Report Veracruz

“Hasta encontrarlos”: enforced disappearances
by security forces in Veracruz constitute

crimes against humanity
February 2022 / N° 787a

Cover photo: “Trees of Pain” (Árboles de dolor) displayed in the Zocalo of Veracruz in December 2020, with the faces of victims of
enforced disappearance. “We have nothing to celebrate, but it is important to maintain the presence of our absent loved ones. Until
we find them! (Hasta encontrarlos)» © Colectivo Solecito de Veracruz
This publication was produced with the financial support of the

European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of FIDH,
idheas and Colectivo Solecito de Veracruz, and do not necessarily
reflect the views of the European.
This document has been produced with the support of the

French Development Agency (AFD). The contents of the
publication are the sole responsibility of FIDH and IDHEAS,
and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of AFD.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABBREVIATIONS.......................................................................................................................... 4
I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................. 5
II. INTRODUCTION AND METHODOLOGY....................................................................................... 7
III. CONTEXT OF THE VIOLENCE IN VERACRUZ........................................................................... 10

A. Origins of the violence..................................................................................................................................... 12
1. Rise and fragmentation of the power of organised crime groups................................................... 13
2. Militarisation of public security and the “mando único” (unified command)................................ 16
3. The collusion of political power and organised crime........................................................................ 29
B.Enforced disappearances by state authorities during the Duarte de Ochoa administration............. 20
C. Ongoing impunity............................................................................................................................................. 24
IV. ICC JURISDICTION................................................................................................................. 31
V..STANDARD TO BE APPLIED IN DETERMINING THE ALLEGED COMMISSION OF CRIMES WITHIN

THE JURISDICTION OF THE COURT IN THE STATE OF VERACRUZ BETWEEN 2012 AND 2016.... 31
VI. CRIMES UNDER THE JURISDICTION OF THE COURT............................................................. 32

A. Places of commission of the crimes............................................................................................................ 33
B. Period of commission of the crimes............................................................................................................ 33
C. Persons and state entities involved in the commission of the crimes.................................................. 34
VII. LEGAL CHARACTERISATION OF THE CRIMES COMMITTED.................................................. 36

A. Description of specific cases of enforced disappearance....................................................................... 38
1. Victims found in the clandestine grave “Colinas de Santa Fe” (November 2012 - May 2014).. 38
2. Victims from Formando Hogar (December 2013).............................................................................. 40
3. Other victims disappeared by state authorities in the city of Veracruz (December 2013 - July
2016)................................................................................................................................................................. 42
B. Contextual elements of crimes against humanity..................................................................................... 42
1. Existence of an attack directed against a civilian population.......................................................... 43
2. A widespread or systematic attack........................................................................................................ 50
3. Nexus between the individual acts and the attack............................................................................. 51
VIII. CONCLUSION...................................................................................................................... 53
IX. RECOMMENDATIONS............................................................................................................ 54
ANNEX 1: TIMELINE................................................................................................................... 55
“Hasta encontrarlos”: enforced disappearances by security forces in Veracruz constitute crimes against humanity 3
Abbreviations
CED UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances
CJNG Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación (Jalisco New Generation Cartel)
CMDPDH Comisión Mexicana de Defensa y Promoción de los Derechos Humanos (Mexican

Commission for the Defence and Promotion of Human Rights)
CNDH Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos (National Human Rights Commission)
DIF Sistema Estatal para el Desarrollo Integral de la Familia (State System for the Development
of Family)
FIDH International Federation for Human Rights
FGR Fiscalía General de la República (Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office)
ICC International Criminal Court
IDHEAS IDHEAS, Litigio Estratégico en Derechos Humanos (IDHEAS, Strategic Human Rights
Litigation)
IMDHD Instituto Mexicano para los Derechos Humanos y la Democracia (Mexican Institute for
Human Rights and Democracy)
PAN Partido Acción Nacional (National Action Party)
PDLM Dignificando la Memoria (Dignifying Memory) project
PGR (subsequently Procuraduría General de la República (Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office)

replaced by FGR)
PRD Partido de la Revolución Democrática (Party of the Democratic Revolution)
PRI Partido Revolucionario Institucional (Institutional Revolutionary Party)
RNPDNO Registro Nacional de Personas Desaparecidas y No Localizadas (National Register of

Disappeared and Missing Persons)
SEGOB Secretaría de Gobernación (Ministry of the Interior)
SEDENA Secretaría de Defensa Nacional (Ministry of National Defence)
SEMAR Secretaría de Marina (Ministry of the Navy)
SINPEF Sistema de Información Nacional de Personas Extraviadas y Fallecidas No Identificadas

