The widespread use of torture in Mexico and its impacts on the rule of law

ABSTRACT

Torture is a widely diffused practice in Mexico, as has been reported for decades by civil society organisations, United Nations bodies and special procedures, and the National Human Rights Commission. Although torture has been used in various contexts, its use in criminal proceedings, as an ‘illegal’ method of criminal investigation to obtain confessions and incriminating statements, has been consistently denounced over the years. Encouraged by old court criteria, that translated into the lack of real judicial control, prosecutors have had no incentive to develop institutional capacities to investigate crimes on the basis of scientific evidence and excluding torture from their methods. Consequently, the possibility to develop institutional capacities to enforce the law according to human rights standards have been continuously undermined. With that in mind, the aim of this article is to analyse whether the systematic violation of the prohibition of torture (a jus cogens norm) by the Mexican State has had in impact on the rule of law, including in its substantive dimension, that is, the ‘democratic rule of law’.

KEYWORDS:

• Prohibition of torture
• jus cogens norm
• democratic rule of law
• judicial control
• law enforcement
• criminal investigation

Acknowledgments

I am very grateful with Professor Miguel Sarre for his valuable comments; Professor Francisco Calderón for his orientation when analyzing the data and Professor Irving Rosales for his general guidance and motivation. I also wish to thank Law student Ricardo Becerra, who assisted me on part of the research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributors

Denise González-Núñez is Director of the Human Rights Program at Universidad Iberoamericana-Mexico City, an office dedicated to carry out research and advocacy to advance human rights in Mexico. She holds a Master of Studies in International Human Rights Law from the University of Oxford and her research interests include human rights law and public policy, grave human rights violations, refugee law, land rights, among others.

ORCID

Denise González-Núñez http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1259-7946

Notes

1 Daniel Costelloe, Legal Consequences of Peremptory Norms in International Law (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017) Kindle Edition, 16.

2 Ibid., 51.

3 Erika de Wet, ‘The Prohibition of Torture as an International Norm of jus cogens and its Implications for National and Customary Law’, European Journal of International Law 15, no. 1 (2004): 97–100.

4 Randall Peerenboom, ‘Human Rights and Rule of Law: What’s the relationship?’, Research Paper no. 05–31, Public Law & Legal Theory Research Paper Series (Los Angeles: University of California School of Law, 2005); Christian Tomuschat, ‘Democracy and the Rule of Law’, in International Human Rights Law, ed. Dinah Shelton (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), Kindle Edition.

5 Andrea Radilla Martínez and Claudia E.G. Rangel Lozano, coords., Desaparición Forzada y Terrorismo de Estado en México (Madrid: Plaza y Valdés Editores, 2012).

6 Laura Castellanos, México Armado 1943–1981 (Mexico City: Biblioteca Era, 2008).

7 Luis Arriaga Valenzuela, ‘Crímenes de Estado y Derechos Humanos en México’, El Cotidiano 23, no. 150 (2008): 58.

8 Centro de Derechos Humanos Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez et al., Desapariciones Forzadas durante la Guerra Sucia en México e Impunidad (31 Mayo 2014), https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CED/Shared%20Documents/MEX/INT_CED_ICO_MEX_17810_S.pdf; Hilda Navarrete Gorjón et al., Informe Final de Actividades (Comisión de la Verdad del Estado de Guerrero, October 15, 2014); Radilla and Rangel, Desaparición Forzada.

9 Office of Special Prosecutor Ignacio Carrillo Prieto, Historical Report to the Mexican Society (2006), https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB209/index.htm#informe; Alfredo Méndez Ortiz, ‘La Femospp se extingue sin conseguir que se castigue a presuntos represores’, La Jornada, March 27, 2007, http://www.jornada.com.mx/2007/03/27/index.php?section=politica&article=014n1pol. The office of the Special Prosecutor was opened in 2002 after the 2000 election, when the PRI was defeated. However, it was closed in 2007 with not even one judgment issued for human rights violations committed during.

