The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) is requesting that the International Criminal Court (ICC) open probes into the mass disappearances and cartel exterminations in the Mexican border state of Coahuila.
This week, the FIDH filed a report with the ICC in The Hague, requesting that the court carries out a preliminary investigation and determine whether it has jurisdiction to try cartel members and government officials who enabled the crimes against humanity.
In their report, the FIDH claims that from 2009 to sometime between 2011 and 2012, Mexican state cops and government officials colluded with Los Zetas cartel to carry out crimes against the civil population to the extent they are considered crimes against humanity. The FIDH also claimed that starting somewhere between 2011 and 2012, continuing into 2017, authorities carried out crimes against humanity via special forces. The report fingers Mexican drug cartels and Coahuila state government structures, arguing that the level of suffering achieved could not be accomplished with cartels acting alone.
One of the cases that FIDH focused on is the March 2011 massacre in Allende, Coahuila, where between 60 and 300 victims were murdered by Los Zetas.
“Evidence suggest that both local law enforcement an the then-governor were aware of what was going to happen,” the FIDH revealed in a prepared statement. “Law enforcement did not intervene and even cooperated with the Zetas.”
As Breitbart Texas reported, Los Zetas kidnapped, murdered, and incinerated at least 300 victims between 2011 and 2013 from the northern rural town of Allende and other nearby areas. The victims were incinerated in 55-gallon drums and in ovens. Another case the human rights federation is asking the ICC to investigate is how Los Zetas were able to take over the state prison in the border city of Piedras Negras where the criminal organization murdered and incinerated at least 150. The cartel was also able to turn the prison into their center of operations with the complicity of state officials at the highest levels.
“The lack of investigations underway in Mexico and the nature of the reported crimes make opening an investigation at the ICC unavoidable, despite the reticence of Mexican authorities,” the FIDH revealed in a prepared statement.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and Stephen K. Bannon. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.
Brandon Darby is managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and Stephen K. Bannon. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.
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