According to a 2019 National Child Labor Survey, the number of children ages five to 17 in child labor, including in hazardous household work, was 3.3 million, or approximately 11.5 percent of children in the country. In the June midterm elections, citizens voted for all members of the Chamber of Deputies, 15 governors, state legislators, and mayors across the country. While the Supreme Court upheld the provisions, it noted the need for authorities to obtain a judicial warrant to access user metadata. As of August 16, the suspects remained in detention awaiting trial. Workers, the employer, or an interested third party may request the CAB or court rule on the legality of the strike, which may find the strike is nonexistent and therefore illegal. In-person classes resumed in October 2021, but with limited . They were vulnerable to abuse from staff members, other patients, or guests at facilities where there was inadequate supervision. Since 2019 more than 60 women accused Roemer of sexual abuse, assault, and rape. There were reports of numerous forced disappearances by organized crime groups, sometimes with allegations of state collusion with authorities. Some NGOs alleged individuals who organized campaigns to discredit human rights defenders at times acted with tacit support from government officials. osac crime and safety reports osac crime and safety reports. In July the Mexico City congress passed a law to provide, promote, and protect LGBTQI+ human rights. In Baja California Sur, Guanajuato, Michoacan, Nayarit, Nuevo Leon, and Yucatan, the crimes of defamation and libel are prosecuted, with penalties ranging from three days to five years in prison and fines for committing defamation or slander, both considered crimes against honor. Slander is punishable under the criminal laws of the states of Campeche, Nuevo Leon, Sonora, Yucatan, and Zacatecas, with sentences ranging from three months to six years in prison and fines. Citizens hoping to obtain temporary, legal employment in the United States and other countries frequently paid recruiters hundreds or thousands of dollars in prohibitive fees to secure jobs, and many prospective workers were promised jobs that did not exist. Mexico has relied heavily on the military for drug control and to fight organized crime, leading to widespread human rights violations. As of October the special unit had reissued arrest warrants for 11 of the 78 released detainees, including municipal police officers, but made no arrests. 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. 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.). The government, in conjunction with international organizations, made efforts to promote the safe, voluntary return, resettlement, or local integration of IDPs. US Overseas Security Advisory Council issues new Travel Advisory for Mexico Mexico - United States Department of State El Salvador Travel Advisory - United States Department of State Reforms to the Prosecutor Generals Office split the Office for Combating Violence Against Women and the Trafficking in Persons offices in an effort to elevate these issues by giving each its own special prosecutor general. Your well-being is our first priority. The law provides for eight paid public holidays and one week of paid annual leave after completing one year of work. The law prohibits minors from working in a broad list of hazardous and unhealthy occupations. osac mexico 2021 crime and safety report. The CNDHs 2020 National Diagnostic of Penitentiary Supervision reported that state prisons were understaffed and suffered from poor sanitary conditions as well as a lack of separation between those sentenced and those awaiting trial. The Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC) was created in 1985 under the Federal Advisory Committee Act to promote security cooperation between American private-sector interests worldwide and the U.S. Department of State.OSAC has developed into an enormously successful joint venture, with U.S. companies and organizations receiving the tools they need to cope with security issues in a . The National Commission to Prevent and Eradicate Violence against Women is responsible for leading government programs to combat domestic violence. The Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC) was created in 1985 under the Federal Advisory Committee Act to promote security cooperation between American private-sector interests worldwide and the U.S. Department of State. Additionally, the INE introduced quotas to promote minority representation, requiring political parties to nominate a certain number of candidates belonging to minority groups, including from indigenous, Afro-Mexican, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI+) communities, as well as persons with disabilities. The reforms provide workers with the right to freely elect union representatives and approve or reject collective bargaining agreements through a secret ballot process before they are registered. Federal and state databases were incomplete and had data-crossing problems; forensic systems were highly fragmented between the local, state, and federal levels; and the sheer volume of unsolved cases was far greater than the forensic systems were capable of handling. In June a federal judge sentenced Juan Francisco Picos Barrueto to 32 years in prison for the 2017 murder of journalist Javier Valdez Cardenas. famous las vegas male singers. 