Criminal violence, institutional performance, and responses from organized society in México

Abstract

This article analyzes the strategies adopted by civil society organizations promoting human rights in Mexico in their process of accompanying organizations of victims of violence (relatives of victims of forced disappeared, unlawful detention, murder, execution, femicide, human trafficking, etc.). It highlights legislative action strategies and the design and implementation of public policy with a human rights perspective, which are aimed at dealing with the causes of violence, preventing it and accompanying victims in the defense of their rights. It demonstrates that in the search for justice and truth, victims have developed their capacity for agency, and the organizational processes and strategies they employ are an indication of that agency. This article also demonstrates how corruption and impunity have created favorable conditions for the reproduction of violence and the strengthening of its perpetrators (criminal organizations, civil servants, police forces, and the military). These processes are framed in two competing narratives, the official narrative, which supports the “fight against organized crime,” and the organizations’ alternative narratives, which are based on human rights. The former, and the actions it supports, materially and symbolically attack the victims’ identities, while the latter seeks to preserve them as a way to preserve the individuals’ human dignity.