Mexico: A Failed State or a Criminal State? The Nestora Salgado Case

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Ricardo Arturo Lagunes Gasca

Abstract

For decades, the people in the Mexican state of Guerrero have been immersed in poverty, insecurity, and militarization. Accordingly in 1995, almost a year after the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) uprising, a community police corporation was formed with members of indigenous communities, in order not only to protect the population against organized and regular crime but also to administer justice with the legal grounds provided by the International Labour Organization Convention 169. Since then, many members of the Guerrero community police have been incarcerated for political reasons. One of them is Nestora Salgado, who was illegally detained by the Mexican army and incarcerated in a high security prison in Nayarit for almost 20 months. In December 2015, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention deemed the detention of Nestora Salgado as illegal and arbitrary, and requested her immediate release.

Resumen:

Por décadas, el pueblo del Estado Mexicano de Guerrero ha estado sumergido en la pobreza, inseguridad y militarización. Por esa razón en 1995, casi un año después del alzamiento del Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional, se fundó la policía comunitaria compuesta por las comunidades indígenas, con el objetivo no solo de proteger a la población frente al crimen organizado y el crimen en general sino, también, para administrar justicia con la base legal que otorga el Convenio 169 de la Organización Internacional del Trabajo. Desde esa época hasta la fecha, muchos integrantes de la policía comunitaria de Guerrero han sido encarcelados por motivos políticos, una de ellos es Nestora Salgado García, quien fue detenida ilegalmente por el ejército mexicano y llevada a un penal de máxima seguridad en Nayarit por aproximadamente 20 meses. En diciembre de 2015 el Grupo de Trabajo de Naciones Unidas sobre Detención Arbitraria determinó que México detuvo de manera ilegal y arbitraria a Nestora Salgado y solicitó su liberación inmediata.

Article Details

How to Cite
Lagunes Gasca, R. A. (2016). Mexico: A Failed State or a Criminal State? The Nestora Salgado Case. Mexican Law Review, 9(2), 141–145. https://doi.org/10.22201/iij.24485306e.2017.18.10779
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Notes
Author Biography

Ricardo Arturo Lagunes Gasca, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

Lawyer graduated from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). He received a master’s degree in Human Rights Protection from Alcalá University in Spain. Before starting his own human rights practice, the author has collaborated in human rights organizations such as Fray Matías de Córdova, Fray Bartolomé de las Casas and the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL). He has also collaborated with the Human Rights Clinic of Seattle University School of Law in cases before the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights.