The 911 hotline received 139,554 calls reporting incidents of violence against women from January to June, an increase of 6 percent over the same months in 2020. Of the day laborers, 33 percent received no financial compensation for their work, and only 3 percent had a formal written contract. According to a 2017 INEGI survey, the most recent information available, 12 percent of women were illegally asked to take a pregnancy test as a prerequisite to being hired. Oaxaca state Exercise Increased Caution. In January. The Interior Secretariat reaffirmed its commitment to protect refugee applicants even as the country experienced an unprecedented number of applicants. Federal law specifically proscribes discrimination based on ethnicity, nationality, gender, age, disability, social status, health, religion, immigration status, political opinion, sexual preference, marital status, or pregnancy. In March 2022, the most usual type of crime reported in Mexico was family violence. Detained migrants have said they were not given masks or soap and were denied medical treatment when they had symptoms of Covid-19. U.S. government employees must adhere to the following travel restrictions: There are no other restrictions on travel for U.S. government employees in Coahuila state. At all levels, police reform has mostly stalled. A forensic doctor at the Yucatan Prosecutor Generals Office confirmed that he had suffered sexual abuse. The report noted 40 state prisons experienced overcrowding. Criminal activity and violence may occur in any location, at any time, including in popular tourist destinations. Indigenous persons in isolated regions reported incidents of forced labor in which cartel members forced them to perform illicit activities or face death. Federal government funding for womens shelters for the year was the same as in 2020. In October 2021, following a CRPD committee recommendation, the government publicly apologized to a man with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities who had been imprisoned for four years although there was no evidence he had committed a crime and a judge had found him unfit to stand trial, leaving him without the opportunity to defend himself. The new wage applied to all sectors and allowed an earner to reach or exceed the poverty line. As of August 16, authorities had not arrested any suspects. In 2019, Human Rights Watch documented cases of state-run hospitals and private individuals who shackled people with disabilities. The 45,000-person Jewish community experienced low levels of anti-Semitism. Additionally, some indigenous students did not receive the breakfasts and lunches normally included in the full-time school meal program, according to a UNESCO study. Families of the disappeared have formed more than 130 search collectives to investigate disappearances, including, frequently, by digging up mass graves. It might seem that 2022 is starting off with important positive news about the crime and security situation in Mexico. For a plaintiff to secure damages against a defendant, authorities first must find the defendant guilty in a criminal case, a significant barrier due to the relatively low number of criminal convictions. The CABs continued failures to administer and oversee procedures related to union activity impartially and transparently, such as union elections, registrations, and strikes, undermined worker efforts to exercise their rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining. Mexico: most common crimes witnessed in Mexico 2022 Share of respondents who witnessed a crime in Mexico in 2022, by type Mexico: victimization rate 2012-2021 Mexico: victimization. Share this via Email People with disabilities receive little government protection or support and are at higher risk of abuse and neglect by their families. Some areas of Mexico have increased risk of crime and kidnapping. Their abduction followed the killings of two Yaqui activists and leaders: Thomas Rojo in May and Luis Urbano in June. Violent crime and gang activity are common in parts of Jalisco state. In May voting in prisons occurred for the first time in the countrys modern history after the Federal Electoral Tribunal ruled prisoners in pretrial detention had the right to vote. Human rights and environmental activists, many from indigenous communities, continued to be targets of violence. The country may be the top destination for U.S. travelers, but violent crime is soaring, leaving travelers questioning whether Mexico is safe to visit. The National Population Council reported that in 2020 there were 373,661 pregnancies in women younger than age 19 (30 percent above 2019), of which 8,876 were in girls ages 14 or younger. Defendants have the right to an attorney of their choice at all stages of criminal proceedings. In August 2021, hurricanes Grace and Nora caused flooding, landslides, and power outages in multiple states, killing at least nine people. jp morgan salary increase 2022; was robert really injured in everybody loves raymond; madonna's sisters and brothers; does coconut milk shampoo make your hair greasy. The constitution and law prohibit discrimination with respect to employment or occupation. The government did not enforce the law effectively. Cancun is safe to visit right now. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the median salary for full-time female employees was 19 percent less than that of full-time male employees. Chiapas state Exercise Increased Caution. Forced labor persisted in the domestic service and in child-care, manufacturing, mining, food-processing, construction, tourism, begging, street-vending, leather-goods-production, and agriculture sectors, especially in the production of chili peppers and tomatoes. From January to June, the CNDH received nine complaints accusing government agents of forced disappearances, including five against the army and four against the National Guard. Discrimination and Societal Abuses, Systemic Racial or Ethnic Violence and Discrimination, Acts of Violence, Criminalization, and Other Abuses Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, Other Societal Violence or Discrimination, a. In 2018, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a transgender person from Veracruz who contended that in refusing to change their name and gender marker on their birth certificate, the municipal Civil Registry had violated their rights. Authorities accused the suspects of smuggling 20 to 80 migrants per day through Baja California into the United States for more than a decade. Rather than receiving daily wages once a week, as mandated by law, day laborers had to meet certain harvest quotas to receive the promised wage. And the state police forces can only investigate ordinary crime, not organized crime. Occasionally, though, such as in Oaxaca, or Chihuahua City, local governments have succeeded in improving the effectiveness of municipal police forces. In October 2020, Mexico was re-elected to the UN Human Rights Council. Women, children, indigenous persons, persons with disabilities, LGBTQI+ persons, and migrants (including men, women, and children) were the most vulnerable to forced labor (see section 7.c.). On July 21, Merida, Yucatan, municipal police detained Jose Eduardo Ravelo Echeverria. Abuses of time limits on pretrial detention were endemic in state judicial systems. Some prisons were undersubscribed, while others were overcrowded. Only 3 in 10 say New Mexico's a safe place to live and higher crime rates may explain statewide worry about safety. They were vulnerable to abuse from staff members, other patients, or guests at facilities where there was inadequate supervision. Inspectors generally were permitted to examine the informal sector only in response to complaints. Barriers to accessing contraceptives stemmed from lack of knowledge, poverty, lack of access to health services, and sexual violence from family members, strangers, or friends. U.S. citizens and LPRs have been victims of kidnapping. An Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation study on the use of contraceptives in Chiapas (the poorest state) found that older women were less likely to use family planning methods (13 percent of women ages 35 and older, versus 18 percent of women ages 20-34), while 23 percent of indigenous women opposed birth control for religious, cultural, or social reasons. Do not display signs of wealth, such as wearing expensive watches or jewelry. Across the criminal justice system, many actors lacked the necessary training and capacity to carry out their duties fairly and consistently in line with the principle of equal justice. Communities and NGOs representing indigenous groups criticized the government for failing to consult indigenous communities adequately when making decisions regarding extractive industry and natural resource development projects on indigenous lands. State governments reported investigating 12 suspected forced labor cases in 2020. There are no restrictions on travel for U.S. government employees in Baja California Sur state, which includes tourist areas in:Cabo San Lucas, San Jose del Cabo,andLa Paz. The government made efforts to prevent, investigate, and punish acts of disappearance involving government agents. It might seem that 2022 is starting off with important positive news about the crime and security situation in Mexico. In June unknown assailants killed Javier Barajas Pina in the state of Guanajuato. There are no other restrictions on travel for U.S. government employees in Durango state. In 2019, the Supreme Court ruled that a lesbian couple from Aguascalientes state should be allowed to register a child born to one of the women as a child of both. The State Department's Mexico Crime and Safety Report for Merida (OSAC) details that there is very little to no narco-related crime threat in Merida. Mexico has made the vaccine eligible by regions and age groups, from older to younger people. Thousands of people disappear every year in Mexico. Elsewhere, they have to live with sharing, like the Sinaloa Cartel and Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacin (CJNG) do in the fentanyl and meth precursor hub Lzaro Crdenas. Share this via LinkedIn In 2021, Congress repealed many of the human rights provisions of the 2018 reform. Seeing them