(National Information System on Missing and Unidentified Deceased Persons)
4 “Hasta encontrarlos”: enforced disappearances by security forces in Veracruz constitute crimes against humanity
I. Executive summary
This report was elaborated by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), IDHEAS, Litigio
Estratégico en Derechos Humanos (IDHEAS, Strategic Human Rights Litigation) and the victims’
collective Solecito of Veracruz. The complete version of this report, with annexes and confidential
information, was submitted to the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court,
requesting that it open a preliminary examination on Mexico.
This report aims to provide information on the commission of acts for which there is a reasonable
basis to believe crimes against humanity (specifically, enforced disappearances) have been
committed in the State of Veracruz, Mexico, which fall within the jurisdiction of the International
Criminal Court. These acts were committed as part of a systematic attack against a civilian
population of Veracruz, in 22 cases between November 2012 and July 2016, including 7 victims
found in the clandestine grave Colinas de Santa Fe, in the outskirts of the city of Veracruz,
which contains 305 bodies. The persons involved in the commission of the crimes of enforced
disappearance described in this communication were state authorities, in particular members of
the State Police or the Ministerial Police (investigative police) of Veracruz.
Veracruz is one of the states that exemplifies the grave problem of enforced disappearances in
Mexico, being the state with the two largest clandestine graves in Latin America, both of which
were located by the signatory organisation Solecito: Colinas de Santa Fe, with 305 bodies, and
El Arbolillo, with 310 bodies. Furthermore, according to public sources, there have been between
3,000 and 20,000 enforced disappearances in Veracruz since 2006.
The situation of violence and the commission of enforced disappearances in Veracruz intensified
between 2010 and 2016, when the state was governed by Javier Duarte de Ochoa, period during
which the 22 cases described in this report took place. The former governor, who was detained in
2016, is currently serving a 9-year prison sentence for criminal association and money laundering,
and was also recently served an arrest warrant for the crime of enforced disappearance. During
his term in office, state authorities were accused of committing numerous crimes and human
rights violations. Collusion between organised crime and state officials has also been documented
during this time period, and many state officials have been charged or investigated for corruption
or illicit enrichment.
This report details the commission of crimes against humanity, in particular 22 cases of enforced
disappearance that took place between November 2012 and July 2016: seven victims found in
the clandestine grave “Colinas de Santa Fe”; nine victims disappeared in Colonia Formando Hogar
(Formando Hogar neighbourhood), in the city of Veracruz; and another six victims disappeared in
the city of Veracruz. The cases were documented by the victims’ collective Solecito and Red de
Madres of Veracruz.
While this report focuses on the detailed description and legal analysis of 22 cases, these share
similarities with other cases documented by the signatory organisations, which were referred to
the ICC in a database, as well as the broader context of violence in the state. This report therefore
describes only a small part of the events in which acts of enforced disappearance occurred, those
in which there is evidence of a clear modus operandi involving authorities of the state of Veracruz,
but it is likely that there is a broader systematic pattern of enforced disappearances in Veracruz.
In terms of their characteristics, all the victims of enforced disappearance in the 22 cases described
in this report were detained or found in or around the city of Veracruz. They were mostly young
men, 68% of them under the age of 40, and were employed in jobs such mechanic or taxi driver
or were students. They all follow a similar pattern: each of the 22 victims were detained by the
State Police or Ministerial Police of Veracruz, usually in a state security force vehicle, with the
use of force or weapons, in an urban area of the city of Veracruz or nearby localities, after which
their relatives received no news of their whereabouts, or the victims were found in the clandestine
grave Colinas de Santa Fe. After each act of enforced disappearance, the Veracruz State Public
Prosecutor’s Office failed to conduct an impartial and efficient investigation, despite the fact that
the victims’ families reported the incidents, in some cases repeatedly.
Following the arrest of Duarte de Ochoa in 2016, some Veracruz state officials were charged with
the crime of enforced disappearance. Yet, impunity continues to exist: these investigations have
been tarnished by irregularities and delays, and there have been no broader investigations into the
systematic nature of the crimes of disappearance committed between 2010 and 2016. Further,
no cases against high-ranking officials of the Veracruz State Police or the Governor’s Office have
reached the trial stage for the crime of enforced disappearance or related conduct. At the same
time, hundreds of bodies from the Colinas de Santa Fe and El Arbolillo graves remain unidentified,
which is why Solecito and other family collectives continue to carry out searches and demand
justice.
II. Introduction and methodology
The signatory organisations submitted this communication to the Office of the Prosecutor of the
International Criminal Court (hereinafter “ICC”) pursuant to Article 15 of the Rome Statute in order to
provide information on the commission of acts that we consider constitute crimes against humanity
(in particular, enforced disappearances), committed in the state of Veracruz, Mexico, between
November 2012 and July 2016, during the mandate of former governor Javier Duarte de Ochoa.
Since 2014, the International Federation for Human Rights (hereinafter “FIDH”) together with IDHEAS,
Litigio Estratégico en Derechos Humanos (hereinafter “IDHEAS”) and other Mexican non-governmental
organisations have documented and denounced the commission of crimes against humanity,
including enforced disappearances, murders and torture in specific periods and territories in Mexico:
. In 2014, information was submitted, together with the Comisión Mexicana de Defensa y
Promoción de los Derechos Humanos (hereinafter “CMDPDH”) and the Comisión Ciudadana
de Derechos Humanos del Noroeste A.C. (CCDH), to the ICC Office of the Prosecutor on the
alleged commission of crimes against humanity in Baja California between 2006 and 2012;1
. In 2017, FIDH, together with Familias Unidas en Búsqueda y Localización de Personas
Desaparecidas, Fuerzas Unidas por Nuestros Desaparecidos en México and Centro Diocesano para
los Derechos Humanos Fray Juan de Larios, in association with more than 90 organisations,
submitted a communication on murders, disappearances and torture committed in Coahuila
de Zaragoza;2
. In 2018, FIDH, together with IDHEAS, CMDPDH, Centro de Derechos Humanos Paso del Norte,
Centro Diocesano para los Derechos Humanos Fray Juan de Larios, Instituto Mexicano para los
Derechos Humanos y Democracia, A.C. (hereinafter “IMDHD”), Red Nacional de Organismos
Civiles de Derechos Humanos “Todos los Derechos para Todas y Todos” and Renacer Lagunero,
submitted a communication on the alleged commission of crimes against humanity in
Chihuahua, between 2008 and 2010;3
. In 2021, FIDH and IDHEAS submitted a communication on the alleged commission of crimes
against humanity in Nayarit between June and September 2017.4
These communications, all shared with the ICC Office of the Prosecutor, have provided sufficient
elements to affirm that crimes against humanity have been committed in Mexico in at least four
states and that the ICC Office of the Prosecutor has a reasonable basis to open a preliminary
examination into the situation in Mexico.
The present report, which focuses on the commission of enforced disappearances in Veracruz,
is yet another link in the chain proving the commission of crimes against humanity in Mexico. As
will be described below, during the mandate of Duarte de Ochoa, governor of Veracruz between
1 December 2010 and 12 October 2016, who is currently detained in Mexico serving a nine-year
prison sentence for criminal association and money laundering5 and who has been served an arrest
1. F
IDH, CMDPDH and CCDH, “Mexico: Report on the alleged commission of crimes against humanity in Baja California between
2006 and 2012”, (Report No. 642a, 2014).
2. F
IDH, Familias Unidas en Búsqueda y Localización de Personas Desaparecidas, Fuerzas Unidas por Nuestros Desaparecidos en
México, Centro Diocesano para los Derechos Humanos Fray Juan de Larios, “México: Asesinatos, desapariciones y torturas en
Coahuila de Zaragoza constituyen crímenes de lesa humanidad” (Mexico: Murders, Disappearances, and Torture in Coahuila de
Zaragoza are Crimes against Humanity), (Report No. 695e, 2017).
3. F
IDH, IDHEAS, CMDPDH, Centro de Derechos Humanos Paso del Norte, Centro Diocesano para los Derechos Humanos Fray Juan
de Larios, IMDHD, Red Nacional de Organismos Civiles de Derechos Humanos “Todos los Derechos para Todas y Todos” and
Renacer Lagunero, “Article 15 Communication under the Rome Statute to the International Criminal Court Regarding the alleged
commission of crimes against humanity in Chihuahua, México between 2008 and 2010” (Report No. 715a, 2018).
4. F
IDH and IDHEAS, “Mexico: Criminal structure within the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the State of Nayarit and crimes against
humanity”, (Report 769a, 2021).
5. A
rturo Angel, “Juez sentencia a Javier Duarte a nueve años de prisión por asociación delictuosa y lavado de dinero”
(Judge sentences Javier Duarte to nine years in prison for criminal association and money laundering), Animal Político,
26 September 2018, https://www.animalpolitico.com/2018/09/duarte-se-declara-culpable/, accessed on 9 July 2021.
warrant for the crime of enforced disappearance,6 Veracruz experienced an alarming number of
enforced disappearances and other serious human rights violations.
This report does not cover the enormous number of cases of enforced disappearance that have
occurred in the state of Veracruz - estimated at between 3,000 and 20,000 since 2006 - and
focuses only on a small group of them, occurring in the city of Veracruz and nearby areas, where
there is sufficient information about the participation of state authorities in the commission of
the crimes. Yet, this does not exclude the possibility that there are many other cases that also
follow this pattern. In terms of methodology, the cases of enforced disappearance described in
this communication were documented by the collectives Solecito and Red de Madres of Veracruz.
In turn, the organisation IDHEAS has worked with Solecito on the documentation and litigation of
cases of enforced disappearances in Veracruz, with the support of FIDH. This report is based on
the documentation of 41 cases of enforced disappearance that occurred in the city of Veracruz
or nearby localities during the term of office of former governor Javier Duarte de Ochoa (2010-
2016),7 and the existence of a clandestine grave containing 305 bodies. Within this set of 41 cases,
this communication presents a detailed description and legal analysis of 22 of them. Of these 22,
seven correspond to persons found in the clandestine grave Colinas de Santa Fe, located by
Solecito, and all cases occurred between November 2012 and July 2016.
In addition, in collaboration with the Observatorio sobre Desaparición e Impunidad en México,8 other
databases documenting disappearances in the state of Veracruz were consulted and analysed: the
Registro Nacional de Personas Desaparecidas y No Localizadas (National Register of Disappeared and
Missing Persons – hereinafter “RNPDNO2), which operates as the official register of disappearances
in Mexico; the database of the Dignificando la Memoria (Dignifying Memory) project (hereinafter
“PDLM”), set up by IMDHD, with the purpose of preserving and dignifying the memory of those
disappeared in the state of Veracruz;9 and the database of the Sistema de Información Nacional de
Personas Extraviadas y Fallecidas No Identificadas (National Information System on Missing and
Unidentified Deceased Persons – hereinafter “SINPEF”), set up by the National Human Rights
Commission (hereinafter “CNDH”).
Further, in the preparation of this communication, various open sources documenting the
crimes committed in Veracruz were analysed, in particular reports from governmental and non-
governmental organisations, including recommendations from the Veracruz State Human Rights
Commission and the CNDH, as well as press articles.
6. A
rturo Angel, “Cumplen orden de captura contra Duarte por desaparición forzada; obtuvo una suspensión, dice su defensa” (Arrest
warrant served against Duarte for enforced disappearance; he obtained a stay, his defense says), Animal Político, 6 December 2021,
https://www.animalpolitico.com/2021/12/javer-duarte-orden-desaparicion-forzada/, accessed on 15 December 2021; Miguel
Salazar, “Suspenden proceso contra Javier Duarte por presunta desaparición forzada” (Proceedings against Javier Duarte for alleged
forced disappearance suspended), El Sol de México, 13 December 2021, https://www.elsoldemexico.com.mx/mexico/justicia/
suspenden-proceso-contra-javier-duarte-por-presunta-desaparicion-forzada-7603651.html, accessed on 15 December 2021.
7. A
nnex B. The cases contained in this database were documented by Solecito, IDHEAS and FIDH. The database was
complemented by public information from the Instituto Mexicano para los Derechos Humanos y Democracia, A.C. (IMDHD), within
the context of the Dignifying Memory Project (PDLM). Also annexed to this communication is a broader database of 64 cases
of enforced disappearance compiled by Solecito/IDHEAS (Annex C), which took place between February 2010 and June 2017,
all but seven of which occurred during the term of office of former governor Duarte de Ochoa. This database includes the
41 victims in the municipality of Veracruz mentioned above, but also victims from other municipalities. Of the 64 victims of
enforced disappearance, the majority (60) were young men, aged between 13 and 50, more than 80% of them were under the
age of 30 and nine of them were minors. The victims disappeared mainly in the city of Veracruz (38), as well as in Poza Rica
(10), Orizaba (5), Boca del Río (2), Xalapa (2), Banderilla (1), Chiconquiaco (1), Coatzacoalcos (1), Córdoba (1), José Cardel (1)
and Medellín de Bravo (1). They were mostly school and university students, as well as people engaged in occupations such as
mechanics, labourers or taxi drivers. In 24 of the cases included in the database, which occurred between 25 February 2010 and
1 February 2016, there is evidence of possible involvement of organised crime cartels, state authorities and/or federal security
forces in the commission of the crimes. More specifically, in 14 of them there is evidence of involvement of Veracruz authorities,
including Veracruz State Police, Poza Rica Municipal Police, Poza Rica-Tihuatlán-Coatzintla Inter-Municipal Police, Río Blanco
Municipal Police and the Agencia Veracruzana de Investigación (Veracruz Investigation Agency); in eight cases there is evidence
of involvement of federal security forces, including the Navy and the Federal Police; and in six there is evidence of involvement
of organised crime, including the Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación (Jalisco New Generation Cartel - CJNG) and Los Zetas, in one
case in possible collaboration with Inter-Municipal Police. In the remaining 40 cases there is currently little information on the
possible perpetrators of the disappearance.
8. T
he communication was produced in collaboration with a consultant from the Observatorio sobre Desaparición e Iimpunidad en
México, a centre studying the phenomenon of disappearance in Mexico in different social contexts. See, https://odim.juridicas.
unam.mx/.
9. The Dignificando la Memoria project can be accessed at the following website: https://dignificandolamemoria.org/testimonios.
Finally, interviews and meetings were held with families of victims of disappeared persons,
journalists, academics and collectives of victims’ relatives, including members of the signatory
organisation Solecito and the collective Red de Madres of Veracruz, all of whom provided information
on the context and/or regarding specific cases of enforced disappearances in Veracruz.
Members of the collective Solecito of Veracruz, during their search for disappeared persons, November 2019. © Colectivo Solecito de Veracruz
This report will first describe the context of the violence in Veracruz during the Duarte de Ochoa
administration, including elements pertaining to the origin of the violence, figures and examples of
enforced disappearances and the situation of impunity in the state. Second, it will present a legal
analysis of 22 cases of enforced disappearance in which there is evidence of the involvement of
Veracruz state authorities: seven victims found in the clandestine grave “Colinas de Santa Fe”, on
the outskirts of the city of Veracruz, which contains a total of 305 bodies; nine victims disappeared
in the Formando Hogar neighbourhood, city of Veracruz; and another six victims disappeared in the
city of Veracruz. As will be detailed below, in each of these cases the State Police or State Ministerial
Police were involved in the enforced disappearance of people living in the city of Veracruz or nearby
localities, and together these cases meet the requirements of a systematic attack directed against a
civilian population of Veracruz. Therefore, the signatory organisations consider that these incidents
constitute crimes against humanity under the jurisdiction of the ICC.
III. Context of the violence in Veracruz
Since the beginning of the so-called “war on drugs”10 in 2006, Mexico has been going through a
serious human rights crisis. According to the most recent official figures, there are over 100,000
disappeared persons, including over 88,000 since 2006,11 and more than 4,000 clandestine graves
have been found in the country.12
Within this context Veracruz has been one of the states most affected by violence, particularly in
terms of enforced disappearances. Since 2006 there have been more than 3,000 disappearances
in Veracruz, according to RNPDNO,13 although civil society organisations estimate that the number
of disappearances could be as high as 20,000.14 According to the Comisión Nacional de Búsqueda
(National Search Commission, hereinafter “CNB”) there are at least 173 clandestine graves in the
state of Veracruz, although the exact number is unknown and could be much higher.15 According
to the latest figures from the Mexican Ministry of the Interior (hereinafter “SEGOB”), two
municipalities in Veracruz, Ursulo Galvan and Playa Vicente, with 77 and 66 clandestine graves
respectively, are among the 10 municipalities in Mexico with the highest number of clandestine
graves in the country.16
In addition to enforced disappearances, other crimes in Veracruz reached alarming levels, particularly
during the Duarte de Ochoa administration. Between 2011 and 2017, more than 5,000 homicides
were registered in the state.17 Moreover, Veracruz was the scene of violence against women and
journalists, as the Mexican state with the highest number of journalists murdered from 2000
10. In 2006, Mexico’s then president, Felipe Calderón, launched the “guerra contra las drogas” (war on drugs) (also called the
“guerra contra el narcotráfico” or “guerra contra el narco”), deploying federal security forces to fight drug cartels. The conflict has
resulted in tens of thousands dead and disappeared. Nina Lakhani, “México y su guerra contra el narco: diez años, 50.000
millones de dólares y más de 200.000 cadáveres” (Mexico and its drug war: ten years, $50 billion and more than 200,000
corpses), El Diario, 9 December 2016, https://www.eldiario.es/internacional/theguardian/guerra-drogas-mexico-cumple-
conseguido_1_3695317.html, accessed on 9 July 2021.
11. A
ccording to RNPDNO figures. See, https://versionpublicarnpdno.segob.gob.mx/Dashboard/Index.
12. S
ee “En los últimos 15 años se han encontrado 4,092 fosas clandestinas; mil en el gobierno de AMLO” (In the last 15 years
4,092 clandestine graves have been found; a thousand under AMLO’s government), Animal Político, 7 October 2020, https://
www.animalpolitico.com/2020/10/fosas-desapariciones-15-anos-gobierno-amlo/, accessed on 9 July 2021. See also FIDH
and IDHEAS, “Situación de la impunidad en México: Llamamos al Estado Mexicano a reconocer la existencia de crímenes de
lesa humanidad y remitir la situación de México a la Corte Penal Internacional” (Situation of impunity in Mexico: We call on
the Mexican State to recognise the existence of crimes against humanity and refer the situation in Mexico to the International
Criminal Court) (2020), (Report No. 750e), 5, https://www.fidh.org/IMG/pdf/mexique750esp.pdf.
13. A
nnex W – RNPDNO – Desapariciones en Veracruz del 01/01/2006 al 24/08/2021 (Disappearances in Veracruz from 01/01/2006
to 24/08/2021). According to a report by the Comisión estatal de derechos humanos de Veracruz (Veracruz State Human Rights
Commission), by 2016, official figures reported the discovery of 10,524 remains found in different graves. See Annex O –
Veracruz State Human Rights Commission - General Recommendation 01/2017, para. 64.
14. A
nnex U - IMDHD - Dignificando la memoria - La desaparición de personas en Veracruz (The Disappearance of Persons in
Veracruz) (2019), 7. In December 2016, former public prosecutor Jorge Winckler Ortiz said that Veracruz would be known “as
the largest clandestine grave in Mexico”. See International Crisis Group, “Veracruz: Fixing Mexico’s State of Terror” (Report
No. 61 on Latin America & Caribbean, 2020), 1.
15. A
nnex G – CNB – Search, identification and registration of missing persons (13 July 2020). See also Lidia Arista and Linaloe
R. Flores, “Fosas clandestinas, la “punta del iceberg” de las desapariciones” (Clandestine graves, the “tip of the iceberg” of
disappearances), Expansión Política, 9 August 2020, https://politica.expansion.mx/mexico/2020/08/09/fosas-clandestinas-
la-punta-del-iceberg-de-las-desapariciones, accessed on 9 July 2021.
16. M
inistry of the Interior of Mexico, “Búsqueda e Identificación de Personas Desaparecidas” (Search for and Identification
of Missing Persons) (Biannual Report, 1 January to 30 June 2021), https://www.gob.mx/cms/uploads/attachment/
file/650760/8_AM_AER_Karla_CNB_7_julio_2021.pdf.
17. A
nnex H - CNDH - Informe especial sobre la situación de seguridad y desaparición de personas en el Estado de Veracruz de Ignacio
de la Llave (Special report on the security situation and disappearance of persons in the State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la
Llave) (2019), para. 109.
to 2020, with a total of 30,18 17 of them during the Duarte de Ochoa administration, according to
a report by the organisation Article 19.19 Further, in response to the high levels of gender violence
in Veracruz, on 23 November 2016, SEGOB formally issued a Gender Violence Against Women
Alert in relation to 11 municipalities in the state of Veracruz, requiring specific actions to address
violence against women in mainly indigenous municipalities.20
The massive violence experienced in Veracruz, which continues today, must be understood in
a national context of corruption and infiltration of drug cartels at the highest levels of political
power.21 To date, more than twenty former governors from different Mexican states are under
criminal investigation or in detention.22 As in other states,23 an alliance between organised crime
groups and political power was forged in Veracruz, particularly during the government of Duarte
de Ochoa (2010-2016), who is currently serving a nine-year prison sentence in Mexico.24 Under
Duarte de Ochoa, Veracruz went through one of its worst periods of violence and disappearances,25
including the cases of enforced disappearance that the signatory organisations consider amount
to crimes against humanity. As described below, many of the crimes of enforced disappearance in
Veracruz were carried out by state authorities, organised crime or both, acting in concert, with the
collusion between political leadership and organised crime facilitating the alarmingly high levels of
violence and impunity.26
The following section will outline the origins of the violence that occurred during the term of
office of former governor Duarte de Ochoa in the state of Veracruz, analysing:
1. the increase and fragmentation of the power of organised crime groups in the state;
2. the militarisation of public security and the “mando unico” (unified command); and
3. the collusion between political power and organised crime.
These three elements contribute to an understanding of the massive violence experienced in the
state since the term of former governor Duarte de Ochoa, which began in 2010.
18. A
rticle 19, “Democracia simulada, nada que aplaudir” (Simulated democracy, nothing to applaud) (2018), 20. This result
coincides with the findings of the CNDH in November 2019, which described Veracruz in its report as the most lethal state
to conduct journalism between 2000 and 2019. Annexed to this communication is also a report that provides various figures
on criminality in Veracruz between 2006 and 2019. Annex F - Crime figures. Among the journalists murdered in Veracruz it is
worth noting the story of Regina Martinez, killed in 2012, who was investigating links between politicians and drug cartels. In
2020 the group Forbidden Stories revealed that, shortly before her death, Regina Martínez planned to publish an investigation
into the thousands of disappeared persons in Veracruz. See Paloma Dupont de Dinechin, “Regina Martinez, Sur les traces
d’une vérité enterrée,” Forbidden Stories (6 December 2020) <https://forbiddenstories.org/fr/regina-martinez-sur-les-traces-
dune-verite-enterree/> accessed 20 September 2022.
19. M
anu Ureste, “Ellos son los 17 periodistas asesinados durante el gobierno de Duarte” (These are the 17 journalists murdered
during Duarte’s government), Animal Político, 19 April 2017, https://www.animalpolitico.com/2017/04/periodistas-asesinados-
veracruz-duarte/, accessed on 9 July 2021; Article 19, “Democracia simulada, nada que aplaudir” (2018), 20.
20. S
EGOB, “Segob emite Alerta de Violencia de Género contra las Mujeres en once municipios de Veracruz” (SEGOB issues Alert
on Gender Violence against Women in eleven Veracruz municipalities), https://www.gob.mx/conavim/prensa/segob-emite-
alerta-de-violencia-de-genero-contra-las-mujeres-en-once-municipios-de-veracruz?idiom=es, accessed on 27 October 2021.
21. S
ee International Crisis Group, “Veracruz: Fixing Mexico’s State of Terror” (Report No. 61 on Latin America & Caribbean,
2020), i.
22. U
S Congressional Research Service, Mexico: Organized Crime and Drug Trafficking Organizations (R41576, 2020), 9 (“Twenty
former state governors, many from the long-dominant Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), were under investigation or
in jail in 2018”). In addition, the former governor of Nayarit was arrested in June 2021. See Georgina Zerega, “Detenido el
exgobernador de Nayarit Roberto Sandoval”, El País, 6 June 2021, https://elpais.com/mexico/2021-06-06/detenido-el-
exgobernador-de-nayarit-roberto-sandoval.html, accessed on 9 July 2021; FIDH and IDHEAS, “Mexico: Criminal structure
within the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the State of Nayarit and crimes against humanity”, (Report 769a, 2021).
23. S
ee for example, FIDH and IDHEAS, “Mexico: Criminal structure within the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the State of Nayarit
and crimes against humanity”, (Report 769a, 2021), https://www.fidh.org/IMG/pdf/fidh-idheas_-_nayarit_report_english_.pdf.
24. A
rturo Angel, “Juez sentencia a Javier Duarte a nueve años de prisión por asociación delictuosa y lavado de dinero”
25. International Crisis Group, “Veracruz: Fixing Mexico’s State of Terror” (Report No. 61 on Latin America & Caribbean, 2020), 16.
26. International Crisis Group, “Veracruz: Fixing Mexico’s State of Terror” (Report No. 61 on Latin America & Caribbean, 2020), i, 1.
In Veracruz, victims’ collectives search for their loved ones in the mass
clandestine grave Colinas de Santa Fe, 2016. © Colectivo Solecito de Veracruz
A. Origins of the violence

According to various studies, in the 1990s drug trafficking began to take hold in the state of
Veracruz through the Cártel del Golfo (Gulf Cartel), a group that gained power through collusion with
the governments of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (Institutional Revolutionary Party - PRI),
the dominant party in Mexico between 1929 and 2000.27
In 2000, with the PRI’s loss in elections at the federal level for the first time in 71 years and the
arrival of President Vicente Fox of the Partido Acción Nacional (National Action Party - PAN), the
comfortable mechanisms of political control and alliance between the PRI and organised crime
disintegrated, both in Veracruz and in other states, leading to increased fragmentation and the
creation of new criminal organisations, which began to compete with each other for influence over
the political and economic system, becoming more and more violent.28
27. In the late 1990s, “[TRANSLATION] [v]iolence, while maintaining a downward trend, was split between struggles over land and
cacique domination, along with violence generated by drug trafficking that began to increase.” See Víctor Manuel Andrade
Guevara, “Violencia y Régimen político en Veracruz, México: 1936-2016” (Violence and Political Regime in Veracruz, Mexico:
1936-2016) (2018), Memorias: Revista Digital de Arqueología e Historia desde el Caribe 35, 66.
28. International Crisis Group, “Veracruz: Fixing Mexico’s State of Terror” (Report No. 61 on Latin America & Caribbean, 2020),
7; US Congressional Research Service, Mexico: Organized Crime and Drug Trafficking Organizations (R41576, 2020), 11 (“The
splintering of the large DTOs [drug trafficking organisations] into competing factions and gangs of different sizes began
in 2007 and continues today. The emergence of these different crime groups, ranging from TCOs [transnational criminal
organisations] to small local mafias (with certain trafficking or other crime specialties), has made the crime situation diffuse
and the crime groups’ behavior harder to suppress or eradicate”).
In Veracruz, the progressive loss of PRI hegemony and the advance of the PAN29 created a situation
in which state governors began to negotiate directly with organised crime, “an area that was
previously the preserve of the federal government”.30 This political destabilisation, coupled with
the violence and militarisation of the war on drugs, as outlined below, led to a visible strengthening
of the power and autonomy of organised crime in the state, which ended up taking over political
power and institutions in the state of Veracruz.31
The following section will outline the various organised crime groups operating in the state of
Veracruz before and during the Duarte de Ochoa administration, as well as their violent dispute
over territorial control in the state.
1. Rise and fragmentation of the power of organised crime groups
Although violence in Veracruz increased considerably from 2010 to 2016 during Duarte de Ochoa’s
six-year term, the presence of criminal organisations linked to trafficking in Veracruz has historical
roots that can be traced back to the 1980s, with the growth in drug trafficking through the port of
Veracruz, Tuxpan and Coatzacoalcos by the Cártel de Matamoros, later named the Gulf Cartel.32
Trafficking via the port of Veracruz, Tuxpan and Coatzacoalcos was dubbed the “Gulf route” and
constitutes a drug trafficking corridor of national and international importance.33 Between 2006
and 2020, there were four main groups in dispute in the region: Gulf Cartel, Cártel de los Zetas
(Los Zetas), Cártel de Sinaloa (Sinaloa Cartel) and Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación (Jalisco New
Generation Cartel - CJNG), joined by a multiplicity of cells and factions.34
Between 2004 and 2010, the Gulf Cartel consolidated its presence in Veracruz through Los Zetas,
at the time operating as its armed wing,35 which managed to control a large part of Veracruz
territory, including strategic points such as the port of Veracruz and the main roads that cross the
29. The PAN eventually won the elections to state governor of Veracruz in 2016 with Miguel Ángel Yunes, who forged an alliance
with the Partido de la Revolución Democrática (Party of the Democratic Revolution, hereinafter “PRD”).
30. [TRANSLATION] Celia del Palacio and Alberto J. Olvera, “Acallar las voces, ocultar la verdad, Violencia contra los periodistas en
Veracruz” (Silencing voices, hiding the truth: violence against journalists in Veracruz), (2017), Argumentos 30(85), 20.
31. S
ee International Crisis Group, “Veracruz: Fixing Mexico’s State of Terror” (Report No. 61 on Latin America & Caribbean, 2020),
7-13; “Panorámica sobre seguridad y justicia en Veracruz”, (Overview of security and justice in Veracruz ), Mexico SOS, 2018,
http://www.mexicosos.org/dossier/archivo-sos/archivo-sos-2018/1312-panoramica-sobre-seguridad-y-justicia-en-veracruz,
accessed on 8 July 2021; Eva Usi “México: ‘Veracruz está a merced del crimen organizado’” (Mexico: ‘Veracruz is at the mercy
of organised crime’), Deutsche Welle, 13 October 2016, https://p.dw.com/p/2RCEF, accessed on 8 July 2021.
32. S
ee “Cartel del Golfo” (Gulf Cartel), InSight Crime, 30 October 2010, https://es.insightcrime.org/noticias-crimen-organizado-
mexico/cartel-del-golfo-perfil/, accessed on 8 July 2021; Jesús Aranda, “Detecta el Ejército Mexicano tres rutas nacionales
que usa el narco hacia EU” (Mexican Army detects three domestic routes used by drug traffickers to the US), La Jornada,
30 April 2007, https://www.jornada.com.mx/2007/04/30/index.php?section=politica&article=020n1pol, accessed on
8 July 2021; “Panorámica sobre seguridad y justicia en Veracruz” (Overview of security and justice in Veracruz), México SOS,
2018, http://www.mexicosos.org/dossier/archivo-sos/archivo-sos-2018/1312-panoramica-sobre-seguridad-y-justicia-en-
veracruz, accessed on 8 July 2021; Eduardo Guerrero Gutiérrez, “El dominio del miedo” (The domain of fear), Nexos, 1 July 2014,
https://www.nexos.com.mx/?p=21671, accessed on 8 July 2021.
33. Ibid. See also “Del centro al Golfo: éstas son las rutas de drogas y armas en México” (From the centre to the Gulf: these
are Mexico’s drug and arms routes), Milenio, 28 August 2020, https://www.milenio.com/politica/rutas-del-narcotrafico-en-
mexico-por-trafico-de-drogas, accessed on 8 July 2021; Annex O – Veracruz State Human Rights Commission - General
Recommendation 01/2017, para. 61.
34. These include Mata-Zetas, Grupo Sombras, Sangre Nueva, Zetas Vieja Escuela, Cartel del Siglo, Cartel del Noreste, Los Antrax
and Jarochos Unidos, among others. See Rodrigo Gutiérrez González, “Los cárteles de la droga que operan en Veracruz”
(Drug cartels operating in Veracruz), La Silla Rota, 28 August 2019, https://lasillarota.com/estados/los-carteles-de-la-droga-
que-operan-en-veracruz/312545, accessed on 8 July 2021; Miguel Ángel León Carmona, “Guerra de carteles asola el sur
de Veracruz” (Cartel warfare rages in southern Veracruz), Pie de Página, 7 February 2020, https://piedepagina.mx/guerra-
de-carteles-asola-el-sur-de-veracruz, accessed on 8 July 2021; Rodrigo Gutiérrez González “¿Cártel en declive? Hay 12
células de “Los Zetas” operando en el país” (Cartel in decline? 12 “Los Zetas” cells operating in the country), La Silla Rota,
22 October 2020, https://lasillarota.com/nacion/cartel-en-declive-hay-12-celulas-de-los-zetas-operando-en-el-pais/447029,
accessed on 8 July 2021; “Narcoterror en Veracruz: abandonaron cuerpos descuartizados a nombre del ‘Miauuu’” (Narco-
terror in Veracruz: dismembered bodies abandoned in the name of “Miauuu”), 2 April 2021, https://www.infobae.com/america/
mexico/2021/04/03/narcoterror-en-veracruz-abandonaron-cuerpos-descuartizados-a-nombre-del-miauuu/, accessed on
8 July 2021; IMDHD, “Informe preliminar: análisis de contexto de las desapariciones forzadas ocurridas en el marco del
Operativo Blindaje Coatzacoalcos” (Preliminary report: contextual analysis of enforced disappearances in the framework of
Operation “Blindaje Coatzacoalcos”), (2020), 16.
35. G
uadalupe Correa-Cabrera, Los Zetas Inc. Criminal Corporations, Energy, and Civil War in Mexico (1st ed. University of Texas Press
2017), 2.
state36. The mode of criminal organisation of Los Zetas, which at its inception was composed of
elite military deserters from the army, was based on a corporate paramilitary model that combined
the use of military tactics and strategies with the diversification of financial activities that included
not only drug trafficking but also extortion, kidnapping, money laundering and the theft of fuel and
energy resources.37
The successful expansion of Los Zetas in Veracruz laid the groundwork for their independence
from the Gulf Cartel, which, coupled with a series of arrests and assassinations of the top leaders of
both cartels, led to one of the bloodiest confrontations in the history of organised crime in Mexico.
The war between the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas lasted from 2007 until 2014.38 In this protracted
conflict, other major organisations joined the dispute for territory, including the Sinaloa Cartel
and the CJNG, paving the way for a process of fragmentation, competition and diversification of
criminal groups, accompanied by an increase in violence in the region.39
During this conflict, Los Zetas carried out a widespread practice of disappearances, as well as
ruthless physical violence with mutilations, dismemberment, dissolution of bodies in acid,
cremations and subsequent pulverisation of the skeletal remains, ending on numerous occasions
with the display of these mutilated bodies in public places with messages to the authorities, rival
groups and the population in general.40 It should be noted that patterns of violence and corruption
had different characteristics depending on the city or municipality. For example, in the city of
Veracruz, where the cases described in this communication took place, there was a violent dispute
between Los Zetas and the CJNG, while in other areas different cartels were involved.41
36. G
2017), 2.
37. US Congressional Research Service, Mexico: Organized Crime and Drug Trafficking Organizations (R41576, 2020), 16, 21-24;
Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, Los Zetas Inc. Criminal Corporations, Energy, and Civil War in Mexico (1st ed. University of Texas Press
2017), 22-23.
38. Ioan Grillo, “REPORTE ESPECIAL-Zetas, de guerra narco a insurgencia en México” (SPECIAL REPORT – Los Zetas, from
drug war to insurgency in Mexico), Reuters, 30 May 2012, https://www.reuters.com/article/portada-mexico-zetas-
idLTASIE84S0H420120529, accessed on 8 July 2021; Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, Los Zetas Inc. Criminal Corporations, Energy,
and Civil War in Mexico (1st ed. University of Texas Press 2017), 33-35. Other sources give 2008 as the date of the Los Zetas split
from the Gulf Cartel. See “Panorámica sobre seguridad y justicia en Veracruz” (Overview of security and justice in Veracruz),
Mexico SOS, 2018, http://www.mexicosos.org/dossier/archivo-sos/archivo-sos-2018/1312-panoramica-sobre-seguridad-y-
justicia-en-veracruz, accessed on 8 July 2021.
39. U
S Congressional Research Service, Mexico: Organized Crime and Drug Trafficking Organizations (R41576, 2020), 28-29.
40. G
2017), 67-68. The dominance of Los Zetas was resisted not only by the Gulf Cartel, but by other criminal organisations that
tried to dispute the territory through the use of violence. One of these criminal cells were the Mata-Zetas, who, starting in 2010,
with the support of the Sinaloa Cartel, sought to eliminate Los Zetas in the area of the Port of Veracruz. In the context of
these disputes, on 26 September 2011, 35 bodies were abandoned in one of the main streets of Boca del Río (a municipality
adjacent to the Port of Veracruz). This was followed by a series of murders that within 17 days claimed the lives of at least
100 people, all of them allegedly linked to Los Zetas. In a video disseminated on social networks, the Mata-Zetas claimed
responsibility for the murders. Subsequently, this criminal cell was linked to the CJNG, who, from 2015 onwards, strengthened
their presence in the state through different groups. Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, Los Zetas Inc. Criminal Corporations, Energy,
and Civil War in Mexico (1st ed. University of Texas Press 2017), 43. See also “Los Mata Zetas se «disculpan» por los asesinatos
en Veracruz” (Mata Zetas “apologise” for killings in Veracruz), Animal Político, 26 September 2011, https://www.animalpolitico.
com/2011/09/los-mata-zetas-se-disculpan-por-los-asesinatos-en-veracruz/, accessed on 8 July 2021; Manrique Guandaria,
“Veracruz está bajo el asedio de dos cárteles” (Veracruz under siege from two cartels), El Sol de México, 26 April 2019, https://
www.elsoldemexico.com.mx/republica/sociedad/veracruz-esta-bajo-el-asedio-de-dos-carteles-3371950.html, accessed
on 8 July 2021; Paris Alejandro Salazar, “Llegaron como ‘Mata Zetas’, hoy son el CJNG y van por Veracruz” (They arrived
as ‘Mata Zetas’, today they are the CJNG and are going for Veracruz), La Silla Rota, 10 March 2016, https://lasillarota.com/
estados/llegaron-como-mata-zetas-hoy-son-el-cjng-y-van-por-veracruz/106650, accessed on 8 July 2021; Nathan P. Jones
“The Strategic Implications of the Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación” (2018) 11(1) Journal of Strategic Security 19, 21; Jorge
Monroy “En dos años, el CJNG se independizó y duplicó presencia” (In two years, CJNG became independent and doubled its
presence), El Economista, 14 May 2015, https://www.eleconomista.com.mx/politica/En-dos-anos-el-CJNG-se-independizo-y-
duplico-presencia---20150514-0072.html, accessed on 8 July 2021.
41. F
IDH interviews. See also Víctor Manuel Andrade Guevara, “Violencia y Régimen político en Veracruz, México: 1936-2016”
(Violence and Political Regime in Veracruz, Mexico: 1936-2016) (2018), Memorias: Revista Digital de Arqueología e Historia desde
el Caribe 35, 70 (“[TRANSLATION] With the arrival of Javier Duarte things got worse. Violence escalated throughout the state,
reaching its peak in September 2011, when 35 bodies were dumped in the vicinity of the World Trade Centre in the city of Boca
del Río, moments before the start of a summit of the country’s public prosecutors. The incident was attributed to the criminal
group known as the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), which had entered the state with the aim of disputing control of
the port of Veracruz with Los Zetas, who had had hegemonic control until that point”); “Los cárteles de la droga que operan en
Veracruz” (Drug cartels operating in Veracruz), La Silla Rota, 28 August 2019, https://lasillarota.com/estados/los-carteles-de-
la-droga-que-operan-en-veracruz/312545, accessed on 8 July 2021.
Figure 1: Map of organised crime 2010-2015
Source: IMDHD42
Despite these violent disputes, Los Zetas remained the dominant group in Veracruz until 2015.
However, the death of Heriberto Lazcano (Z3) in October 2012, the arrest of Miguel Ángel Treviño
Morales (Z40) in June 2013 and of his brother Omar Treviño Morales (Z42) in November 2014
opened the door to a process of fragmentation and an internal fight for power between the Zetas
Vieja Escuela (Old School Zetas) and the Cártel del Noreste (North East Cartel),43 which resulted in
the introduction of other criminal groups in Veracruz44 and the increased presence of the CJNG.
According to various sources, from 2015 onwards, the CJNG began to increase its presence in the
state of Veracruz.45 At the time of writing, different sources point to the presence of various groups,
but there is no agreement on which are the main ones.46
In 2019, in a special report on the security situation and the disappearance of persons in Veracruz,
the CNDH stated that the presence and increase of organised crime groups in the state has
42. IMDHD, “Informe preliminar: análisis de contexto de las desapariciones forzadas ocurridas en el marco del Operativo Blindaje
Coatzacoalcos” (Preliminary report: contextual analysis of enforced disappearances in the framework of Operation “Blindaje
Coatzacoalcos”) (2020), 17.
43. U
S Congressional Research Service, Mexico: Organized Crime and Drug Trafficking Organizations (R41576, 2020), 23; Guadalupe
Correa-Cabrera, Los Zetas Inc. Criminal Corporations, Energy, and Civil War in Mexico (1st ed. University of Texas Press 2017),
50-51; “Seis grupos criminales se disputan el control de Tamaulipas” (Six criminal groups fight for control of Tamaulipas),
Punto por Punto, 25 June 2021, https://www.puntoporpunto.com/reportajes-2/reportajes-en-punto/seis-grupos-criminales-
se-disputan-el-control-de-tamaulipas/, accessed on 8 July 2021.
45. M
onte Alejandro Rubido, “Cártel de Jalisco se expande a Veracruz para enviar drogas” (Cártel de Jalisco expands into
Veracruz to supply drugs), El Financiero, 6 May 2015, https://www.elfinanciero.com.mx/nacional/cartel-de-jalisco-se-expande-
a-veracruz-para-enviar-drogas/, accessed on 8 July 2021; Jorge Monroy, “En dos años, el CJNG se independizó y duplicó
presencia” (In two years, CJNG became independent and doubled its presence), El Economista, 14 May 2015, https://www.
eleconomista.com.mx/politica/En-dos-anos-el-CJNG-se-independizo-y-duplico-presencia---20150514-0072.html, accessed
on 8 July 2021; “El Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación infestó el puerto de Veracruz para el ingreso de precursores químicos”
(The Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación infested the port of Veracruz to bring in precursor chemicals), Infobae, 5 October 2020,
https://www.infobae.com/america/mexico/2020/10/05/el-cartel-jalisco-nueva-generacion-infesto-el-puerto-de-veracruz-
para-el-ingreso-de-precursores-quimicos/, accessed on 8 July 2021; IMDHD, “Informe preliminar: análisis de contexto de las
desapariciones forzadas ocurridas en el marco del Operativo Blindaje Coatzacoalcos” (Preliminary report: contextual analysis
of enforced disappearances in the framework of Operation “Blindaje Coatzacoalcos”) (2020), 17.
46. S
ee for example, “En Veracruz operan 6 cárteles ‘y están disminuidos’” (Six cartels operate in Veracruz “and they are
diminished”), Diario de Xalapa, https://www.diariodexalapa.com.mx/local/en-veracruz-operan-6-carteles-y-estan-disminuidos-
inseguridad-ssp-delitos-cjng-zetas-delincuencia-veracruz-5998076.html/, accessed on 8 July 2021.
been one of the main causes of disappearances: “One of the causes behind the proliferation of
disappearances, are the struggles between different criminal groups operating in the territory of
the state of Veracruz, who by carrying out such criminal conduct seek to implement strategies to
deter their rivals and sow fear in the population. However, this modus operandi also affects people
not linked to organised crime groups, who are systematically besieged by these groups through
crimes such as kidnapping and extortion (derecho de piso),47 and disappearance”.48
The following section describes the centralisation and militarisation of public security through
the establishment of the “mando único” (unified command) in Veracruz, which is an important
component for gaining an understanding of the enforced disappearances committed by Veracruz
state authorities, sometimes acting in collusion with organised crime, as described below.
2. Militarisation of public security and the “mando único” (unified command)
During the so-called war on drugs promoted by former President Felipe Calderón from 2006
onwards, there was an increased militarisation of public security services at the national level. Within
this context, at the end of 2011, Operation “Veracruz Seguro” (Safe Veracruz) was implemented in
the state of Veracruz, a year into Duarte de Ochoa’s term of office.49 The operation established a
“unified command” (mando único) of navy and army forces, which, together with Veracruz state
security forces, was intended to coordinate actions to combat drug trafficking in the state.50 During
the ceremony to launch the operation, the head of the Ministry of the Interior, Francisco Blake
Mora, announced: “We are strengthening the deployment of federal security forces throughout the
state territory under a unified federal command to recover the spaces invaded by crime and make
them safe again.”51
Under this new “unified command” scheme, in December 2011, the Intermunicipal Police of the
municipalities of Veracruz and Boca del Río was dissolved, and its resources were made responsibility
of the State Office for Public Security – the State entity in charge of the Veracruz State Police –
with the support of the Ministry of the Navy.52 Likewise, in May 2013, the Intermunicipal Police of
the municipalities of Coatzacoalcos, Minatitlán, Cosoleacaque, Nanchital de Lázaro Cárdenas del
Río and the police of the municipality of Acayucan were dissolved.53 In this militarisation process,
between 2011 and 2018, the Ministry of the Navy carried out 946 military operations concentrated
mainly in the municipalities of Veracruz, Coatzacoalcos, Acayucan and Minatitlán, while the
Ministry of National Defence (hereinafter “SEDENA”), the entity in charge of the Army and the Air
Force, reported 266 operations in 63 of the 212 municipalities in Veracruz.54
47. T
he so-called “derecho de piso” (protection money) refers to extortion carried out against small and large-scale traders to allow
them to carry out their work and business, by organised crime groups who offer protection and, in case of refusal to pay, make
threats and direct attacks against business owners.
48. [TRANSLATION] Annex H – CNDH - Informe especial sobre la situación de seguridad y desaparición de personas en el Estado de
Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave (Special report on the security situation and disappearance of persons in the State of Veracruz
de Ignacio de la Llave) (2019), 5-6.
49. F
abiola Martínez, “Aplicarán operativo conjunto contra el crimen en Veracruz” (Joint anti-crime operation to be implemented
in Veracruz), Periódico La Jornada, 5 October 2011, https://www.jornada.com.mx/2011/10/05/politica/002n1pol, accessed on
13 July 2021.
50. F
13 July 2021.
51. F
13 July 2021.
52. A
nnex R – Veracruz and Boca del Río Decree (File no. 1610), Article 1. See also Annex S – IDHEAS - complaint to CED (2021);
“Echaron a todos los policías de Veracruz-Boca del Río” (All the Veracruz-Boca del Río police officers have been sacked),
El Sol, 22 December 2011, https://www.elsol.com.ar/echaron-a-todos-los-policias-de-veracruzboca-del-rio.html, accessed on
13 July 2021.
Coatzacoalcos”) (2020), 37.
54. A
nnex H - CNDH - Informe especial sobre la situación de seguridad y desaparición de personas en el Estado de Veracruz de Ignacio
Llave) (2019), 297-98, 307-08.
Table 1. Military operation carried out in Veracruz betweeen 2011 and 2018
Federal entity in charge N° of operations

