Permission To Kill: Book Spotlights Murders in Mexico’s Drug War

Mexico City, (APP – UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News – September 7, 2024) Innocent civilians have been murdered in the name of Mexico’s war on drug cartels by military personnel eager to show results, a new book has revealed, claiming the killings amount to war crimes.

The two journalists and a human rights specialist behind Permission to Kill investigated more than 1,800 killings under three presidents since 2006, including outgoing leftist politician Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

The aim was to demonstrate the “systematic” nature of the killings, which likely involved members of the security forces, said co-author Daniel Moreno, director of the news site Animal Politico.

“It’s not a collection of anecdotes,” he told AFP.

“These three governments are continuously attacking civilians and allowing the attackers to act with impunity,” Moreno said.

Researchers identified 494 such alleged crimes — mostly murders and forced disappearances — during Felipe Calderon’s presidency from 2006 to 2012, 808 under his successor Enrique Pena Nieto (2012-2018) and 489 during Lopez Obrador’s first four years in office.

But that’s not all, they say.

The Defense Ministry, which oversees the military, did not respond to AFP’s request for comment on the allegations.

According to official figures, more than 450,000 Mexicans have been killed and tens of thousands have disappeared since Calderon deployed the army against drug cartels in 2006.

Under a policy he calls “hugs, not bullets,” Lopez Obrador pledged to prioritize tackling the root causes of crime, such as poverty and inequality, rather than going to war with the cartels.

During his presidency, “there was less use of violence and more respect for life,” Lopez Obrador said Sunday in his latest state of the nation report before he is replaced on Oct. 1 by his ally Claudia Sheinbaum.