with arms and trucks gives people confidence. Well, it didnt to the local people with whom I had a chance to speak. Their ebb and flow largely reflect choices and tit-for-tat responses by criminal groups toward one another. Whether in high-value targeting, countering violence and criminality in natural resources, or suppressing robberies and extortion, Mexicos various military and law enforcement forces are instructed to only undertake operations without the visible use of force even when criminal militias take over new territories and declare autonomy, or cartels bomb local populations. Map of homicides in Mexico from. If you wish to remain on travel.state.gov, click the "cancel" message. It may exercise its power to call before the Senate government authorities who refuse to accept or enforce its recommendations. A 2019 constitutional reform increased the number of crimes for which pretrial detention is mandatory and bail is not available, including armed robbery, electoral crimes, fuel theft, and weapons possession. In June President Lopez Obrador announced that forensic scientists at the University of Innsbruck conclusively identified the remains of Jhosivani Guerrero, marking the third body identified of the 43 disappeared students. According to the Mexican Commission for the Promotion of Human Rights, from 2006 to 2020, federal authorities issued 27 sentences for torture. There were credible reports that members of security forces committed some abuses. As of August 25, former governor of Chihuahua Cesar Duarte was awaiting an extradition decision. On August 3, Ravelo died from his injuries. See the Department of States Annual Report on International Parental Child Abduction at https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/International-Parental-Child-Abduction/for-providers/legal-reports-and-data/reported-cases. Since its creation in 2010 through August 2021, the federal Special Prosecutors Office to investigate crimes against journalists has opened more than 3,362 investigations, brought 265 charges for crimes, and obtained 25 convictions. Globally, it ranks at number 19 in the list of countries with the highest . The CNDH did not report on the merits of the complaints. Mexican immigration officials have refused to follow court rulings ordering them to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in immigration detention centers. More News. Increased crime levels and reports of incidents lead the U.S. to review its guidance for travel to Puerto Vallarta in Mexico. The law states that the principle of gender parity should be observed in the designation of cabinet members, selection of candidates for public office by every political party, and designation of members of the judiciary. Self-styled militias, sometimes fronts for rival criminal groups, other times with great proclivity to slide into many facets of criminality, persist andproliferate as the government looks on. Six allow it for any reason up to 12 weeks of pregnancy. Five states have laws that restrict the publishing of political caricatures or memes. These laws were seldom applied. In October 2020 the Electoral Tribunal granted registration to three new political parties: Solidary Encounter Party, Progressive Social Networks, and Social Force for Mexico. As one of the worlds top 15 emitters of greenhouse gases, Mexico is contributing to the climate crisis that is taking a growing toll on human rights around the globe. Travel for U.S. government employees is limited to the following areas with noted restrictions: U.S. government employees may not travel to other areas of Colima state. As a result, Mexico has one of the lowest rates of Covid-19 testingand highest rates of positive test resultsin the world. As a lawyer there put it: The National Guard are the most expensive mannequins in Mexico.. Between January and June, state authorities opened 129,020 new domestic violence investigations. On June 19, a dispute between factions of the Gulf cartel killed 15 persons in the state of Tamaulipas. On August 7, several journalist organizations, including the Puebla Network of Journalists, National Network of Journalists, Communication, and Information on Women, and International Network of Journalists with a Gender Vision, issued a statement denouncing increased levels of violence against female journalists in Puebla from security forces and criminal organizations. The Zetas had transformed Mexico's criminal model by militarizing the practices of organized crime groups, which allowed them to control territories through access to sophisticated weaponry, the generation of terror and the extraction of rents from society through kidnapping and extortion of small and medium-sized businesses. Authorities declared 10 political parties eligible to participate in the midterm elections. Although authorities generally maintained effective control over the security forces, there were instances in which security force elements acted independently of civilian control. The U.S. Department of State's Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC) keeps Diplomatic Security Service representatives connected with private-sector