Ministry of the Navy 946
SEDENA 266
Source: authors’ work, based on Annex H
At the same time, a budget of more than 532 million Mexican pesos was allocated to Operation
“Veracruz Seguro”, for the integration of technology, the purging of local police forces55 and the
creation of new police forces, including the new Accredited State Police and tactical and specialised
groups56 of the Civil Force, which operated under the State Office for Public Security.57
The new State Police sought the unification of municipal and state police to guarantee unity of
command, with the application of evaluations and trust checks, the development of information
and communications technologies, changes in police operation based on the standardisation
of interventions and the integration of new technical, logistical and strategic capacities in three
units (tactical analysis, investigation and operations), as well as the implementation of a Police
Professional Development system through police training.58 Meanwhile, new tactical and intelligence
elements were established within the State Office for Public Security, under the direction of the Civil
Force.59 The result was paradoxical and resulted in an increase of violence, such that in Veracruz:
“the more police there are, the more crime there is”.60
The policy of militarisation of public security, as has been mentioned, was directed at the unification
of police forces in the state and the reduction of municipalities’ powers in relation to public security,
in line with the national police reform strategy.61 However, given the context of corruption in Veracruz,
as described below, where organised crime had penetrated state and municipal structures, policies
on security and militarisation, far from combating drug trafficking effectively, functioned as
catalysts for disappearances with the creation of an environment of violence, impunity, collusion
55. F
ernando Javier Araujo Pulido, “La violencia originada por el operativo Veracruz seguro II en la zona metropolitana de Xalapa
en 2012: Un análisis desde la perspectiva de la seguridad nacional, el narcotráfico y los derechos humanos” (Violence caused
by Operation “Veracruz Seguro II” in the metropolitan area of Xalapa in 2012: An analysis from the perspective of national
security, drug trafficking and human rights) (2017), University of Veracruz, Institute of Historical Social Research, 84-85; Patricia
Dávila “Gobierno de Calderón anuncia mando único para Veracruz” (Calderón’s government announces unified command for
Veracruz), Proceso, 4 October 2011, https://www.proceso.com.mx/nacional/2011/10/4/gobierno-de-calderon-%20anuncia-
mando-unico-para-veracruz-92944.html, accessed on 13 July 2021.
56. Internal Regulations of the State Office for Public Security 2014, Official Gazette No. Ext. 418, Vol. CXC; Noé Zavaleta, “Duarte
presenta su nueva súper policía en un Veracruz ‘con menos delitos’” (Duarte presents his new super police in a Veracruz
“with less crime”), Proceso, 21 October 2014, https://www.proceso.com.mx/nacional/estados/2014/10/21/duarte-presenta-
su-nueva-super-policia-en-un-veracruz-con-menos-delitos-138757.html, accessed on 13 July 2021.
57. M
anual específico de organización de la dirección general de la fuerza civil (Specific organisational manual of the general
directorate of the civil force) (2017). See also International Crisis Group, “Veracruz: Fixing Mexico’s State of Terror” (Report
No. 61 on Latin America & Caribbean, 2020), 14.
58. M
anual del Sistema Integral de Desarrollo Policial (Comprehensive Police Development System Manual) (2011), http://
www.cespver.gob.mx/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2011/02/Manual-Sistema-Integral-de-Desarrollo-Policial-.pdf; Programa
Veracruzano de Seguridad Pública (Veracruz Public Security Programme) 2011-2016, http://www.veracruz.gob.mx/wp-
content/uploads/sites/2/2012/08/tf07-ps-pvd-11-16-pvsp-11.pdf; Reglamento del Sistema Integral de Desarrollo Policial
(Regulation on the Comprehensive Police Development System), Official Gazette No. Ext. 29, Vol. CLXXXI.
59. S
ee Noé Zavaleta, “Duarte presenta su nueva súper policía en un Veracruz ‘con menos delitos’” (Duarte presents his new super
police in a Veracruz ‘with less crime’), Proceso, 21 October 2014, https://www.proceso.com.mx/nacional/estados/2014/10/21/
duarte-presenta-su-nueva-super-policia-en-un-veracruz-con-menos-delitos-138757.html, accessed on 13 July 2021.
60. J
osé Alfredo Zavaleta Betancourt, “La seguridad pública en Veracruz, 2004-2009” (Public security in Veracruz, 2004-2009)
(2012), CLASCO 51. See also International Crisis Group, “Veracruz: Fixing Mexico’s State of Terror” (Report No. 61 on Latin
America & Caribbean, 2020), 6. “Recent studies highlight a correlation between the militarisation of public security and a spike
in human rights abuses by police and armed forces”.
61. S
imilar strategies of militarisation of public security to those conducted in Veracruz were implemented in Tamaulipas,
Chihuahua, Guerrero and Michoacán as part of the War on Drugs. [TRANSLATION] “One of the precedents was Joint Operation
Tamaulipas and, in January 2008, Operation Northeast, bringing hundreds of military and navy personnel to Nuevo León
and Tamaulipas. There have also been federal mechanisms of this type in Chihuahua, Guerrero and Michoacán”. Fabiola
Martínez, “Aplicarán operativo conjunto contra el crimen en Veracruz” (Joint anti-crime operation to be implemented in
Veracruz), Periódico La Jornada, 5 October 2011, https://www.jornada.com.mx/2011/10/05/politica/002n1pol, accessed on
13 July 2021.
and omission. As a result, there was a significant rise in cases of enforced disappearances during
this time period.
As the Veracruz State Human Rights Commission stated in its 2017 general recommendation
(General Recommendation 1/2017) on enforced disappearances that occurred during the Duarte
de Ochoa administration, the militarisation policy “only exacerbated the violence ... [which,
from 2011] began to reach critical levels with the execution of “cleansing operations” between
members of different cartels; the perpetration of kidnappings, extrajudicial executions, extortions,
and disappearances; and violence against accidental witnesses, generally from civil society, and
against journalists”.62
The implementation of the unified command policy during Duarte de Ochoa’s administration saw
some of the most violent years in terms of enforced disappearances, particularly between 2013
and 2014, as shown in the graph below.
Disappearances by year
Source: authors’ work, based on figures from RNPDNO, SINPEF and PDLM.63
It should be noted that the security and unified command policies in Veracruz were combined
with tight control and manipulation of information on violence, crime and insecurity in the
state. This allowed for a dissemination of false information that minimised the seriousness of
the situation in relation to disappearances and violence. One of the clearest manifestations of
this was the manipulation of statistics on disappearances and the lack of transparency in the
records. This is one of the reasons for the lack of certainty about the number of disappeared
persons in Veracruz, as well as the exact number of victims that have been found.64
Veracruz’s security policy and those who enforced it are some of the key elements to understanding
the enforced disappearances that took place in the state, as well as the responsibility of the
Duarte de Ochoa administration and beyond. State and municipal police, along with other
security agencies at the federal level, were responsible for hundreds of enforced disappearances
in Veracruz, sometimes acting in complicity with organised crime groups, installing a regime of
terror in the state based on violence and underpinned by corruption and impunity. As noted by
62. A
nnex O – Veracruz State Human Rights Commission - General Recommendation 01/2017, para. 63.
63. S
INPEF refers to the database of the Sistema de Información Nacional de Personas Extraviadas y Fallecidas No Identificadas
(National Information System on Missing and Unidentified Deceased Persons), set up by the CNDH. See Annex F - Crime
figures.
64. “ Veracruz, tres años ocultando las cifras de personas” (Veracruz, three years hiding the figures on the number of people),
AVC Noticias, 13 June 2020, https://avcnoticias.com.mx/resumen.php?idnota=296794, accessed on 13 July 2021; “CNDH:
Cifras de desaparecidos en Veracruz son alteradas” (CNDH: Figures on missing persons in Veracruz are altered), ONEA,
2 October 2017, http://oneamexico.org/2017/10/02/cndh-desaparecidos-veracruz/, accessed on 13 July 2021.
the Veracruz State Human Rights Commission in its General Recommendation 1/2017, “The
incidence of disappearances in the State was due - in part - to the direct participation of state
agents, but also to that of private individuals acting with the tolerance and acquiescence of the
authorities”.65 The processes of militarisation of public security and the successive reforms to
the police institution not only failed to address the problem – they exacerbated it.
The collusion of political power with organised crime in Veracruz, particularly during the Duarte de
Ochoa administration, is described below.
3. The collusion of political power and organised crime
In parallel to the violence and fragmentation between organised crime groups, in particular between
the years 2007 and 2014, as well as the introduction of the unified command policy, Veracruz also
lived through a process of corruption of the political leadership in the state, which increasingly
worked at the service of drug cartels.66
Prior to 2006, which dates the beginning of the so-called war on drugs, organised crime
groups had already infiltrated the state’s political life. According to an analysis by the
University of Texas of testimonies in criminal trials in the US against members of Los Zetas,
Fidel Herrera Beltrán, governor of Veracruz representing the PRI between 2004 and 2010,
was accused of receiving money from one of the Los Zetas leaders for his 2004 election
campaign.67 In addition, various media outlets reported that he had received money from
a Chinese businessman accused of trafficking chemical precursors for the production of
drugs.68 In 2013, Forbes Mexico magazine produced a list of the ten most corrupt people in
Mexico and stated, with respect to Herrera Beltrán: “As governor of Veracruz, accusations
against him concerning alleged connections with Los Zetas criminal group prospered...
Currently, there is no ... formal investigation against him”. 69 Between 2015 and 2017, when
Herrera Beltrán was Mexican consul in Barcelona, he was investigated for his links to money
laundering and drug trafficking networks in Catalonia.70
According to the above-mentioned University of Texas report, the administration of Duarte de Ochoa
(PRI) is also accused of links to drug trafficking. One witness described a meeting of Los Zetas
cartel in a house belonging to Duarte de Ochoa.71 In addition, Duarte de Ochoa’s administration’s
65. [TRANSLATION] Annex O – Veracruz State Human Rights Commission - General Recommendation 01/2017, para. 64.
See also Óscar Balderas and Nathaniel Janowitz, “Secretos de un jefe de Los Zetas: el gobierno nos abrió la puerta y hoy pacta
con otro cártel” (Secrets of a Los Zetas boss: the administration opened the door to us and is now making a deal with another
cartel), Vice, 2 June 2016, https://www.vice.com/es/article/mbdj9y/secretos-jefe-los-zetas-gobierno-abrio-puerta-pacta-otro-
cartel, accessed on 13 July 2021.
67. A
ccording to the testimony of an FBI agent during the trials of several Los Zetas members in Texas, USA. Human Rights
Clinic - The University of Texas at Austin School of Law, “‘Control...Over the Entire State of Coahuila’: An analysis of testimonies
in trials against Zeta members in San Antonio, Austin, and Del Rio, Texas” (2017), 12, https://law.utexas.edu/wp-content/
uploads/sites/11/2017/11/2017-HRC-coahuilareport-EN.pdf, accessed on 13 July 2021.
68. H
errera has denied the accusations against him. See “Zhenli Ye Gon, el primer gran caso de la guerra contra el narcotráfico”
(Zhenli Ye Gon, the first big case in the drug war), La Silla Rota, 24 August 2018, https://lasillarota.com/zhenli-ye-gon-quien-es-
narco-coopelas-cuello/243167, accessed on 13 July 2021; “Zhenli Ye Gon afirma que finació campaña de Fidel Herrera” (Zhenli
Ye Gon claims he financed Fidel Herrera’s campaign), Expreso de Tuxpan, 9 September 2015, https://www.expresodetuxpan.
com/zhenli-ye-gon-afirma-que-finacio-campana-de-fidel-herrera/, accessed on 13 July 2021.
69. “ Los 10 mexicanos más corruptos de 2013” (The top 10 most corrupt Mexicans of 2013), Forbes México, 22 December 2013,
https://www.forbes.com.mx/los-10-mexicanos-mas-corruptos-de-2013/, accessed on 13 July 2021.
70. J
oaquín Gil, “Las amistades tóxicas de Fidel Herrera” (The toxic friendships of Fidel Herrera), El País, 6 December 2020, https://
elpais.com/internacional/2020-12-06/las-amistades-toxicas-de-fidel-herrera.html, accessed on 13 July 2021.
71. H
uman Rights Clinic – The University of Texas at Austin School of Law, “‘Control...Over the Entire State of Coahuila”: An
analysis of testimonies in trials against Zeta members in San Antonio, Austin, and Del Rio, Texas” (2017), 31, https://law.
utexas.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2017/11/2017-HRC-coahuilareport-EN.pdf, accessed on 13 July 2021. “Witnesses
also named two governors from Veracruz during the trials. Uribe described a meeting with Lazcano, Cien, Daniel Menera, and
an accountant that was held at a house belonging to Javier Duarte, who served as governor of Veracruz from 2010 to 2016.
According to Uribe, Lazcano murdered the accountant after this meeting in the backyard of this house.”
links to drug trafficking have also been highlighted in various reports and by media outlets.72
Further, there have been multiple formal accusations of corruption against Duarte de Ochoa and
his family, linked to his tenure as governor. The Auditoría Superior de la Federación (Federal Supreme
Audit Office) reported the embezzlement of more than 35 billion pesos after reviewing the 2011-
2014 public accounts of the State of Veracruz73. In addition, it was reported that the government of
Veracruz purchased more than 70,000 fake HIV tests74 and that the Veracruz Sistema Estatal para el
Desarrollo Integral de la Familia (State System for the Comprehensive Development of the Family –
hereinafter “DIF”) - of which Karime Macías Tubilla, then wife of the former governor, was honorary
president - diverted more than 415 million pesos to a network of 33 ghost companies.75 Further, a
new investigation in 2014 reported the diversion by the former governor of Veracruz of 3.5 billion
Mexican pesos from various federal funds.76 In April 2022, the British State Department ordered the
extradition of Macías Tubilla to Mexico, for accusations of fraud. The former governor’s ex-wife had
fled to the United Kingdom when Duarte de Ochoa began to be investigated by the Mexican justice
system. Macías Tubilla’s lawyers appealed the extradition order and, to date, it remains pending.77
In an interview, Maryjose Gamboa Torales, Director of the Veracruz Truth Commission, a state
entity created in 2016, declared, “What became clear during Duarte’s term is that organised crime
and the state were two sides of the same coin.”78 In this regard, it should be noted that a report
by the International Crisis Group underlines that organised crime had deeply infiltrated political
structures in Veracruz, stating that from 2011 onwards the State Office for Public Security, the
entity in charge of the Veracruz State Police, became “an authoritarian-criminal enclave that served
as a means to curb free speech, as a criminal structure in its own right and as a key mechanism to
facilitate and shield organised criminal activity, including by generating judicial impunity”.79
B. E
nforced disappearances by state authorities during the Duarte de
Ochoa administration
Within this context of the unified command policy and accusations of collusion between political
power and organised crime, an alarming number of enforced disappearances committed by the
See also Óscar Balderas and Nathaniel Janowitz, “Secretos de un jefe de Los Zetas: el gobierno nos abrió la puerta y hoy pacta
con otro cartel” (Secrets of a Los Zetas boss: the administration opened the door to us and is now making a deal with another
cartel), Vice, 2 June 2016, https://www.vice.com/es/article/mbdj9y/secretos-jefe-los-zetas-gobierno-abrio-puerta-pacta-otro-
cartel, accessed on 13 July 2021.
73. Z
orayda Gallegos, “La Auditoría revela un desfalco sin precedentes en Veracruz” (Audit reveals unprecedented embezzlement
in Veracruz), El País, 5 November 2016, https://elpais.com/internacional/2016/11/05/mexico/1478372279_820715.html,
accessed on 13 July 2021.
74. D
avid Marical Pérez, “Corrupción: La enfermedad de Veracruz” (Corruption: The disease of Veracruz), El País, 2 February 2017,
https://elpais.com/internacional/2017/02/01/actualidad/1485989412_661929.html, accessed on 13 July 2021.
75. V
aleria Durán and Arturo Ángel, “‘Con Karime al frente, el DIF-Veracruz entregó más de 415 millones a red de 33 empresas
fantasma” (With Karime at the helm, the Veracruz DIF transferred more than 415 million to a network of 33 ghost companies),
30 May 2018, Animal Político, https://www.animalpolitico.com/red-karime-duarte/, accessed on 13 July 2021.
76. A
rturo Angel, “Indagan nuevo desvío de 3 mil 500 millones con Javier Duarte” (New probe into 3.5 billion diversion under Javier
Duarte), Animal Político, 8 March 2021, accessed on 13 July 2021.
77. E
duardo Murillo, Gustavo Castillo and César Arellano, “FGR inicia proceso de extradición de Karime Macías” (FGR initiates
extradition process for Karime Macías), La Jornada, 18 April 2021, https://www.jornada.com.mx/notas/2021/04/18/politica/
fgr-inicia-proceso-de-extradicion-de-karime-macias/, accessed on 13 July 2021;“‘Karime Macías no será extraditada; es un
proceso inconcluso’ dice su abogado”, Expansión Política, 5 April 2022, https://politica.expansion.mx/mexico/2022/04/05/
autoridades-europeas-ordenan-la-extradicion-de-karime-macias; “Karime Macías del “merezco abundancia” a la extradición”,
Al Momento, 7 September 2022, https://almomento.mx/karime-macias-del-merezco-abundancia-a-la-extradicion/.
78. T
he Veracruz Truth Commission was established on 25 November 2016 and is composed of one delegate from each party
represented in the local Congress. International Crisis Group, “Veracruz: Fixing Mexico’s State of Terror” (Report No. 61 on
Latin America & Caribbean, 2020), 12, 28.
See also Annex H – CNDH - Informe especial sobre la situación de seguridad y desaparición de personas en el Estado de Veracruz
de Ignacio de la Llave (Special report on the security situation and disappearance of persons in the State of Veracruz de Ignacio
de la Llave) (2019), 4-5. “[TRANSLATION] One of the main issues that arise in cases of enforced disappearance of persons and
disappearance of persons committed by private individuals is the corruption, impunity and complicity of some state authorities,
who by their actions or omissions allow the perpetrators of such conduct to act wilfully and with impunity. This means that
attempts to secure justice are doomed to failure and thus undermine the possibility of putting an end to this practice.”
state forces were documented in Veracruz.
The level of involvement of state forces in cases of disappearances is shocking: according to a