10 Office of the Special Prosecutor Ignacio Carrillo Prieto, Historical Report, 543.

11 Amnesty International, México: Tortura e Impunidad (Madrid: Editorial Amnistía Internacional, 1991) AMR 41/O3/91/s, 7.

12 Amnesty International, Recent Developments Relevant to the Issue of Torture (September 1991) AMR 41/10/91/s, https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/196000/amr410101991es.pdf.

13 Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, La Legalidad de la Injusticia (San Cristóbal de las Casas: Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, 1998), https://frayba.org.mx/historico/archivo/informes/980801_la_legalidad_de_la_injusticia_frayba.pdf, 51.

14 Ibid., 51.

15 Carmen Pedrazzini, ‘La represión del Estado’, in Los Derechos Humanos en México durante la Transición Sexenal, coord. David Fernández (Mexico City: Universidad Iberoamericana Ciudad de México & Centro de Derechos Humanos Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez, 1995), 19; Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, Let’s raise our voices for justice! (San Cristóbal de las Casas: Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, 1996), https://frayba.org.mx/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/960220_lets_raise_our_voices_for_justice_frayba.pdf, 23. Several other reports by this organisation can be accessed in https://frayba.org.mx/historico/informes.php?page=10&hl=es&tag_ID=19.

16 Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, Let’s raise our voices for justice!, 23.

17 Pedrazzini, ‘La represión del Estado’, 19.

18 Amnesty International, Mexico. Unfair Trials: Unsafe Convictions (March 2003) AMR 41/007/2003, https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/104000/amr410072003es.pdf.

19 Claudia Herrera and Ernesto Martínez, ‘Vestido Militar, Calderón rinde “Tributo” a las Fuerzas Armadas’, La Jornada, January 4, 2001, http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2007/01/04/index.php?section=politica&article=003n1pol; Francisco Relea, ‘Entrevista a Felipe Calderón: La situación en México’, El País, January 21, 2007, http://www.elpais.com/articulo/internacional/Mexico/corria/riesgo/ser/dominado/crimen/elpepiint/20070121elpepiint_5/Tes?print=1.

20 Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Juan E. Méndez. Addendum. Mission to Mexico (December 29, 2014), U.N.Doc. A/HRC/28/68/Add.3 par. 20.

21 Marcos Muedano, ‘Disminuye 67% la quema de yerba’, Excelsior, July 29, 2018, https://www.excelsior.com.mx/nacional/disminuye-67-la-quema-de-yerba/1255293; Marcos Muedano, ‘Destruyen más de 26 mil armas decomisadas al crimen organizado’, Excelsior, October 25, 2018, https://www.excelsior.com.mx/nacional/destruyen-mas-de-26-mil-armas-decomisadas-al-crimen-organizado/1274203; Michelle Mejía, ‘La batalla del Ejército contra las drogas en el “Triángulo Dorado”’, Uno TV, April 22, 2017, https://www.unotv.com/noticias/portal/nacional/detalle/la-batalla-del-ejrcito-contra-las-drogas-en-el-tringulo-dorado-820024/; Manu Ureste, ‘Un recorrido por los corruptos retenes retenes del ejército de México’, Insight crime, January 15, 2015, https://es.insightcrime.org/noticias/analisis/recorrido-corruptos-retenes-ejercito-mexico/; The heads of public security agencies were also gradually substituted by the military. Marcelo Galán, ‘Militares a cargo de la seguridad en 17 entidades’, El Universal, February 28, 2011, http://archivo.eluniversal.com.mx/primera/36411.html.

22 Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, ‘Statement of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights’ (Mexico City, October 7, 2015), https://www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=16578.

23 Amnesty International, Out of Control: Torture and Other Ill-Treatment in Mexico (London: Amnesty International, 2014), AMR 41/020/2014.

24 Amnesty International, Paper Promises, Daily Impunity: Mexicós Torture Epidemic Continues (London: Amnesty International, 2015) AMR 41/2676/2015; Surviving Death: Police and Military Torture of Women in Mexico (London: Amnesty International, 2016), AMR 41/4237/2016.