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. Organized criminal groups dominated migrant smuggling operations and often kidnapped, threatened, and extorted migrants to pay a fee for facilitating northbound travel. Institutionalized Children: Civil society groups expressed concern regarding abuse of children with mental and physical disabilities in orphanages, migrant centers, and care facilities. Authorities were attempting to extradite Roemer from Israel. On February 6, the federal Law Against Digital Harassment took effect. osac mexico 2020 crime and safety report. Their abduction followed the killings of two Yaqui activists and leaders: Thomas Rojo in May and Luis Urbano in June. President Lopez Obrador condemned the threats, and the Interior Secretariat confirmed that authorities would grant Uresti protection measures. Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC) - United States Department of Efforts focused on implementation of the 2019 labor law reform that transformed the labor justice system. For example, the office issued three arrest warrants in the case of the August 2020 killing of Juan Nelcio Espinosa, an independent journalist in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, who died while in police custody. Standards moving through the development process at standards developing organizations (SDOs). is revolver magazine legit is revolver magazine legit. On June 6, authorities arrested former Nayarit governor Roberto Sandoval and his daughter Lidy Alejandra Sandoval Lopez for corruption and money laundering. Sometimes family members arranged marriages for girls younger than 18. Women tended to earn substantially less than men did for the same work. In July the Supreme Court ruled that authorities at all levels must investigate enforced disappearances, search for disappeared persons, and inform victims of the process. On January 11, the government ended migratory detention for children. In August the federal government signed a public-private partnership agreement with the Teleton Institute for it to provide rehabilitation services to 20,000 pension-receiving children. Nevertheless, women nationwide faced obstacles to accessing emergency services due to health providers personal objections to emergency contraception or misunderstanding of their legal obligations to provide services. See the Department of States International Religious Freedom Report at https://www.state.gov/religiousfreedomreport/. Workers argued that the protectionist union holding the collective bargaining agreement pressured workers to legitimize the agreement, offered bribes, and tampered with ballots. As a result other unions, including a new union formed by workers after the vote, gained the right to seek representation rights and negotiate a new agreement. 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. Federal authorities supported access to contraceptive methods, but states efforts varied widely. The Yucatan Peninsula Campeche, Quintana Roo, and Yucatan states has not suffered the same level of escalating violence seen in other parts of Mexico; however, there is some narco-related violence that affects Cancun (usually not in the . The rate of aggression against political figures during the election cycle was on par with the 2018 election, one of the most violent political periods in recent history. Municipal police arrested eight women and one man, later releasing all detainees. Enforcement, however, was inconsistent across the states. The board identified 3,286 homes in five states for relocation before completion of the construction project. The government cooperated with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other humanitarian organizations in providing protection and assistance to refugees, returning refugees, or asylum seekers, as well as other persons of concern. Arbitrary Arrest: Allegations of arbitrary detentions persisted throughout the year. They often experienced racism and discrimination and were frequently victims of violence. Between January and August the CNDH recorded 123 complaints of arbitrary detention. On March 11, an anticorruption and antinepotism constitutional reform granted the Federal Judiciary Council the administrative organ of the federal court system more oversight over district and appeals courts and limited hiring authorities of individual judges. This mass displacement elevated the groups risk of malnutrition and health maladies. 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. The constitution provides indigenous persons the right to self-determination, autonomy, and education. Mexico is a multiparty federal republic with an elected president and bicameral legislature. The government continued its efforts to strengthen freedom of association protections, promote union democracy, and improve the ability of workers to bargain collectively. In March police officers broke the neck of Salvadoran refugee Victoria Salazar. The government was reasonably effective in enforcing child labor laws in large and medium-sized companies, especially in the export-oriented factory (maquiladora) sector and other industries under federal jurisdiction. Voting centers for federal elections were generally accessible for persons with disabilities, and ballots were available with a braille overlay for federal elections in Mexico City, but these services were inconsistently available for local elections elsewhere in the country. In