CNDH report, out of 544 cases of disappearance in the state of Veracruz submitted to the SINPEF
(for the year 2018), in 239 of them (44%) the victims’ families attributed the crimes to municipal,
state or federal authorities.80 Among the 239 cases where municipal, state or federal authorities
were allegedly involved, 45 victims were detained when they were at home; 24 were on business
premises; 127 were in public spaces; and in 43 cases it was not possible to determine their location
at the time of the events.81
Likely perpetrators (SINPEF)
Source: authors’ work, based on SINPEF figures.82

[TRANSLATION]: Authorities (44%); Organised crime (16%); Authorities and organised crime (1%); and no
indication of likely perpetrators (39%)
The alleged high-level of involvement of state authorities in cases of enforced disappearances

in the CNDH report (SINPEF database) is consistent with the database of the Dignificando la
Memoria (Dignifying Memory) project (DLM project),83 according to which, based on 270 records,
the percentage of cases alleged to have been perpetrated by authorities is 33%, by organised crime
19% and the cases perpetrated jointly by authorities and organised crime is 8%. The DLM project
database also records cases of disappearance involving individuals who are not necessarily linked
to organised crime (acquaintances, relatives, partners or friends) acting alone (5%) or jointly with
state agents (4%).
80. In 16% of the cases, members of organised crime were mentioned, and in 1% of the cases, both. In 39% of the cases, the
complainants stated that they did not know whether the events involved the participation of the authorities or members of
organised crime. Annex H – CNDH, Informe especial sobre la situación de seguridad y desaparición de personas en el Estado de
Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave (Special report on the security situation and disappearance of persons in the State of Veracruz
de Ignacio de la Llave) (2019), 133-38.
81. A
nnex H – CNDH - Informe especial sobre la situación de seguridad y desaparición de personas en el Estado de Veracruz de Ignacio
Llave) (2019), 148-49.
82. S
ee Annex F - Crime figures.
83. T
he DLM project can be accessed at the following website: https://dignificandolamemoria.org/testimonios. An explanation
of the project can be found in Annex U - IMDHD - Dignificando la memoria - La desaparición de personas en Veracruz (The
Disappearance of Persons in Veracruz) (2019). See also Annex F - Crime figures.
Likely perpetrators (DLM project)
Source: authors’ work, based on IMDHD DLM project figures.84