25 See, for example, Human Rights Watch, Neither Rights Nor Security. Killings, Torture, and Disappearances in Mexico's ‘War on Drugs’ (United States of America: Human Rights Watch, 2011), https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/mexico1111webwcover_0.pdf; ACAT-France, Au nom de la ‘guerre contre le crime’. Une étude du phénomene tortionnaire au Mexique (ACAT-France, 2012), https://www.acatfrance.fr/rapport/au-nom-de-la-guerre-contre-le-crime; Centro de Derechos Humanos Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez, La Magnitud de la Crisis de Derechos Humanos en México en el Marco de las Políticas de Seguridad Pública y del Sistema de Justicia Penal (Mexico City: Centro de Derechos Humanos Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez, 2016), http://centroprodh.org.mx/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_details&gid=214&Itemid=28&lang=es; Ximena Suárez-Enríquez, Justicia Olvidada: La Impunidad de las Violaciones a Derechos Humanos cometidas por Soldados en México (Washington Office on Latin America, November 2017), https://www.wola.org/es/analisis/informe-de-wola-justicia-olvidada-la-impunidad-de-las-violaciones-derechos-humanos-cometidas-por-soldados-en-mexico/.

26 Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Juan E. Méndez. Addendum. Mission to Mexico (December 29, 2014), U.N.Doc. A/HRC/28/68/Add.3 par. 76. The national and even the international press covered the rapporteur’s concluding observations, including The Guardian’s article pointing out that ‘[a] scathing UN report has sharply rebuked Mexico for its widespread problem with torture … ’. Jo Tuckman, ‘UN: torture in Mexico occurs with “impunity” at hands of security forces’, The Guardian, March 9, 2015, https://theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/09/mexico-torture-human-rights-violations-united-nations-report.

27 Inter-American Commission of Human Rights, Situation of Human Rights in Mexico (2015), OEA/Ser.L/V/II.Doc. 44/15. Carlos Fazio states that Mexico is going through a ‘civilizatory crisis’. Carlos Fazio, Estado de Emergencia. De la Guerra de Calderón a la Guerra de Peña Nieto (Mexico City: Grijalbo, 2016).

28 Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Juan E. Méndez. Addendum. Mission to Mexico (December 29, 2014), U.N.Doc. A/HRC/28/68/Add.3.

29 Human Rights Council, Informe de seguimiento del Relator Especial sobre la tortura y otros tratos o penas crueles, inhumanos o degradantes – México (February 17, 2017) U.N. Doc. A/HRC/34/54/Add.4, par. 104.

30 Committee against Torture, Consideration of reports submitted by States parties under article 19 of the Convention, México, U.N.Doc. A/48/44(Supp), par. 203.

31 Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur, Mr. Nigel S. Rodley, submitted pursuant to Commission on Human Rights resolution 1997/38. Addendum. Visit by the Special Rapporteur to Mexico (January 14, 1998) U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/1998/38/Add.2, par. 7.

32 Centro de Derechos Humanos Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez, Recomendaciones de Derechos Humanos al Estado Mexicano 2000–2010 (Mexico City: Centro de Derechos Humanos Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez, 2011), http://centroprodh.org.mx/index.php?option=com_docman&Itemid=28&lang=es&limitstart=25.

33 Committee against Torture, Report of Mexico Produced by the Committee Under Article 20 of the Convention and Reply from the Government of Mexico (May 27, 2003), U.N.Doc. CAT/C/75, par. 218.

34 Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur, Mr. Nigel S. Rodley, Submitted Pursuant to Commission on Human Rights Resolution 1997/38. Addendum. Visit by the Special Rapporteur to Mexico (January 14, 1998) U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/1998/38/Add.2, par. 24.

35 Inter-American Commission of Human Rights, Situation of Human Rights in Mexico (2015), OEA/Ser.L/V/II.Doc. 44/15, par. 212.

36 Ibid.

37 Created in the year 1990 by presidential decree as a decentralised body of the Secretary of Government and transformed in 1992 into an autonomous constitutional body through a constitutional reform. National Human Rights Commission, ‘Antecedentes’, http://www.cndh.org.mx/Antecedentes (accessed October 29, 2018).