August the Mexico City congress approved a reform allowing LGBTQI+ children ages 12 years and older to legally change their gender on their birth certificate. According to Google Report, Google received 24 requests from authorities in 2020 to remove content 13 from police, eight from government officials, and three from unspecified sources. It is also a criminal offense in all states. Investigations continued into the 2014 disappearances of 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers College in Iguala, Guerrero. Following the introduction of the accusatorial justice system, however, there was a significant reduction in the number of persons detained in this manner, falling from more than 1,900 in 2011 to 21 in 2018. Labor recruiters enticed families to work during harvests with verbal promises of decent wages and a good standard of living. While penalties for conviction of forced labor were commensurate with those for similar crimes, very few cases were successfully prosecuted. In 2016, the most recent data available, INEGI reported that 44 percent of persons working in agriculture were day laborers. Due to low internet penetration and television ownership in indigenous communities, distance learning was often inaccessible. This represented an increase of 11 percent of children from the 2017 INEGI survey. Politicians publicly discredited and criticized such journalists, however. UNICEF reported that 6.9 million students in Venezuela missed almost all classroom instruction between March 2020 and February 2021. In March the government amended federal labor law to define the minimum wage as the lowest cash amount a worker receives for services rendered during a workday and stipulated it should never be below the inflation rate. Federal government funding for womens shelters for the year was the same as in 2020. The OSAC Program Office is headquartered in Washington, DC and is overseen by a 34-member public-private Council. The constitution allows any person to arrest another if the crime is committed in his or her presence. 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. In June another priest died in a cartel crossfire on the Durango-Zacatecas border. Higher Risk Travel. Overseas Security Advisory Council - U.S. Embassy in El Salvador Coordinator for the Arctic Region, Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources, Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization, Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security, Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance, Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation, Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights, Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, Office of International Religious Freedom, Office of the Special Envoy To Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment, Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, Office of the Science and Technology Adviser, Bureau of the Comptroller and Global Financial Services, Bureau of Information Resource Management, Office of Management Strategy and Solutions, Bureau of International Organization Affairs, Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, U.S. The government approved the National Work and Employment Program for People with Disabilities 2021-2024, aimed at strengthening labor inclusion of persons with disabilities and supporting the employment of persons with disabilities in decent work. By law a union may call for a strike or bargain collectively in accordance with its own statutes. 2021 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Mexico, An official website of the United States Government, https://www.state.gov/religiousfreedomreport/, https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/International-Parental-Child-Abduction/for-providers/legal-reports-and-data/reported-cases, https://www.state.gov/trafficking-in-persons-report/, https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ilab/resources/reports/child-labor/findings/, https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ilab/reports/child-labor/list-of-goods. The law mandates the creation of a public registry of companies supplying specialized services to verify only registered companies fulfilling tax and administrative requirements may supply those services. This limited medias ability to investigate and report, since many of the reporters who were killed covered crime, corruption, and local politics. The Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC) was created in 1985 under the Federal Advisory Committee Act to promote security cooperation between American private-sector interests worldwide and the U.S. Department of State. The law requires children younger than 18 to complete compulsory basic education and to have a medical certificate to work. INEGI found that 53 percent of women of reproductive age used modern contraception in 2018 (the most recent study). Abuses of time limits on pretrial detention were endemic in state judicial systems. Note: The safety and security equipment and services sector encompasses several different segments, including some defense products. Although the law requires entities recruiting for overseas employment to register with the STPS, there is no enforcement mechanism, and only a handful of recruiters complied. The INE sanctioned 107 persons for gender-based political violence. As of August 18, authorities had not