[TRANSLATION]: Authorities (33%); organised crime (19%); Authorities and organised crime (8%); Other private
individuals (5%); Other private individuals and state officers (4%); and no indication of likely perpetrators (31%).
Although the data analysed by the CNDH (SINPEF database) and IMDHD (DLM Project) cover a
limited time period and are not exhaustive, since they concern the 544 files submitted to SINPEF and
270 records from the DLM project, they do provide a picture of the cases of enforced disappearance
in the state and document the high level of participation of government authorities in these events.
State authorities were identified as participants in the disappearances of at least 30 people in
Coatzacoalcos in 2015, within the framework of the unified command policy and Operation “Blindaje
Coatzacoalcos” (Operation Shielding Coatzacoalcos)85, in which agents of the State Office for Public
Security, SEDENA, the Navy and the Federal Police participated.86 State Police were also identified
as involved in the disappearance of 15 people in 2016 in the La Aurora ravine, just 6 kilometres
away from the former police academy of El Lencero;87 and as alleged perpetrators in 44.3% of the
293 cases registered in the DLM project database88 and in 200 cases throughout the state, according
to the Solecito collective.89
84. Data based on the DLM Project, available at https://dignificandolamemoria.org/testimonios; Annex U - IMDHD - Dignificando la memoria
- La desaparición de personas en Veracruz (The Disappearance of Persons in Veracruz) (2019). See also Annex F - Crime figures.
85. O
peration “Blindaje Coatzacoalcos” was a security operation announced by Duarte de Ochoa on May 26, 2014. It was
supposedly aimed at preventing and punishing crimes in the municipalities of Coatzacoalcos and surrounding areas. As with
other security operations in the state of Veracruz, federal forces were involved and the operation resulted in numerous human
rights violations. See IMDHD, “Informe preliminar: análisis de contexto de las desapariciones forzadas ocurridas en el marco
del Operativo Blindaje Coatzacoalcos” (Preliminary report: contextual analysis of enforced disappearances in the framework
of Operation “Blindaje Coatzacoalcos”) (2020).
Coatzacoalcos”) (2020), 6, 37.
87. N
oé Zavaleta, “De 15 personas, los restos óseos hallados en Veracruz” (Skeletal remains of 15 people found in Veracruz),
Proceso, 20 January 2016, https://www.proceso.com.mx/nacional/2016/1/20/de-15-personas-los-restos-oseos-hallados-en-
veracruz-158033.html, accessed on 13 July 2021.
88. A
nnex U - IMDHD - Dignificando la memoria - La desaparición de personas en Veracruz (The Disappearance of Persons in
Veracruz) (2019), 23.
89. E
dgar Ávila Pérez, “Vinculan a proceso a ex titular de SSP-Veracruz por presunta desaparición forzada” (Former head of
Veracruz State Office for Public Security joined to trial for alleged enforced disappearances), El Universal, 14 February 2018,
https://www.eluniversal.com.mx/estados/vinculan-proceso-ex-titular-de-ssp-veracruz-por-presunta-desaparicion-forzada,
In addition, specialised groups under the command of the Civil Force, such as the Fuerzas de
Reacción (Reaction Forces) and the Fieles, were also identified as among the main perpetrators
of disappearances during the period 2010-2016.90 Indeed, the former director of the Civil Force of
Veracruz was arrested in February 2018 for his alleged involvement in fifteen cases of enforced
disappearance. However, in December 2019 he was released from pre-trial detention, along with
thirteen other former police officers also accused of enforced disappearances in the state.91
In this context it is important to mention two events in 2013, contributing to a total of more
than 28 disappearances, in which the participation of the State Office for Public Security has
been reported. Although they do not form part of the legal analysis on crimes against humanity
detailed in the following section of this report, these cases were documented by the signatory
organisation Solecito and demonstrate some elements of systematic state involvement. The first
case concerns eight municipal police officers who disappeared in the municipality of Úrsulo Galván
on 11 January 2013. In this case, municipal police officers, all men, were beaten and intercepted
by hooded men in four patrol cars belonging to the State Office for Public Security. Since the date
of their disappearance, the victims’ families have not heard from them.92 The case of Potrero
Nuevo, which occurred on 2 August 2013 in the municipality of Atoyac, should also be noted. In
that case, more than twenty people, most of them young men, were abducted by more than twelve
state police officers, who wore uniforms and were armed and hooded. Despite the insistence and
searches by relatives and the Solecito collective, no impartial, prompt and effective investigations
have been carried out.
The commission of enforced disappearances by state authorities in Veracruz follows a pattern that
is repeated in other states throughout the country. In this regard it is worth noting the final report
of the visit of the Committee on Enforced Disappearances (“CED”) to Mexico between November
15 and 26, 2021, which included a visit to Veracruz. In its report, the CED highlighted the existence
of “several patterns in the commission of acts of enforced disappearance. These patterns can be
observed in the vast majority of states (annex 4). Acts of enforced disappearance continue to be
committed directly by public officials at the federal, state and municipal levels.” At the same time, the
CED reiterated “its deep concern that disappearances continue to be widespread over much of the
State party’s territory and that almost absolute impunity and revictimization prevail in this regard.” 93
At the same time, as detailed above, in some cases in Veracruz organised criminal groups acted
together with state or municipal authorities in carrying out enforced disappearances and other
crimes. This has been affirmed by human rights defenders and/or relatives of the victims of
these crimes.94 In this regard, the case of Christian Téllez Padilla should be noted. Téllez Padilla
suffered enforced disappearance in 2010 by the Intermunicipal Police of Poza Rica-Tihuatlán-
90. J
acobo García, “‘La desaparición de personas en Veracruz era sistemática e institucionalizada’” (‘The disappearance of people
in Veracruz was systematic and institutionalised’), El País, 25 February 2018, https://elpais.com/internacional/2018/02/24/
mexico/1519510585_044530.html, accessed on 13 July 2021; Miguel Ángel León Carmona, “‘Los Fieles’, policía de élite que tortura
y desaparece en Veracruz” (‘Los Fieles’, elite police that tortures and disappears in Veracruz), La Silla Rota, 7 February 2018, https://
lasillarota.com/especialeslsr/los-fieles-policia-de-elite-que-tortura-y-desaparece-en-veracruz/204355, accessed on 13 July 2021.
91. A
s will be explained in the next section, the criminal investigation led by former public prosecutor Jorge Winckler Ortiz was
marred by allegations of due process violations and witnesses forced to testify under torture. Today, many investigations into
enforced disappearances remain at a standstill. See Miguel Ángel León Carmona, “Libres, exfuncionarios de Duarte imputados
por desaparición forzada” (Former Duarte officials charged with enforced disappearance freed), Pie de página, 23 May 2019,
https://piedepagina.mx/libres-exfuncionarios-de-duarte-imputados-por-desaparicion-forzada/, accessed on 13 July 2021;
Miguel Salazar, “Libre, ex director de la Fuerza Civil acusado de presunta desaparición forzada” (Former director of the Civil
Force accused of alleged enforced disappearance freed), Diario de Xalapa, 25 December 2019, https://www.diariodexalapa.
com.mx/local/libre-ex-director-de-la-fuerza-civil-acusado-de-presunta-desaparicion-forzada-comandante-meza-inseguridad-
desaparicion-secuestro-levanton-4626377.html, accessed on 13 July 2021.
92. A
nnex N – Veracruz State Human Rights Commission – File CEDH/1VG/VER/0271/2016 - REC 03/2017, 1-2. See also
Annex L - Solecito Collective – Accounts of events from family members.
93. A
nnex L - Solecito Collective – Accounts of events from family members. “Report of the Committee on Enforced Disappearances
on its visit to Mexico under article 33 of the Convention”, CED/C/MEX/VR/1 (Findings), paragraphs 13 and 24.
94. F
IDH interviews. This was also highlighted by the CED. See “Report of the Committee on Enforced Disappearances on its visit
to Mexico under article 33 of the Convention”, CED/C/MEX/VR/1 (Findings), paragraph 13 (“In addition, persons involved in
organized crime, with various forms of collusion and varying degrees of participation, acquiescence or omission by public
officials, have become some of the main perpetrators of disappearances.”)
Coatzintla, an entity which has been denounced for its collaboration with the group Los Zetas.95
Following a communication submitted by the victim’s relatives, represented by the signatory
organisation IDHEAS, the UN Human Rights Committee issued an opinion against the Mexican
State stating that an enforced disappearance had taken place and that “the investigations carried
out do not appear to have been prompt or thorough; were not carried out with due diligence;
were not independent and impartial; and have been ineffective in clarifying the circumstances
of Mr. Téllez Padilla’s disappearance or his fate and whereabouts, and in identifying those
responsible.”96 It should also be noted that the Committee recognised a general context of
enforced disappearances in the state of Veracruz: “Against a general context of human rights
violations –in particular, a practice enforced disappearances – prevailing at the time and place
of the events …, and in light of the consistent account of the events and the documentation
submitted by the authors, the Committee considers that the State party has not provided an
adequate and concrete explanation to refute the authors’ allegations concerning the alleged
enforced disappearance of Mr. Téllez Padilla.”97
As highlighted by the UN Human Rights Committee, not only have state authorities been implicated
in the commission of enforced disappearances, but they have also failed to investigate and sanction
most of the perpetrators involved. The next section analyses the serious situation of impunity that
has reigned in the state of Veracruz and that persists to this day.
C. Ongoing impunity
Duarte de Ochoa’s administration, during which the crimes against humanity described below were
committed, terminated abruptly on 12 October 2016, 48 days before the end of his term, embroiled
in a series of corruption scandals, increasing violence and the financial bankruptcy of the state,
with a request for a permanent leave of absence.98 Four days later the Procuraduría General de la
República (Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office, today FGR), issued an arrest warrant against Duarte
de Ochoa, who escaped and was detained in Guatemala six months later. He was extradited to
Mexico in July 2017 and eventually sentenced by a federal court in Mexico on 26 September 2018
to nine years’ imprisonment for the crimes of money laundering and criminal association.99
Efforts by victims’ collectives and civil society to charge Duarte de Ochoa with the crime of enforced
disappearance have thus far been marred by delays and irregularities. Even though a judge in
Veracruz ordered the apprehension of Duarte de Ochoa for the crime of enforced disappearance as
far back as June 2018, the order was repeatedly delayed due to an alleged lack of authorization by the
government of Guatemala, which had extradited him to Mexico 2016. According to media sources,
the former governor could only be tried for the crimes for which he was extradited from Guatemala
95. A
nnex P – Human Rights Committee – Téllez Padilla case, para. 2.7. In this regard, it is also worth mentioning the case of Tierra
Blanca, where five young men were deprived of their liberty by police officers on 11 January 2016 and subsequently handed
over to members of the CJNG, who tortured and disappeared them. See Annex J - CNDH, Recommendation No 5VG/2017
(2017), para. 1.
96. A
nnex P – Human Rights Committee – Téllez Padilla case, paras 9-12.
97. A
nnex P – Human Rights Committee – Téllez Padilla case, para. 9.4.
98. E
dgar Ávila Perez, “Javier Duarte presenta solicitud formal de licencia al Congreso” (Javier Duarte submits formal request for
leave of absence to Congress), El Universal, 12 October 2019, https://www.eluniversal.com.mx/articulo/estados/2016/10/12/
javier-duarte-presenta-solicitud-formal-de-licencia-al-congreso, accessed on 13 July 2021.
99. Noé Zavaleta and Patricia Dávila, “Javier Duarte detenido en Guatemala: PGR” (Javier Duarte detained in Guatemala: Procuraduría
General de la República (Office of the Public Prosecutor of the Republic - PGR), Proceso, 12 April 2017, https://www.proceso.com.
mx/nacional/2017/4/15/javier-duarte-detenido-en-guatemala-pgr-182463.html, accessed on 13 July 2021; “Guatemala extradita
a México al controvertido exgobernador de Veracruz Javier Duarte” (Guatemala extradites controversial ex-governor of Veracruz,
Javier Duarte, to Mexico), BBC, 17 July 2017, https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-america-latina-40636993, accessed on
13 July 2021; Ariadna Ortega, “Javier Duarte se declara culpable y recibe condena de 9 años de prisión” (Javier Duarte pleads
guilty, receives 9-year prison sentence), Expansión, 26 September 2018, https://politica.expansion.mx/mexico/2018/09/26/
javier-duarte-se-declara-culpable-y-recibe-condena-de-9-anos-de-prision, accessed on 13 July 2021.
to Mexico100. On 3 December 2021, after the repeated insistence of victims’ collectives,101 Duarte de
Ochoa, still in detention for money laundering and criminal association, was served an arrest warrant
for the crime of enforced disappearance102. In particular, the former governor is accused of the crime
of enforced disappearance, for covering up the discovery of a clandestine grave with the remains of
19 persons in the La Aurora ravine, in the Emiliano Zapata municipality103. As of the date of this report,
the initial hearing for the confirmation of the charges is pending104.
Relatives of victims protest impunity for enforced disappearances committed during the term of former governor Javier Duarte de Ochoa,
December 2021. © Colectivo Solecito de Veracruz
100. A
rturo Angel, “Juez cancela audiencia contra Duarte por desaparición forzada; proceso se detiene otra vez” (Judge cancels
hearing against Duarte for enforced disappearance; proceedings are halted again), Animal Político, 13 December 2021,
https://www.animalpolitico.com/2021/12/juez-cancela-audiencia-javier-duarte-desaparicion-forzada-detiene/, accessed on
15 December 2021.
101. S
ugeyry Romina Gándara, “Víctimas: Javier Duarte debe ir a juicio no por una, sino por todas las desapariciones en su
sexenio” (Victims: Javier Duarte must go to trial not for one, but for all disappearances during his six-year term in office),
Sin Embargo, 7 September 2017, https://www.sinembargo.mx/07-09-2020/3854222, accessed on 13 July 2021; IDHEAS,
“Colectivo Solecito de Veracruz exige la revisión de la sentencia condenatoria contra el exgobernador Javier Duarte” (Veracruz
Solecito Collective demands a review of the conviction of ex-governor Javier Duarte), 22 May 2020, https://www.idheas.
org.mx/comunicaciones-idheas/sala-de-prensa-idheas/comunicados/colectivo-solecito-de-veracruz-exige-la-revision-de-la-
sentencia-condenatoria-contra-el-exgobernador-javier-duarte/, accessed on 13 July 2021.
102. A
rturo Angel, “Cumplen orden de captura contra Duarte por desaparición forzada; obtuvo una suspensión, dice su
defensa” (Arrest warrant served against Duarte for enforced disappearance; he obtained a stay, his defense says), Animal
Político, 6 December 2021, https://www.animalpolitico.com/2021/12/javer-duarte-orden-desaparicion-forzada/, accessed
on 15 December 2021; Miguel Salazar, “Suspenden proceso contra Javier Duarte por presunta desaparición forzada”
(Proceedings against Javier Duarte for alleged forced disappearance suspended), El Sol de México, 13 December 2021,
https://www.elsoldemexico.com.mx/mexico/justicia/suspenden-proceso-contra-javier-duarte-por-presunta-desaparicion-
forzada-7603651.html, accessed on 15 December 2021.
103. R
aúl Flores Martínezl, “Juez rechaza frenar orden de captura contra Javier Duarte por desaparición forzada”, Excelsior, 14
January 2022, https://www.excelsior.com.mx/nacional/javier-duarte-sin-suspension-contra-orden-captura-desaparicion-
forzada/1493009, accessed 3 February 2021.
104. W
hile Duarte de Ochoa’s lawyers reportedly attempted to obtain a stay of the arrest warrant against him, this was denied
by Mexico City’s Second District Court on January 14, 2022. See “Juez federal negó amparo a Javier Duarte por el delito de
desaparición forzada,” Infobae, 15 January 2022, https://www.infobae.com/america/mexico/2022/01/15/juez-federal-nego-
amparo-a-javier-duarte-por-el-delito-de-desaparicion-forzada/, accessed September 20, 2022.
Under the administration of Miguel Ángel Yunes Linares (2016-2018), some progress was made in
the judicial sphere by the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Disappeared Persons.105 In particular, through
Operation “Tiro de Gracia” led by the Veracruz Public Prosecutor’s Office, 19 arrest warrants for
disappearances were issued against public officials, including Arturo Bermúdez Zurita, Head of Office
for Public Security between July 2011 and August 2016; José Oscar “N”, former head of state prisons;
José Manuel “N”, former director of Special Operations; Roberto “N”, former director of the state Civil
Force; Manuel Alejandro “N”, former Delegate for Public Security and former commander of the Fuerza
de Reacción; and Roberto Carlos “N”, former director of the State Office for Public Security and former
director of the Tamaulipas Ministerial Police.106 According to the investigation file, these officials were
“responsible for implementing an ‘illegal policy’ under which alleged members of organised crime were
detained without warrants, who were then tortured and eventually disappeared”.107 Shortly thereafter,
the former public prosecutor of Veracruz, Luis Angel Bravo, who held office during Duarte de Ochoa’s
term, was arrested, accused of ordering the disappearance of thirteen people.108 In addition, a new
state law on victims and disappearances was passed during Yunes Linares’ term.109
Although justice initially appeared to be moving forward during the Yunes Linares administration,
Duarte de Ochoa’s officials were gradually released, and criminal proceedings for enforced
disappearances stalled, as in the case of the former governor himself. In December 2018, former
Head of the State Office for Public Security Bermúdez Zurita, on trial for the enforced disappearance
of fifteen people, was released from pre-trial detention.110 In response, the signatory organisation
Solecito called Bermúdez Zurita’s release a re-victimisation of the families of victims, lamenting
that, “Now we are victims of justice, or rather of the lack of it.”111 It should be noted that Bermúdez
Zurita was also charged with the crime of illicit enrichment and, according to press reports, had
105. Édgar Ávila, “‘Detención de ex fiscal permite investigar desapariciones’” (‘Arrest of former prosecutor allows for investigation into
disappearances’), El Universal, 18 August 2018, https://www.eluniversal.com.mx/estados/detencion-de-ex-fiscal-abre-la-puerta-
para-investigar-desapariciones-yunes, accessed on 13 July 2021; Édgar Ávila Perez, ‘Investigan a ex mando de seguridad de
Javier Duarte por desaparición forzada de 15 personas” (Javier Duarte’s former security chief under investigation for enforced
disappearance of 15 people), El Universal, 8 February 2018, https://www.eluniversal.com.mx/estados/investigan-ex-mando-
de-seguridad-de-javier-duarte-por-desaparicion-forzada-de-15-personas, accessed on 13 July 2021. Although Duarte was
also sentenced to 9 years in prison, his sentence did not include the crime of enforced disappearance. See also “Ex Fiscal
de Veracruz durante Gobierno de Duarte, Luis Ángel Bravo, seguirá su proceso en libertad” (Former Veracruz Prosecutor
during Duarte’s administration, Luis Ángel Bravo, will continue his trial in freedom), Sin Embargo, 7 November 2019, https://
www.sinembargo.mx/07-11-2019/3674587, accessed on 13 July 2021; Noé Zavaleta, “Familiares critican ‘simulación’ en la
búsqueda de sus desaparecidos en Veracruz” (Families criticise ‘simulation’ in the search for their missing relatives in Veracruz),
7 June 2017, https://www.proceso.com.mx/nacional/estados/2017/6/7/familiares-critican-simulacion-en-la-busqueda-de-
sus-desaparecidos-en-veracruz-185724.html, accessed on 13 July 2021; “México: colectivo de búsqueda de personas denuncia
que se ocultan cifras de desaparecidos en Veracruz” (Mexico: Search for missing persons collective denounces concealment of
figures on missing persons in Veracruz), Nodal, 28 August 2017, https://www.nodal.am/2017/08/mexico-colectivo-busqueda-
personas-denuncia-se-ocultan-cifras-desaparecidos-veracruz/, accessed on 13 July 2021.
106. A
rturo Ángel, “Operativo Tiro de Gracia: Detienen a cúpula de la policía de Javier Duarte por desaparición forzada” (Operation
“Tiro de Gracia”: Javier Duarte’s top police chiefs arrested for enforced disappearance), Animal Político, 8 February 2018,
https://www.animalpolitico.com/2018/02/detienen-policia-javier-duarte-desaparicion-forzada-15-personas/, accessed on
27 October 2021.
107. A
rturo Ángel, “Operativo Tiro de Gracia: Detienen a cúpula de la policía de Javier Duarte por desaparición forzada” (Operation
“Tiro de Gracia”: Javier Duarte’s top police chiefs arrested for enforced disappearance), Animal Político, 8 February 2018,
https://www.animalpolitico.com/2018/02/detienen-policia-javier-duarte-desaparicion-forzada-15-personas/, accessed on
27 October 2021.
108. Isabel Zamudio, “Detienen en CdMx a ex fiscal de Veracruz” (Former Veracruz prosecutor arrested in Mexico City), Milenio,
17 June 2018, https://www.milenio.com/policia/detienen-en-cdmx-a-ex-fiscal-de-veracruz/, accessed on 27 October 2021.
109. N
oé Zavaleta, “Congreso de Veracruz aprueba nueva ley en materia de desaparición de personas” (Veracruz Congress
approves new law on the disappearance of persons), Proceso, 26 July 2018, https://www.proceso.com.mx/nacional/
estados/2018/7/26/congreso-de-veracruz-aprueba-nueva-ley-en-materia-de-desaparicion-de-personas-209347.html,
accessed on 13 July 2021; Karina Andrew Herrera, “Gobierno de Veracruz busca agilizar identificación de cuerpos
encontrados en fosas” (Veracruz administration seeks to speed up identification of bodies found in mass graves), Televisa,
30 March 2017, https://noticieros.televisa.com/ultimas-noticias/gobierno-veracruz-busca-agilizar-identificacion-cuerpos-
encontrados-fosas/, accessed on 13 July 2021.
110. E
dgar Ávila, “Ex secretario de Seguridad de Javier Duarte sale de prisión” (Javier Duarte’s former Head of Office for Public
Security released from prison), El Universal, 5 December 2018, https://www.eluniversal.com.mx/estados/ex-secretario-de-
seguridad-de-javier-duarte-sale-de-prision, accessed on 9 July 2021; “Secretario de Seguridad de Duarte sale de prisión;
hay pruebas sólidas en su contra por desapariciones, reclama Fiscalía” (Duarte’s Head of Office for Public Security released
from prison; there is strong evidence against him for disappearances, says Public Prosecutor’s Office), Animal Político,
5 December 2018, https://www.animalpolitico.com/2018/12/exfuncionarios-duarte-prision/, accessed on 27 October 2021.
111. Héctor Molina and Salvador Corona, “Colectivos de desaparecidos califican como golpe bajo libertad de Bermúdez
Zurita’ (Collectives for the disappeared call Bermúdez Zurita’s release a coup), El Economista, 5 December 2018, https://
www.eleconomista.com.mx/politica/Colectivos-de-desaparecidos-califican-como-golpe-bajo-libertad-de-Bermudez-
Zurita-20181205-0072.html, accessed on 27 October 2021.
acquired real estate with a commercial value of 86 million 773 thousand Mexican pesos during the
Duarte de Ochoa administration, including properties in the United States.112
Several months after Bermúdez Zurita’s release, in May 2019, the following people were also
released from pre-trial detention: former public prosecutor Luis Ángel Bravo, indicted for the
enforced disappearance of more than ten people;113 Rosario Zamora, former director of Ministerial
Investigations, accused of ordering the disappearance of twelve people found in 2016 in La Aurora,
next to the Veracruz Police Academy, and accused by family collectives of “hindering searches
for persons’ whereabouts, as well as tracing remains in clandestine graves and covering up for
her superior, Luis Ángel Bravo, in controversial cases”; Gilberto Aguirre, former Director General of
Expert Services; and Carlota Zamudio Parroquín, former regional delegate of the Xalapa Ministerial
Police.114 To date, none of these state officials, all of whom held high-level positions, have reached
the trial stage for the crime of enforced disappearance, despite the fact that the Duarte de Ochoa
administration ended more than five years ago.
Many other cases have also seen unreasonable delays. For example, in the case of disappearances
in Papantla in 2016, the sentencing hearing for eight former municipal police officers was postponed
five times, and finally held in 2022.115 Also noteworthy is the case of the enforced disappearance
and execution of Carlos David Bautista López, in which the former Director General of Prevention
and Social Rehabilitation, a high ranking official in the State Office for Public Security, is accused.116
This official, who, in addition to the case of Bautista López, has also been accused of the enforced
disappearance of fifteen other individuals, is in detention, but his case has not yet reached the trial
stage.117 Two other state police officers accused of involvement in the enforced disappearance of
Bautista López were released in October 2020, after a judge found there was a lack of sufficient
evidence.118
112. Noé Zavaleta, “Exjefe policiaco de Duarte incrementó 86 mdp patrimonio, pero le retiran imputación por enriquecimiento
ilícito” (Duarte’s former police chief increased his wealth by 86 million pesos, but charges of illicit enrichment have been
dropped), Revista Proceso, 28 August 2018, https://www.proceso.com.mx/nacional/estados/2018/8/28/exjefe-policiaco-
de-duarte-incremento-86-mdp-patrimonio-pero-le-retiran-imputacion-por-enriquecimiento-ilicito-211162.html, accessed
on 9 July 2021; Zorayda Gallegos, “El secretario de Seguridad en Veracruz renuncia al cargo tras un escándalo por sus
propiedades” (Veracruz Head of Office for Public Security resigns after property scandal), El País, 4 August 2016, https://
elpais.com/internacional/2016/08/04/mexico/1470333348_409354.html, accessed on 27 October 2021.
113. In November 2019, former prosecutor Luis Ángel Bravo was released from house arrest. See “Javier Duarte celebró la
absoluta libertad de Luis Ángel Bravo, ex fiscal de Veracruz: ‘La justicia llega’” (Javier Duarte celebrated the complete freedom
of Luis Ángel Bravo, former Veracruz prosecutor: ‘Justice has arrived’), Infobae, 6 November 2019, https://www.infobae.com/
america/mexico/2019/11/07/javier-duarte-celebro-la-absoluta-libertad-de-luis-angel-bravo-ex-fiscal-de-veracruz-la-justicia-
llega/, accessed on 27 October 2021.
114. Miguel Ángel León Carmona, “Libres, exfuncionarios de Duarte imputados por desaparición forzada” (Former Duarte officials
charged with enforced disappearance released from prison), Pie de Página, 23 May 2019, https://piedepagina.mx/libres-
exfuncionarios-de-duarte-imputados-por-desaparicion-forzada/, accessed on 27 October 2021.
115. Édgar Escamilla, “Aplazan otra vez audiencia a ex policías acusados de desaparición de tres jóvenes” (Former police officers
accused of the disappearance of three young men have their hearing postponed again), La Jornada, 8 January 2021, http://
www.jornadaveracruz.com.mx/Post.aspx?id=210108_093147_475, accessed on 13 July 2021; “Por quinta vez, suspenden
sentencia contra ex policías municipales”, Informate Ahora, 7 January 2021, https://informateahora.com/por-quinta-vez-
suspenden-sentencia-contra-ex-policias-municipales/; “Sentencian a expolicías de Papantla por desaparición forzada; FGE
apelará pena impuesta”, Noticias PM, 20 January 2021 http://noticias-pm.com.mx/sentencian-a-expolicias-de-papantla-por-
desaparicion-forzada-fge-apelara-pena-impuesta/.
116. Manual General de Organización de la Secretaría de Seguridad Pública de Veracruz (General Handbook on the Organisation of the
Veracruz State Office for Public Security), SP-1/99.
117. “16 casos de desaparición forzada señalan a Óscar Sánchez Tirado” (16 cases of enforced disappearance point to the
involvement of Óscar Sánchez Tirado), El Piñero, 20 February 2018, https://www.elpinero.mx/16-casos-desaparicion-
forzada-senalan-oscar-sanchez-tirado/, accessed on 27 October 2021; “Continúa proceso contra director en SSP duartista”
(Proceedings continue against Duarte’s director of Office for Public Security), La Jornada, 1 November 2020, http://
jornadaveracruz.com.mx/Post.aspx?id=201101_141449_408, accessed on 27 October 2021.
118. Noé Zavaleta, “Liberan a policías involucrados en desaparición y asesinato de un joven en Veracruz” (Police officers involved
in disappearance and murder of young man in Veracruz freed), Proceso, 2 October 2020, https://www.proceso.com.mx/
nacional/estados/2020/10/2/liberan-policias-involucrados-en-desaparicion-asesinato-de-un-joven-en-veracruz-250331.
html, accessed on 27 October 2021; “Liberan a dos expolicías en Veracruz acusados de desaparición forzada” (Two ex-
cops in Veracruz accused of enforced disappearance freed), Presencia, 30 September 2020, https://www.presencia.mx/nota.
aspx?id=174710&s=4, accessed on 27 October 2021; “Continúa proceso contra director en SSP duartista” (Proceedings
continue against Duarte’s director of Office for Public Security), La Jornada 1 November 2020, http://jornadaveracruz.com.
mx/Post.aspx?id=201101_141449_408, accessed on 27 October 2021.
Moreover, Operation “Tiro de Gracia” in 2018 was again stalled after allegations of torture during
the course of investigations, including by Bermúdez Zurita, came to light119. These allegations led
to the issuance of an arrest warrant against the then state public prosecutor, Jorge Winckler, who
subsequently fled in September 2019.120
As the Veracruz State Human Rights Commission noted in General Recommendation 1/2017, there
existed in Veracruz a “systematic pattern of omissions that generates impunity,” as investigations
into disappearances that occurred between 2011 and 2016 lacked follow-up, files had structural
deficiencies, not all necessary steps were exhausted, such as looking for witnesses or inspecting
the site of disappearance, and investigations were not carried out within a reasonable timeframe,
to the extent that the Commission characterised the opening of an investigation during this period
as “a mere formality”.121 Today, despite some initial progress following the arrest of former governor
Duarte de Ochoa and other Veracruz government officials, families of disappeared persons and
collectives of relatives continue to face a situation of almost complete impunity.122
Investigations into the systematic context of the crimes of disappearance committed between
2010 and 2016 were not conducted under previous administrations, nor have they been carried
out during the current six-year term, headed by Cuitláhuac García. Moreover, none of the senior
officers of the State Police of Veracruz, an entity accused of or associated with numerous cases of
enforced disappearance, including the 22 cases detailed in this communication, have reached the
trial stage for the crime of enforced disappearance or related conducts.
This situation of almost total impunity and omission on the part of the state authorities is strongly
reflected in the process of searching for clandestine graves in the state of Veracruz, which has
been led by the relatives of victims of enforced disappearance themselves.
At the beginning of 2014, the organisation Solecito was formed, when a group of eight mothers of
disappeared persons came together to accompany each other and exchange emotional support.
Frustrated by the omission of state authorities, the mothers of Solecito took matters into their
own hands: taking courses in forensic anthropology, raising funds and buying their own tools, they
began to search for the bodies of their sons and daughters. Two years later, as a result of these
searches - during which the mothers themselves track down graves, follow tracks and use picks
and shovels to dig up their loved ones - Solecito located the clandestine grave Colinas de Santa Fe,
to north of the Port of Veracruz, in which 305 bodies and 22,500 human remains have so far been
found.123
124 125 126
119. See Rodrigo Barranco Déctor, “Arturo Bermúdez, exmando policial de Duarte, de verdugo a víctima” (Arturo Bermúdez,
Duarte’s former police commander, from executioner to victim), La Silla Rota, 4 December 2018, https://veracruz.lasillarota.
com/estados/arturo-bermudez-exmando-policial-de-duarte-de-verdugo-a-victima/260516, accessed on 9 July 2021; and
Jesús Ruiz, “Denuncia de Arturo Bermúdez abre la puerta a procesos vs ex yunistas” (Arturo Bermudez’s complaint opens
the door to prosecutions against former Yunistas), Imagen de Veracruz, 11 August 2021, https://imagendeveracruz.mx/
estado/denuncia-de-arturo-bermudez-abre-la-puerta-a-procesos-vs-ex-yunistas/50115520, accessed on 27 October 2021.
120. L
ev García, “Este es el caso que convirtió a Jorge Winckler en prófugo de la justicia” (This is the case that made Jorge
Winckler a fugitive from justice), Expansión Política, 1 October 2019, https://politica.expansion.mx/estados/2019/10/01/
este-es-el-caso-que-convirtio-a-jorge-winckler-en-profugo-de-la-justicia, accessed on 27 October 2021. See also Lev García,
“Winckler es separado definivamente de su cargo como fiscal de Veracruz” (Winckler is permanently removed as Veracruz
prosecutor), Expansión Política, 26 March 2020, https://politica.expansion.mx/estados/2020/03/26/winckler-es-separado-
definivamente-de-su-cargo-como-fiscal-de-veracruz, accessed on 27 October 2021.
121. [TRANSLATION] Annex O – Veracruz State Commission of Human Rights – General Recommendation 01/2017, paras 199-219.
122. FIDH interviews. It is also worth noting that in 2021 INEGI reported that, although Veracruz is the Mexican state with the
highest number of expert and/or medical forensic service units, there are at least 316 unidentified corpses and/or human
remains. See INEGI, Censo Nacional de Procuración de Justicia Estatal 2021, 25 October 2021, p. 24-26.
123. FIDH Interviews and information from the Solecito collective. See also Aída Palau. “Veracruz, la fosa clandestina más grande
de México”, RFI (16 March 2017), in https://www.rfi.fr/es/americas/20170316-veracruz-la-fosa-clandestina-mas-grande-de-
mexico, accessed 9 July 2021.
Yet, even after locating what was at the time the largest clandestine grave in Mexico and Latin
America, the responses of the police and judicial authorities continued to be slow and omissive,
sometimes even hindering the searches themselves. For this reason, the Solecito collective
continued the searches, and shortly afterwards located the clandestine grave of El Arbolillo. In
El Arbolillo, as in Colinas de Santa Fe, it is the insistence of the mothers that drove the search:
at first, the Veracruz Public Prosecutor’s Office reported the finding of 47 bodies. But Solecito
insisted on continuing the process, until every single body was unearthed: today 310 bodies have
been found, 73 of them on 9 September 2022. This places El Arbolillo as the largest clandestine
grave in the Americas, with Colinas de Santa Fe being the second. It is worth noting that in El
Arbolillo, among others, the bodies of three Navy officers, who were abducted in January 2017,
were found. 124
Despite the location of these two mass graves, the response of the authorities remains insufficient.
Hundreds of bodies remain unidentified in Colinas de Santa Fe and El Arbolillo, as well as in other
graves, and at the same time, there have been serious errors and omissions in the actions of
the state authorities in the identification process, which undermine the rights and dignity of the
relatives. In one case, a father was given the supposed bodies of his son and nephew, but after an
independent analysis, it was determined that the skulls belonged to them but the rest of the bodies
did not. «’The skulls they gave us do belong to my son and nephew, but the skeletons of the bodies
do not. It is aberrant and monstrous,’ denounced Marcos Josafat Grajeda, father and uncle of the
young Baruch Grajeda García and Francisco Javier Vargas, disappeared since 2016», and found in
El Arbolillo.125
Today, there are numerous collectives of disappeared relatives, and the Solecito collective
contains more than 300 mothers of victims, who continue to search for their loved ones and
fight for justice.126
124. Miguel Ángel León Carmona, “Fosas de Arbolillo: ruta de drogas y cuerpos”, Pie de Página (11 February 2020), in https://
piedepagina.mx/fosas-de-arbolillo-ruta-de-drogas-y-cuerpos/, accessed 21 September 2022; “Termina búsqueda de cuerpos
en mega fosa de Arbolillo en Alvarado, Veracruz”, Milenio (9 September 2022), in https://www.milenio.com/estados/veracruz-
termina-busqueda-cuerpos-mega-fosa-arbolillo, accessed 21 September 2022.
125. Noe Zavaleta “Acusan que Fiscalía de Veracruz entregó restos de desaparecidos que no pertenecían a sus familiares”, Proceso
(27 April 2021), in https://www.proceso.com.mx/nacional/estados/2021/4/27/acusan-que-fiscalia-de-veracruz-entrego-
restos-de-desaparecidos-que-no-pertenecian-sus-familiares-262829.html, accessed 21 September 2022; “FGE entregó
restos humanos que no corresponden a Baruch Grajeda, acusan familiares del desaparecido”, Bitácora del Golfo (28 April
2021), https://www.bitacoradelgolfo.com/movil/nota.php?id=89990#&panel1-1, accessed 21 September 2022; Isaul Ignacio
Zuñiga, “FGE entregó restos humanos que no corresponden a Baruch Grajeda, acusan familiares del desaparecido…”, Entre
Políticos (28 April 2021), in https://www.entrepoliticos.com.mx/locales/fge-entrego-restos-humanos-que-no-corresponden-
a-baruch-grajeda-acusan-familiares-del-desaparecido/, accessed 21 September 2022.
126. Information from the Solecito collective.
Relatives of victims of enforced disappearance search for their loved ones in Veracruz, May 2021. © Colectivo Solecito de Veracruz
IV. ICC Jurisdiction
Mexico ratified the Rome Statute on 28 October 2005.127 The events described in this communication
refer to conduct committed by Mexican nationals on Mexican territory, specifically, to acts of
enforced disappearance committed between November 2012 and July 2016, after the entry
into force of the Rome Statute and its entry into force for the Mexican State. The organisations
that have authored this communication consider that this conduct constitutes crimes against
humanity in accordance with Article 7(1)(i) of the Rome Statute and that therefore the ICC Office
of the Prosecutor has a sufficient basis to open a preliminary examination for crimes under the
jurisdiction of the Court.
V.
Standard to be applied in determining the alleged
commission of crimes within the jurisdiction of the
Court in the state of Veracruz between 2012 and 2016
This communication is submitted pursuant to Article 15 of the Rome Statute, which provides that,
“The Prosecutor may initiate investigations proprio motu on the basis of information on crimes
within the jurisdiction of the Court,” provided that that there is a reasonable basis to proceed with
an investigation.128 The “reasonable basis” standard or test in both Article 15(3) and Article 53(1)
(a) is the lowest evidentiary standard provided for in the Statute,129 as the nature of this early stage
in proceedings is confined to a preliminary examination,130 thus, the information available to the
Prosecutor at this stage is neither expected to be “comprehensive” nor “conclusive”, compared
to evidence gathered during the investigation.131 To meet this standard it is necessary to have “a
sensible or reasonable justification for a belief that a crime falling within the jurisdiction of the
Court ‘has been or is being committed’”.132 This is the criterion used in this communication to
consider that between November 2012 and July 2016, crimes within the jurisdiction of the ICC
were committed in Veracruz, Mexico.
127. “States Parties - Chronological list” (International Criminal Court), https://asp.icc-cpi.int/en_menus/asp/states%20parties/