38 Some of them have to do with the obstacles mentioned by the Special Rapporteur on Torture in 2014, that is, unreported cases or cases classified as cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment (‘ill-treatment’ or CIDT). Another reason is competence: according to article 3 of the Commission’s Law, it ‘will have competence throughout the national territory, to hear complaints related to alleged human rights violations when these are imputed to federal authorities and public servants, with the exception of those belonging to the Federal Judicial Branch’. National Human Rights Commission Act (México) 1992, http://www.cndh.org.mx/sites/all/doc/normatividad/Ley_CNDH.pdf.

39 Mónica Beltrán Gaos, ‘La protección descentralizada de los derechos humanos en México y en España’, in Derecho Constitucional. Memoria del Congreso Internacional de Culturas y Sistemas Jurídicos Comparados, coord. Miguel Carbonell (Mexico City: UNAM, 2004), 147. The National Commission’s Law established the latter’s obligation to continue to receive complaints involving local agents while human rights commissions were created by local legislatures. See National Human Rights Commission Act.

40 Beltrán, ‘La protección descentralizada’; Pedrazzini, ‘La represión del Estado’, 18–19.

41 Pedrazzini, ‘La represión del Estado’, 18–19.

42 Ibid. The same author documented 1015 cases of ‘aggression-injury’, without specifying more information.

43 Comisión Mexicana de Defensa y Promoción de los Derechos Humanos, Human Rights Violations in the Contexto f the War on Drugs (Mexico City: Comisión Mexicana de Defensa y Promoción de los Derechos Humanos, 2015), http://www.cmdpdh.org/publicaciones-pdf/cmdpdh-violaciones-graves-a-ddhh-en-la-guerra-contra-las-drogas-en-mexico.pdf; Centro de Derechos Humanos Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez, Transición Traicionada. Los Derechos Humanos durante el Sexenio 2006–2012 (Mexico City: Centro de Derechos Humanos Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez, 2013); Human Rights Watch, Neither Rights Nor Security; ACAT-France, Au nom de la ‘guerre contre le crime’. See also: Laura Carlsen, ‘Mexico’s False Dilemma: Human Rights or Security’, Northwestern Journal of International Human Rights 10, no. 3 (2012); Instituto Belisario Domínguez Senado de la República, Temas estratégicos 39. Seguridad Interior: Elementos para el Debate (January 2017), http://www.bibliodigitalibd.senado.gob.mx/bitstream/handle/123456789/3344/Reporte39_SeguridadInterior_DistDigital.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y.

44 Amnesty International, México. Tortura e Impunidad: Reacciones del gobierno (November 1991) AMR 41/17/91/s; Iván E. Saldaña ‘Tortura no es una ‘práctica generalizada’ en México: SRE’, Excélsior, March 9, 2015, https://www.excelsior.com.mx/nacional/2015/03/09/1012424; Rodrigo Aguilera, ‘Mexico’s Human Rights Challenge’, Huffington Post, April 23, 2015, https://huffingtonpost.com/rodrigo-aguilera/mexicos-human-rights-chal_b_7131250.html; Unspecified autor, ‘Relator de la ONU, irresponsable por dichos sobre tortura en México: SRE’, Expansión, March 12, 2015, https://expansion.mx/nacional/2015/03/28/relator-de-la-onu-irresponsable-por-dichos-sobre-tortura-en-mexico-sre; Alejandro Pacheco, ‘Pese a descalificaciones, relator contra la tortura de la ONU considera dar seguimiento a recomendaciones’, SDP Noticias, April 1, 2015, https://sdpnoticias.com/nacional/2015/04/01/pese-a-descalificaciones-relator-contra-la-tortura-de-la-onu-considera-dar-seguimiento-a-recomendaciones.

45 Armando Meneses, ‘Prohibición de la Tortura’, in Derechos Humanos en la Constitución: Comentarios de Jurisprudencia Constitucional e Interamericana, Eduardo Ferrer Mac-Gregor Poisot, José Luis Caballero Ochoa and Christian Steiner (México: SCJN, UNAM, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, 2013).