security professionals from U.S. organizations operating abroad for ongoing threat awareness and crisis support. The board identified 3,286 homes in five states for relocation before completion of the construction project. By law government health providers are obliged to offer sexual and reproductive emergency health services for survivors of sexual violence within 120 hours of the sexual assault. Independent Monitoring: The government permitted independent monitoring of prison conditions by the International Committee of the Red Cross, CNDH, and state human rights commissions. For example, journalists in Nogales, Sonora, said they were aware of unspoken red lines in covering organized crime and that crossing lines, such as mentioning the name of an alleged assailant, could result in personal harm. But the 2021 midterms showed to an unprecedented degree that the criminal groups are no longer satisfied to coopt elected officials. Through a nationwide assessment process, the National Search Commission (CNB) revised the governments official number of missing or disappeared persons repeatedly as additional data became available. At the federal level, the Secretariat of Social Development, Prosecutor Generals Office, and National System for Integral Family Development share responsibility for inspections to enforce child labor laws and to intervene in cases in which employers violate such laws. During the electoral process the INE received 147 complaints of gender-based political violence, a significant increase from the 47 complaints it received during the 2017-2018 electoral process. Physical Conditions: According to the Federal Prison System, as of June there were 220,393 inmates in 288 state and federal facilities with a designed capacity for 217,064. "This province . Nevertheless, only 2 percent of schoolteachers in the country were trained to teach children with disabilities, according to the civil society organization Yo Tambien. According to the National Womens Institute, the federal institution charged with directing national policy on equal opportunity for men and women, sexual harassment in the workplace was a significant problem. On May 1, the role of verifying the process for unions to organize a secret ballot vote for workers to approve or reject existing collective bargaining agreements within the four-year period established by the reforms (legitimization process) transitioned from the STPS to the Federal Center. Instead of using force and judicial prosecution, Lpez Obrador seeks to reduce crime in Mexico throughsocio-economic anti-crime programs, part of his overall vastly popular redistribution strategy for Mexicos many poor and marginalized. There was a lack of comprehensive data on internally displaced persons (IDPs). In its December 2020 climate action plan, Mexico increased the baseline against which its emissions reductions are calculated but maintained its 2015 emissions reduction commitments. Some NGOs alleged individuals who organized campaigns to discredit human rights defenders at times acted with tacit support from government officials. The law provides for the right of indigenous persons to elect representatives to local office according to uses and customs law (see section 6, Indigenous Peoples) rather than federal and state electoral law. After accumulating nine hours of overtime in a week, a worker earns triple the hourly wage. However, personnel are advised to exercise increased situational awareness after dark in downtown areas of Cancun, Tulum, and Playa del Carmen, and to remain in well-lit pedestrian streets and tourist zones. The constitution and law prohibit all forms of forced or compulsory labor, but the government did not effectively enforce the law. Organized criminal groups were implicated in numerous killings, acting with impunity and at times in collusion with corrupt federal, state, local, and security officials. There are no restrictions on travel for U.S. government employees in Veracruz state. Defendants have the right to attend the hearings and to challenge the evidence or testimony presented. In rural areas in 2019, the cause of most maternal deaths was obstetric hemorrhage. Torture is widely practiced to obtain confessions and extract information. It was created in 2019 to bring together national and international forensic experts to help identify 37,000 unidentified remains held in government facilities, coordinate implementation of the general law on forced disappearances, and allocate resources to state search commissions. The military can now legally detain civilians, take charge of crime scenes, and preserve evidence. Hundreds of thousands of workers continued to work in foreign-owned factories, mainly in northern border states, producing electronics, medical equipment, and auto parts. Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists, on par with war zones like Syria and Afghanistan in number of journalists killed, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders. The previous platform lacked interconnectivity between states and failed to connect family members effectively to the remains of their missing relatives. Of the 500 legislators in the Chamber of Deputies, 250 were women, 1 percent more than after the 2018 elections. There were reports of numerous forced disappearances by organized crime groups, sometimes with allegations of state collusion with authorities. Country Summary: Violent crime such as homicide, kidnapping, carjacking, and robbery is widespread and common in Mexico. A warrant for arrest is not required if an official has direct evidence regarding a persons involvement in a crime, such as having witnessed the commission of a crime; in a 2018 report, the domestic think tank Mexico Evalua determined that 90 percent of all arrests fell under this category. State and municipal laws addressing domestic violence largely failed to meet the required federal standards and often were unenforced. Violent crime is widespread. Instead of police reform, Lpez Obrador has intensified militarization of public life in Mexico not just in security, but also in the economic domain. Corruption and Lack of Transparency in Government, Section 5. As part of that process, the Federal Center published a new legitimization protocol to include a mechanism that allows for submission of complaints regarding alleged irregularities that may happen prior to, during, and after the vote. Also see the Department of Labors Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor at https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ilab/resources/reports/child-labor/findings/ as well as the Department of Labors List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor at https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ilab/reports/child-labor/list-of-goods. There are no restrictions on travel for U.S. government employees in Morelos state. The CNDH may call on government authorities to impose administrative sanctions or pursue criminal charges against officials, but it is not authorized to impose penalties or legal sanctions. In many parts of the country, human smuggling organizations wielded significant power, and media alleged frequent collusion among local authorities. In June a federal judge sentenced Juan Francisco Picos Barrueto to 32 years in prison for the 2017 murder of journalist Javier Valdez Cardenas. San Luis Potos, SLP.- San Luis Potos is the second most dangerous city in the country, according to the National Victimization Survey on Public Safety (Envipe) 2021, carried out by INEGI. In June the Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision confirming that the exercise of the right to strike suspends the processing of collective conflicts of an economic nature that may be pending before the court and the topics that they present, unless the workers express in writing their agreement to submit the conflict to the decision of the court. The government investigated and prosecuted some of these crimes, but the vast majority remained uninvestigated and unprosecuted. In its data collection, the government often merged statistics on forcibly disappeared persons with missing persons not suspected of being victims of forced disappearance, making it difficult to compile accurate statistics on the extent of the problem. The presidential cabinet had 19 secretariats, and as of August women headed seven. U.S. government employees may not drive from the U.S.-Mexico border to or from the interior parts of Mexico, except daytime travel within Baja California and between Nogales and Hermosillo on Mexican Federal Highway 15D, and between Nuevo Laredo and Monterrey on Highway 85D. Corruption: There were numerous reports of government corruption during the year. The governments failure to enforce labor laws left workers with little recourse for violations of freedom of association, poor working conditions, and other labor provisions in states that had not yet implemented the new labor justice model. But the federal government has dramatically cut budgets to both and thus gutted the already often-inadequate local capacities, even though its own 2019 security strategy centered on relying on municipal police for security. Federal law criminalizes spousal abuse. Following Ramos killing, Cecilia Flores, the leader of one of the search collectives in which Ramos participated, received death threats. Nonetheless, NGOs and media reported on sexual exploitation of minors, as well as child sex tourism in resort towns and northern border areas. Share this via WhatsApp There are no other restrictions on travel for U.S government employees in Jalisco state which includes tourist areas in:Guadalajara Metropolitan Area,Puerto Vallarta (including neighboring Riviera Nayarit),Chapala, andAjijic. There are no restrictions on travel for U.S. government employees in Queretaro state. The STPS certification of the new election set November 3 as the date for termination of the existing agreement, thus establishing that representation rights would be determined under the new labor reform rules and institutions. Workers had to buy food and other items at the company store at high markups, at times leaving them with no money at the end of the harvest after settling debts. Authorities were attempting to extradite Roemer from Israel.