by the end of the year. Impunity largely In August, 23-year-old José Eduardo Ravelo prevailed on this issue, with just 35 died of multiple injuries inflicted by police convictions for the crime of enforced officers in the state of Mérida. The National disappearance. According to official figures, Human Rights Commission concluded that the bodies of more than 52,000 people his death was the result of excessive force remained unidentified, most of them in mass and torture during his detention. By the end graves. Several people searching for their of the year, no one had been brought to missing relatives were killed during the year; justice for these crimes. no one had been brought to justice for the In September, two former state and federal killings by the end of the year. police commanders were arrested, accused In April, authorities arrested 30 marines of responsibility in the repression of a accused of a series of enforced teachers’ protest in 2016 in Nochixtlán, state disappearances in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas of Oaxaca, that left at least six people dead state, in 2018, 12 of whom were and more than 100 injured. subsequently released by administrators of ARBITRARY ARRESTS AND DETENTIONS justice on procedural grounds. In July, the navy offered a public apology for the In May, the cases of Daniel García Rodríguez disappearance of 47 people in the same and Reyes Alpizar Ortíz reached the Inter- incidents and pledged to cooperate with American Court of Human Rights. The two ongoing investigations. men had been held in pretrial detention since In June, the Attorney General's Office 2002. announced the identification of the remains In June, police in the city of León, state of of Jhosivani Guerrero, the third of the 43 Guanajuato, detained dozens of people for students from Ayotzinapa who went missing not wearing masks, without taking measures in 2014 to have been identified. After to prevent Covid-19 infection during the 1 considerable delays, in September, the arrests. Several were held for several hours President sent a letter to the Prime Minister before being brought before a judge. of Israel, emphasizing the importance of the TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT extradition of Tomás Zerón, accused of torture in the Ayotzinapa case and currently In August, the President issued a decree, in seeking asylum in Israel. Parents of the line with provisions of pre-existing national Ayotzinapa students reported that the laws, to release prisoners held in prolonged Ministry of Defence hindered the progress of pretrial detention who were elderly or victims the investigations in the case. of torture. However, the decree did not adopt The UN Committee on Enforced recommendations from civil society Disappearances (CED) visited Mexico in organizations and restricted the threshold for November and noted the challenge of proving torture to people who had had a tackling disappearances as “immense” and medical examination based on the Manual on called on authorities to redouble efforts to the Effective Investigation and combat structural impunity and ensure Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, coordination between different government Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or ministries. Punishment (Istanbul Protocol). It also UNLAWFUL KILLINGS excluded prisoners accused of involvement in organized crime and kidnapping. The decree In March, several UN bodies and human resulted in approval of the release of more rights organizations condemned the death of than 682 prisoners and 4,233 files were Victoria Salazar, a Salvadoran refugee, at under review. hands of four police officers in Tulum, state of The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Quintana Roo, as a result of excessive force Detention called on Mexican authorities to during her arrest. immediately release Verónica Razo Casales, Amnesty International Report 2021/22 250