46 Centro de Derechos Humanos Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez, La Magnitud de la Crisis de Derechos Humanos en México, 36; Naomi Larsson, ‘Mexican government accused of torture and disabled care home’, The Guardian, March 9, 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2017/mar/09/ending-abuse-institutions-charity-case-mexican-government.

47 Amnesty International Mexico: Torture and Impunity, 7.

48 Ibid., 22.

49 Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur, Mr. Nigel S. Rodley, Submitted Pursuant to Commission on Human Rights Resolution 1997/38. Addendum. Visit by the Special Rapporteur to Mexico (January 14, 1998) U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/1998/38/Add.2, par. 8.

50 CAT 2003, par. 137.

51 Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Juan E. Méndez. Addendum. Mission to Mexico (December 29, 2014), U.N.Doc. A/HRC/28/68/Add.3 par. 25.

52 Among said authorities are the federal Office of Prevention and Social Readaption and its state equivalent offices. National Human Rights Commission, Annual Reports, http://www.cndh.org.mx/Informes_Anuales_Actividades. Torture and maltreatment are also present in the context of the criminal enforcement system in Mexico, however it is many times invisible for several reasons, including the use of improper language meaning that maltreatment or even torture by overcrowding is commonly referred to simply as ‘prison overcrowding’. Miguel Sarre, email message to author, October 5, 2018.

53 National Human Rights Commission, Annual Reports.

54 In 1997 Amnesty International stated that ‘[c]onfessions continue to be considered the “queen of evidence” (la reina de las pruebas) in judicial proceedings’. Amnesty International, Mexico. Amnesty International’s Concerns regarding Torture and Ill-Treatment in Mexico (April 1997) AMR 41/17/97, https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/160000/amr410171997en.pdf. Reports by national and international experts show the recurrence of this practice even nowadays. Centro de Derechos Humanos Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez, La Magnitud de la Crisis de Derechos Humanos en México, 55. Claudia Paz y Paz, ‘Recomendaciones para mejorar el sistema de investigación criminal mexicano a la luz del caso Ayotzinapa’, Aportes DPLF, 21, January 2017.

55 Committee against Torture, Consideration of reports submitted by States parties under article 19 of the Convention, México, U.N.Doc. A/48/44(Supp), par. 203.

56 Ibid.

57 Committee against Torture, Report of Mexico Produced by the Committee under Article 20 of the Convention and Reply from the Government of Mexico (May 27, 2003), U.N.Doc. CAT/C/75, par. 218.

58 Committee against Torture, Concluding Observations on the Combined Fifth and Sixth Periodic Reports of Mexico as Adopted by the Committee at its Forty-ninth Session (October 29– November 23, 2012), U.N.Doc. CAT/C/MEX/Q/5- 6, par. 10.

59 Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Juan E. Méndez. Addendum. Mission to Mexico (December 29, 2014), U.N.Doc. A/HRC/28/68/Add.3, pars. 24–26.

60 Centro de Derechos Humanos Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez, La Magnitud de la Crisis de Derechos Humanos en México, 36.

61 Abel Miranda Ayala, ‘Sin sustento científico la “Verdad Histórica”’, El Sur de Acapulco, Septiembre 4, 2018, https://www.elsoldeacapulco.com.mx/local/estado/sin-sustento-cientifico-la-verdad-historica-1968569.html; Ariadna García, ‘Tortura evidencia desaseo en caso Ayotzinapa: Vidulfo Rosales’, El Universal, May 9, 2017, http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/articulo/nacion/sociedad/2017/05/9/tortura-evidencia-desaseo-en-caso-ayotzinapa-vidulfo-rosales; Redacción AN, ‘Responde Centro Prodh a Peña: reprobada, la investigación de PGR sobre Ayotzinapa; faltan ‘pruebas científicas irrebatibles’, Aristegui Noticias, August 29, 2018, https://aristeguinoticias.com/2908/mexico/responde-centro-prodh-a-pena-reprobada-la-investigacion-de-pgr-sobre-ayotzinapa-faltan-pruebas-cientificas-irrebatibles/.

