Navy: systematic abuse and excessive use of force

Researchers

from the Center for Economic Research and Teaching (CIDE) and Mexico's National Autonomous University (UNAM) have revealed that in the last years, the Navy Ministry ( Semar ) has perpetrated systematic abuse and excessive use of force .

According to Monitor of the use of lethal force in Latin America: A comparative study of Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, Mexico, and Venezuela , in 2017 , the Mexican navy showed an “extremely worrying” lethality rate by registering the murder of 21 civilians for every navy member wounded during an armed conflict.

According to official numbers, between 2014 and 2017 navy members killed 281 people during several operations. This phenomenon is on the rise, for example, in 2014, the navy killed 65 people while it killed 105 civilians in 2017.

Another number that reflects the abuses perpetrated by the navy is the figures that show that there are 6 civilians dead for every 1,000 navy members deployed for security tasks .

Besides the Semar , the study also measures the excessive use of force in the Federal Police and state police . These institutions showed lower abuse rates and the tendency has decreased .

In the case of the Federal Police , this institution killed 276 civilians between 2014 and 2017. while state police killed 154 people.

In regards to the Mexican army , the study wasn't able to determine if there is excessive use of force because the institution didn't provide the necessary information.

During the presentation of the study, Catalina Pérez Correa , a CIDE researcher and a collaborator for EL UNIVERSAL , warned that this study only reports “ 30% of the total violence ” because of the lack of public information .

In order to create the report, the researchers requested information from the Federal Police, National Defense Ministry (SEDENA), SEMAR , and state police , nevertheless, the army didn't provide information and only 24 state police provide the number of people detained , and wounded and dead civilians .

9 out of 10 people arrested by Mexican authorities are tortured and sexually abused

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