Pages/states%20parties%20_%20chronological%20list.aspx, accessed on 13 July 2021.
128. The Office of the Prosecutor, Policy Paper on Preliminary Examinations, November 2013, para. 34.
129. Pre-Trial Chamber II, “Decision Pursuant to Article 15 of the Rome Statute on the Authorization of an Investigation into the
Situation in the Republic of Kenya”, 31 March 2010, ICC-01/09-19-Corr, para. 27; Pre-Trial Chamber III, “Decision Pursuant
to Article 15 of the Rome Statute on the Authorisation of an Investigation into the Situation in the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire”,
15 November 2011, ICC-02/11-14-Corr, para. 24.
130. P
re-Trial Chamber II, “Decision Pursuant to Article 15 of the Rome Statute on the Authorization of an Investigation into the
Situation in the Republic of Kenya”, 31 March 2010, ICC-01/09-19-Corr, para. 27.
131. Ibid; Pre-Trial Chamber III, “Decision Pursuant to Article 15 of the Rome Statute on the Authorisation of an Investigation into
the Situation in the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire”, 15 November 2011, ICC-02/11-14-Corr, para. 24.
132. Pre-Trial Chamber II, “Decision Pursuant to Article 15 of the Rome Statute on the Authorization of an Investigation into the
Situation in the Republic of Kenya”, 31 March 2010, ICC-01/09-19-Corr, para. 35; Pre-Trial Chamber III, “Decision Pursuant
to Article 15 of the Rome Statute on the Authorisation of an Investigation into the Situation in the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire”,
15 November 2011, ICC-02/11-14-Corr, para. 24.
VI. Crimes under the jurisdiction of the Court
The 22 cases of enforced disappearance described in this section, which the authors of this report
consider constitute crimes against humanity, form part of a confidential database containing 41
cases of enforced disappearance, which was shared by the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC133.
All the cases included in this database share geographic and temporal elements. The events
documented in the database occurred between 22 February 2011 and 14 July 2016, during Duarte
de Ochoa’s term in office, and all victims were detained in the city of Veracruz or nearby localities.134
In addition, the victims share characteristics of age, gender and socio-economic status. Of the
41 men included in the database, aged between 16 and 60, more than 68% of them were young
people under the age of 40 and 3 of them were minors. Most victims were students or persons
engaged in low-income occupations such as taxi driver, electrician or mechanic. In 13 of the cases
there is evidence of the involvement of organised crime; in 22 of the cases there is evidence of the
involvement of state authorities;135 and in 4 of the cases there is evidence of the involvement of
federal forces in the commission of the crimes.
Among these 41 cases, this communication focuses on the 22 cases where state authorities
were explicitly identified as perpetrators, which the signatory organisations consider constitute
crimes against humanity. However, given that the remaining 19 cases in the database took place
in the same area, in the same time period, and that there are strong similarities in terms of victims’
characteristics (gender, age, occupation, socio-economic status) and the type of crime committed
(enforced disappearance), as well as the fact that in 7 of the 22 cases described below the remains
were found in a clandestine grave containing 305 bodies, it is likely that some or all of the remaining
cases in the database annexed to this communication, or the cases of the victims found in the
clandestine grave, form part of this same systematic pattern, which could be determined with
additional information.
The following section describes the commission of acts of enforced disappearance by authorities
of the state of Veracruz, as part of an attack against a civilian population of inhabitants of that
state. The cases of 22 victims are documented in detail:
i. S
even victims found in the clandestine grave “Colinas de Santa Fe”, outside the city of
Veracruz, which contains a total of 305 bodies;
ii. N
ine victims disappeared in the Formando Hogar neighbourhood, in the city of Veracruz,
as part of the security operation “Guadalupe Reyes”; and
iii. Six additional victims disappeared in the city of Veracruz, by state authorities.
It should be noted that this communication only describes in detail the cases of seven victims
found in “Colinas de Santa Fe” for whom the signatory organisations were able to identify
direct testimonial evidence of the modus operandi and perpetrators involved in their enforced
disappearance. However, despite the lack of detailed information on each of the bodies found in
the mass grave, the signatory organisations find that the existence of this mass clandestine grave
in its entirety and the 305 bodies it contains must be considered as a relevant element in the legal
analysis of the crimes against humanity described herein.
In each of the 22 cases documented and described below, which occurred between November 2012
and July 2016, state authorities were involved in the commission of the crimes. In the case of all
seven victims found in the clandestine grave Colinas de Santa Fe, there is evidence of involvement of
133. See Annex B - Database - men disappeared or found in or near the municipality of Veracruz during the Duarte administration
(Dec. 2010 to Oct. 2016).
134. In seven cases the victims were detained in the municipality of La Antigua. However, these cases are included in the same
database and pattern given that the seven victims were found in the clandestine grave “Colinas de Santa Fe”, which is located
on the outskirts of the city of Veracruz.
135. In some of these 22 cases, federal authorities or elements of organised crime are also involved. However, in the 13 cases
concerning organised crime and the four cases concerning federal forces, there is no evidence of the involvement of state
authorities.
the Veracruz State Police, in some cases acting in collusion with organised crime. In the cases that
took place in the Formando Hogar neighbourhood, which is located approximately 11 kilometres
from the Colinas de Santa Fe grave, twelve young men were arbitrarily detained and nine of them
suffered enforced disappearances, by persons who were identified by witnesses as authorities of
the Veracruz State Police, sometimes acting in conjunction with the Veracruz Investigation Agency
and/or federal authorities, including members of the Navy. The disappearances that occurred in
Formando Hogar took place in the context of the security operation “Guadalupe Reyes”, which
began on 9 December 2013, in which state and federal authorities participated and during which
hundreds of people were arbitrarily detained.136 Finally, in the cases of the six additional victims
described herein, all were men who were disappeared in the city of Veracruz by authorities of
the Veracruz State Police or the Ministerial Police of the State Public Prosecutor’s Office (Fiscalía
General del Estado or until 2015, Procuraduría General de Justicia). All cases share elements tending
to show a systematic pattern, as detailed below.
In summary, the crimes described in this communication comprise acts of enforced disappearance
of persons (Article 7(1)(i) of the Rome Statute), committed by members of the State Police or the
Ministerial Police of Veracruz, acting in some cases in conjunction with the Veracruz Investigation
Agency, Mexican federal authorities, including members of the Navy, and/or members of organised
crime. These acts constitute crimes against humanity.
A. Places of commission of the crimes
The crimes of enforced disappearance