62 Claudia Paz y Paz, ‘Recomendaciones para mejorar el sistema de investigación criminal mexicano a la luz del caso Ayotzinapa’, Aportes DPLF, January 21, 2017; Alejandro Valencia Villa et al., Informe Ayotzinapa II. Avances y Nuevas Conclusiones sobre la Investigación, Búsqueda y Atención a las Víctimas (México City: Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts, 2016); Amnesty International, Mexico. Amnesty International’s Concerns regarding Torture and Ill-Treatment in Mexico (April 1997) AMR 41/17/97, https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/160000/amr410171997en.pdf.

63 Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Juan E. Méndez. Addendum. Mission to Mexico (December 29, 2014), U.N.Doc. A/HRC/28/68/Add.3, pars. 24–26.

64 Claudia Paz y Paz, ‘Recomendaciones para mejorar el sistema de investigación criminal mexicano a la luz del caso Ayotzinapa’, 6.

65 Stephanie E. Brewer, ‘Hacia un proceso penal constitucional: Elementos para entender y aplicar la presunción de inocencia en México’, Revista del Instituto de la Judicatura Federal 36 (2014), 145–147; ‘DECLARACIONES DEL REO. INMEDIATEZ PROCESAL’, Thesis IX.1o.6 P [TA], Nineth Period, T.C.C. [Collegiate Circuit Court], S.J.F. y su Gaceta [Weekly Federal Court Report], IV, July 1996, 385; ‘PRINCIPIO DE INMEDIATEZ PROCESAL, INTERPRETACIÓN DEL. DIVERSAS DECLARACIONES DEL REO’ [TA], Eighth Period, T.C.C. [Collegiate Circuit Court], S.J.F. [Weekly Federal Court Report], VIII, August 1991, 206.

66 Brewer, ‘Hacia un proceso penal constitucional’, 145.

67 Ibid., 147.

68 ‘CONFESIÓN, PLENO VALOR PROBATORIO DE LA’, Thesis II.3o.J/20, Eighth Period, T.C.C. [Collegiate Circuit Court], S.J.F. y su Gaceta [Weekly Federal Court Report] 56, August 1992, 47; ‘CONFESIÓN, SU VALOR PROBATORIO (LEGISLACIÓN PENAL FEDERAL)’, Thesis VI.1o.J/100, Eighth Period, T.C.C. [Collegiate Circuit Court], Apéndice [Appendix] II, 1995, 295. The two court thesis cited here were upheld by the courts since 1989 and 1988, respectively.

69 ‘PRUEBA CONFESIONAL, VALOR DE LA’ [TA], Fifth Period, Third Chamber of the National Supreme Court of Justice, S.F.J. [Weekly Federal Court Report] CXXXI, Registry no. 338869, 1957, 133.

70 Judicial file Varios 912/2010, Ninth Period, Full Chamber of the National Supreme Court of Justice, S.J.F. y su Gaceta [Weekly Federal Court Report] Book I, October 2011, Volume 1, 313.

71 ‘INMEDIATEZ PROCESAL. PRINCIPIOS QUE CONDICIONAN SU APLICACIÓN CUANDO EL INCULPADO SE RETRACTA DE UNA CONFESIÓN MINISTERIAL ALEGANDO QUE ÉSTA FUE OBTENIDA MEDIANTE ACTOS DE TORTURA’, Thesis 1a. LVI/2017 (10ª.), Tenth Period, First Chamber of the National Supreme Court of Justice, S.J.F. [Weekly Federal Court Report] Book 42, May 2017, Volume I, 467.

72 Alejandro Valencia Villa et al., Informe Ayotzinapa II, 406.

73 Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team, Executive Summary [results on the study carried out at the garbage dump in Cocula, where federal authorities claimed that the bodies of the 43 disappeared students were burned] 2016, 18; Lizzie Wade, ‘Were the bodies of the 43 missing students burned at a dumpsite?’ Science, March 10, 2016, http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/03/were-bodies-43-missing-students-burned-dumpsite.

