (FAARI) disappears, which would not only serve to compensate the victims of the case but many more.

Excessive bureaucracy, the lack of effective coordination between agencies, reluctance of the Secretary of National Defense (SEDENA), the rotation of officials involved in the enforcement of the sentence and the COVID 19 pandemic have also been determining factors for not being able to make substantive progress in the case.

Due to this situation, the IACHR Court has been asked to hold a follow-up hearing to reaffirm the Mexican State's obligation to comply in good faith with its international obligations.

In February 2010, Andrés Manuel López Obrador met with a delegation of family members. On that occasion, he expressed his full support. Today, two years after the sentence and 11 years after the disappearance of the three victims, the families - frustrated, desperate and worried - remind him of that fact and ask him for consistency.