confirmed whether the threatening video was genuine. The law prohibits the worst forms of child labor. In most states alternative justice centers employed mechanisms such as mediation, negotiation, and restorative justice to resolve minor offenses outside the court system. Penalties were commensurate with other similar laws but were rarely enforced. How safe is it to travel to Mexico? - Wise OSAC has developed into an enormously successful joint venture, with U.S. companies and organizations receiving the tools they need to cope with security issues in a . Informal Sector: According to INEGI informal workers represented 56 percent of total workers in the country as of the second quarter of the year. According to advocacy groups, no information was available concerning the criteria through which the government chooses media outlets for public advertising. Access to justice was limited. In-country Movement: There were numerous instances of armed groups limiting the movements of migrants, including by threats and acts of kidnapping, extortion, and homicide. The law requires the Secretariat of Health to promote the creation of long-term institutions for persons with disabilities in distress, and the Secretariat of Social Development must establish specialized institutions to care for, protect, and house poor, neglected, or marginalized persons with disabilities. 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. Defendants have the right to a presumption of innocence and to a fair and public trial without undue delay. World Report 2021: Guatemala | Human Rights Watch The government investigated and prosecuted some of these crimes, but the vast majority remained uninvestigated and unprosecuted. The pandemic severely impacted the economy, resulting in a significant increase in the number of children engaging in child labor. Some cases dated back to the 1960s, but the vast majority occurred since 2006. Write by: . Rape and Domestic Violence: Federal law criminalizes the rape of men and women, including spousal rape, and conviction carries penalties of up to 20 years imprisonment. by . such as having witnessed the commission of a crime; in a 2018 report, the domestic think tank Mexico . The Federal Center and the new federal labor courts are designed to handle all matters related to collective bargaining agreements, but until the Federal Center establishes its offices in all the states, labor disputes in states without a Federal Center presence are to be handled by the CABs. Bail is available for most crimes, except for those involving organized crime and a limited number of other offenses. Organized criminal groups were implicated in numerous killings, acting with impunity and at times in collusion with corrupt federal, state, local, and security officials. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the MORENA party coalition won the presidential election in generally free and fair multiparty elections in 2018. OSAC.GOV: Registered users can receive 100+ monthly security notices, including daily news highlights, upcoming events, analytical reports, embassy/consulate alerts, and city-specific crime and safety reports. In July 2020 legislators approved a law making all judicial sentences public. As of July, 94 percent of active unions under federal jurisdiction had registered their amended statutes with the Secretariat of Labor and Social Welfare (STPS), but only 39 percent of active unions under local jurisdiction had registered their amendments with the CABs. Reconsider travel to El Salvador due to crime.. Country Summary: Violent crime, including armed robbery, homicide and sexual assault are of concern throughout significant portions of the country.Although gang activity varies among departamentos (states) and municipios (municipalities), areas witnessing higher crime rates are often . Zeron led the investigation of the case by the former criminal investigations unit in the Attorney Generals Office at the time of the students disappearances. The Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System reported 23,907 domestic violence cases in May, an all-time monthly record. Libel/Slander Laws: There are no federal criminal laws against defamation, libel, or slander; however, eight states have criminal laws on these acts. Sandoval remained in pretrial detention as of August. In May in Chicoloapan, state of Mexico, municipal police beat and detained supporters of feminist groups as they led a protest against gender-based violence and political parties. We'll also touch briefly on how you . According to NGOs, however, the state search committees often lacked the capacity to fulfill their mandate. Relatives of victims wait in anguish for news after a shooting July 1 at a drug rehabilitation center . Safety Tips for Travelers . Land conflicts, social and ethnic violence, or local political disputes caused other incidents. For example, Felipe Orozco, hospitalized multiple times for mental disabilities, reported that mental health professionals from a psychiatric hospital in Puebla shackled him naked with a padlock during the nights for two and one-half weeks. In March attackers shot and killed Father Gumersindo Cortes in Guanajuato. The reforms prevent the registration of collective bargaining agreements known as protection contracts, which nonrepresentative unions often negotiated and signed without the knowledge of workers and undermined genuine collective bargaining.