74 Kirk Semple, ‘Missing Mexican Students Suffered a Night of “Terror”, Investigators Say’, New York Times, April 24, 2016, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/25/world/americas/missing-mexican-students-suffered-a-night-of-terror-investigators-say.html; Randal C. Archibold, ‘43 Missing Students, a Mass Grave and a Suspect: Mexico’s Police’, New York Times, October 6, 2014, https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/07/world/americas/43-missing-students-a-mass-grave-and-a-suspect-mexicos-police-.html; ABC News, ‘What we know about the 43 Missing Mexican Students’, ABC News, October 24, 2014, https://abcnews.go.com/International/43-missing-mexican-students/story?id=26423875; Jo Tuckman, ‘Mexico: Protests at Admission that 43 Missing Students Were Massacred’, The Guardian, November 9, 2014, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/09/mexico-demonstration-43-students-confirmed-massacred; Catherine E. Shoichet and Rafael Romo, ‘Mexico’s 43 Missing Students: Who are they?’, CNN, November 14, 2014; No author specified, ‘Missing Students Missing after Protest in Iguala’, BBC, September 29, 2014, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-29406630.

75 Alejandro Valencia Villa et al., Informe Ayotzinapa II, 582.

76 Tomuschat, ‘Democracy and the Rule of Law’, 474; Peerenboom, ‘Human Rights and Rule of Law’.

77 Ibid., 475.

78 Ibid.

79 Peerenboom, ‘Human Rights and Rule of Law’, 20.

80 Evan Fox-Decent, ‘Is the rule of law really indifferent to human rights?’, Law and Philosophy 27 (2008): 534.

81 World Justice Project, ‘Rule of Law Index 2017–2018’, https://worldjusticeproject.org/sites/default/files/documents/WJP-ROLI-2018-June-Online-Edition_0.pdf.

82 Peerenbom, ‘Human Rights and Rule of Law’, 21. The author states that a free-market economy is one of the conditions, but one may question if the same would be true where there is a social democratic approach to the market place.

83 Report of the Secretary General, The Rule of Law and Transitional Justice in Conflict and Post-conflict Societies (August 23, 2004) U.N.Doc. S/2004/616, par. 6.

84 Arturo Ángel, ‘En 2018 Jueces desechan el 80% de los casos que envía la PGR; seis veces más que al inicio del sexenio’, Animal Político, September 5, 2018, https://www.animalpolitico.com/2018/09/jueces-casos-desechados-pgr-sexenio/.

85 Ibid.

86 An analysis regarding what has changed in judicial practice is out of the limits of this article, but possible explanations may be found in the 2011 constitutional reform, which may be finally permeating in the courts and operating as the mechanism that allows the ‘translation’ or application of international standards into national judicial practice. Centro de Derechos Humanos Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez, Instituto Mexicano de Derechos Humanos y Democracia y Programa de Derechos Humanos de la Universidad Iberoamericana Ciudad de México, Del Papel a la Práctica: La Aplicación de las Reformas Constitucionales en el Sistema de Justicia 2011–2016 (Mexico City, 2017).

87 World Justice Project, ‘Rule of Law Index 2017–2018’, http://data.worldjusticeproject.org/.

88 Arturo Ángel, ‘La cero efectividad de PGR de esclarecer homicidios: en 8 años obtuvo dos sentencias’, Animal Político, August 16, 2018, https://www.animalpolitico.com/2018/08/la-cero-efectividad-de-pgr-para-esclarecer-homicidios-en-8-anos-obtuvo-dos-sentencias/.

89 Committee on Enforced Disappearances, Concluding Observations on the Report submitted by Mexico Under Article 29, Paragraph 1, of the Convention (March 5, 2015) U.N. Doc. CED/C/Mex/CO/1, par. 10.

90 Judgment ‘Amparo en revisión 203/2017’, ‘First Collegiate Circuit Court of the 19th Circuit’, June 4, 2018 par. 1096.

91 OHCHR, Manual on the Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment ("Istanbul Protocol”) (2004) U.N. Doc. HR/P/PT/8/Rev.1.

92 Judgment ‘Amparo en revisión 203/2017’.