described here took place in the same
geographic area: the city of Veracruz,
municipality of Veracruz, and nearby localities,
in particular in the town of José Cardel,
municipality of La Antigua, which is adjacent
to the municipality of Veracruz. The victims
were arrested in their homes or the homes
of friends and/or relatives (3), workplaces (4)
or in public places (11), such as bars, parks,
shopping centres, and on public streets.137
B. Period of commission of the crimes

The events in which the crimes of enforced disappearance that are the subject of this communication
were committed occurred between November 2012 and July 2016, during the term of office of
former governor Duarte de Ochoa. This period corresponds to an era of corruption, collusion with
drug trafficking organisations and militarisation of public security in the state of Veracruz, as
described in the first section of this communication.
It should therefore be noted that these events are part of a broader wave of violence which took
place mostly during the Duarte de Ochoa administration, including the arrest of hundreds of persons
in the framework of Operation “Guadalupe Reyes”, which will be detailed shortly.138 In addition,
according to public sources, between 3,000 and 20,000 cases of disappearance were reportedly
136. Annex S - IDHEAS - complaint to CED, (2021); Annex Q.

137. In the case of the four remaining victims, there is no detailed information on the place of their arrest.
138. Annex S – IDHEAS – complaint to CED (2021).
committed during this time period.139 Further, as has been stated above, based on SINPEF’s 544 files
on disappearances in the state of Veracruz, victims’ families attributed 44% of disappearances to
municipal, state or federal authorities.140 The communication describes, therefore, only a fraction of
the events in which acts of enforced disappearance occurred in Veracruz, and in respect of which
the signatory organisations have been able to verify evidence that makes it possible to recognise a
clear modus operandi of state forces in a cluster of cases.
C. Persons and state entities involved in the commission of the crimes

All the events described in this communication involved public officials linked to the Veracruz
State Police or Ministerial Police, during the term of office of Duarte de Ochoa, governor from
1 December 2010 to 12 October 2016 and sentenced in 2018 to nine years in prison for criminal
association and money laundering,141 and who was recently served an arrest warrant for the crime
of enforced disappearance.142
Between July 2011 and August 2016, the State Police, through the General Directorate of the
Civil Force, operated under the command of the Head of the State Office for Public Security
Arturo Bermúdez Zurita,143 who, as mentioned above, is under investigation for the crimes of illicit
enrichment and enforced disappearance.144 In addition to the State Police, the Civil Force of the
State Office for Public security also had command over tactical forces, including the Fuerza de
Reacción y Apoyo (Reaction and Support Force) Division,145 through which the elite group “Los
Fieles” operated, and which has also been accused of participating in enforced disappearances.146
The State Office for Public Security answers to the State Governor, as its immediate superior.147
139. Annex U – IMDHD - Dignificando la memoria - La desaparición de personas en Veracruz (The Disappearance of Persons in Veracruz)
(2019), 7. See also Jesús Ruiz, “Veracruz, la ‘fosa clandestina más grande de México’: Winckler Ortiz” (Veracruz, ‘Mexico’s largest
clandestine grave’: Winckler Ortiz), Sociedad Tres Punto Cero (23 December 2016), https://sociedadtrespuntocero.com/2016/12/
veracruz-la-fosa-clandestina-mas-grande-de-mexico-winckler-ortiz/, accessed on 9 July 2021.
140. A
nnex H – CNDH, Informe especial sobre la situación de seguridad y desaparición de personas en el Estado de Veracruz de Ignacio
Llave) (2019), 133-38.
141. Arturo Angel, “Juez sentencia a Javier Duarte a nueve años de prisión por asociación delictuosa y lavado de dinero”
142. Arturo Angel, “Cumplen orden de captura contra Duarte por desaparición forzada; obtuvo una suspensión, dice su
defensa” (Arrest warrant served against Duarte for enforced disappearance; he obtained a stay, his defense says), Animal
Político, 6 December 2021, https://www.animalpolitico.com/2021/12/javer-duarte-orden-desaparicion-forzada/, accessed
on 15 December 2021; Miguel Salazar, “Suspenden proceso contra Javier Duarte por presunta desaparición forzada”
(Proceedings against Javier Duarte for alleged forced disappearance suspended), El Sol de México, 13 December 2021,
https://www.elsoldemexico.com.mx/mexico/justicia/suspenden-proceso-contra-javier-duarte-por-presunta-desaparicion-
forzada-7603651.html, accessed on 15 December 2021.
144. See Edgar Ávila, “Ex secretario de Seguridad de Javier Duarte sale de prisión” (Javier Duarte’s former Head of Office for
Public Security released from prison), El Universal, 5 December 2018, https://www.eluniversal.com.mx/estados/ex-
secretario-de-seguridad-de-javier-duarte-sale-de-prision, accessed on 9 July 2021; Ángel Cortés Romero, “Duartistas pisaron
cárcel y la libraron; yunistas continúan dentro” (Duartistas set foot in jail and are free; Yunistas remain inside), La Silla Rota,
12 October 2021, https://veracruz.lasillarota.com/estados/duartistas-pisaron-carcel-y-la-libraron-yunistas-continuan-
dentro-/570224, accessed on 27 October 2021. It should also be noted that Bermúdez Zurita accused officials of the Miguel
Ángel Yunes Linares administration and the State Public Prosecutor’s Office of committing acts of torture and threats against
him. See Rodrigo Barranco Déctor, “Arturo Bermúdez, exmando policial de Duarte, de verdugo a víctima” (Arturo Bermúdez,
Duarte’s former police commander, from executioner to victim), La Silla Rota , 4 December 2018, https://veracruz.lasillarota.
com/estados/arturo-bermudez-exmando-policial-de-duarte-de-verdugo-a-victima/260516, accessed on 9 July 2021; and
Jesús Ruiz, “Denuncia de Arturo Bermúdez abre la puerta a procesos vs ex yunistas” (Arturo Bermudez’s complaint opens
the door to prosecutions against former Yunistas), Imagen de Veracruz, 11 August 2021, https://imagendeveracruz.mx/
estado/denuncia-de-arturo-bermudez-abre-la-puerta-a-procesos-vs-ex-yunistas/50115520, accessed on 9 July 2021.
145. Manual específico de organización de la dirección general de la fuerza civil (Special Handbook on the Organisation of the General
Directorate of the Civil Force) (2017).
146. Jacobo García, “La desaparición de personas en Veracruz era sistemática e institucionalizada”, El País (25 February 2018),
https://elpais.com/internacional/2018/02/24/mexico/1519510585_044530.html, accessed 13 July 2021. See also Miguel
Ángel León Carmona,“’Los Fieles’, policía de élite que tortura y desaparece en Veracruz” La Silla Rota (7 February 2018), https://
lasillarota.com/especialeslsr/los-fieles-policia-de-elite-que-tortura-y-desaparece-en-veracruz/204355, accessed 13 July 2021
Source: Manual específico de organización de la dirección general de la Fuerza Civil
(Special Handbook on the Organisation of the General Directorate of the Civil Forces)
During this time period, the Veracruz Ministerial Police answered to the Procurador General de
Justicia (Public Prosecutor), who was appointed by the governor and confirmed by the State
Congress. Pursuant to the Constitution in force in Veracruz between 2010 and 2015, the Ministerio
Público (Public Prosecution) “is the organ under the authority of the Executive Branch”.148 Thus,
during this period, both the State Police of the State Office for Public Security and the Ministerial
Police were legally under the executive branch of the state of Veracruz.
Moreover, as described in the context section above, during Duarte de Ochoa’s term of office, a
“unified command” of state and federal forces was implemented to combat drug trafficking. In this
regard, it should also be noted that a decree issued by the government of Veracruz was approved
on 20 December 2011 by former governor Duarte de Ochoa, which set out “the provision of the
Public Security and Preventive Police services in the municipalities of Veracruz and Boca del Río,
Veracruz.”149 The Decree stipulated, in its first article, that the organisation, functioning, command
and operation of the Public Security and Preventive Police services in the two municipalities would
be administered by the Government of the state of Veracruz, “through the State Office for Public
Security and with the support of the Federal Government, through the Ministry of the Navy”.150
The second article of the Decree provided that “the human, material and financial resources,
assigned to the Intermunicipal Police that provides the services of public security and municipal
preventive police in the territories of Veracruz and Boca del Río, are transferred to the State Office
for Public Security”.151 In accordance with the above, as of 2011, the Public Security and Preventive
Police services in the city of Veracruz were provided through the Veracruz State Office for Public
Security with the support of the Ministry of the Navy (SEMAR), through the Naval Police. Thus, the
State Office for Public Security exercised centralised control over all police forces, both state and
148. See Articles 52-54, Political Constitution of the State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, http://www.itstb.edu.mx/
ivai/1.2CONST-POL-DEL-EST-VERACRUZ.pdf. In 2015, the Constitution was amended to transform the Procuraduría into the
Fiscalía General, designated as an autonomous state entity. See Article 67, Political Constitution of the State of Veracruz de
Ignacio de la Llave (reform published in the Official Gazette number 284 dated 17 July 2015), http://www.veracruz.gob.mx/
wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/12/tf01-const-politica-ver.pdf.
149. This Decree was published on the same date, 20 December 2011, in an extraordinary issue of the state of Veracruz Official
Gazette, and entered into force the day after its publication. Annex R - Veracruz and Boca del Río Decree (File no. 1610)
150. A
nnex R - Veracruz and Boca del Río Decree (File no. 1610)
151. Annex R - Veracruz and Boca del Río Decree (File no. 1610)
municipal, in collaboration with federal forces, in the city of Veracruz, where most of the cases
described in this communication occurred.
The acts of enforced disappearance described below were carried out by members of the Veracruz
State Police or Ministerial Police, sometimes acting jointly with the Veracruz Investigation Agency,
the Navy, or elements of organised crime. Between November 2012 and July 2016, the control
of the State of Veracruz Governor’s Office and of the State Office for Public Security, including
the State Police, would have allowed state officials of Duarte de Ochoa’s government to use the
resources of these public entities (human and material, such as including vehicles, weapons and
uniforms), to carry out an attack against a civilian population of inhabitants of the municipalities
of Veracruz and La Antigua, which entailed the commission of serious crimes, in particular, the
enforced disappearance of persons.
VII. Legal characterisation of the crimes committed
“Enforced disappearance of persons” is defined in Article 7(2)(i) of the Statute as “the arrest,
detention or abduction of persons by, or with the authorization, support or acquiescence of, a State
or a political organization, followed by a refusal to acknowledge that deprivation of freedom or to
give information on the fate or whereabouts of those persons, with the intention of removing them
from the protection of the law for a prolonged period of time”.152
The Chambers of the Court have held that the crime of enforced disappearance “consists of two
inseparably interrelated components:
i. the victim’s deprivation of liberty; and

ii. the ensuing denial or suppression of information”.153
With regard to the first component, it is understood that the terms “arrest, detention or abduction”
cover comprehensively “any form of deprivation of liberty of a person against his or her will”.154
With regard to the second component, it is understood that the refusal to acknowledge deprivation
of freedom or to give information “encompasses outright denial or the giving of false information
about the fate or whereabouts of the victim”.155 The Chambers of the Court have also held that the
crime of enforced disappearance is considered a continuous crime “as long as the perpetrators
continue to conceal the fate and whereabouts of the person or persons who have disappeared and
these facts remain unclarified”.156
The information gathered for the preparation of this communication provides a reasonable basis to
consider that between November 2012 and July 2016, crimes against humanity were committed
in the state of Veracruz against at least 22 victims, including seven found in a clandestine grave
containing 305 bodies. In particular, there is reasonable basis to consider that the State Police
and the Ministerial Police of Veracruz, acting in some cases jointly with the Veracruz Investigation
Agency, the Navy, or organised crime, with the likely knowledge of the former governor of the state
of Veracruz and the Head of the State Office for Public Security, committed, during that period,
crimes against humanity of enforced disappearance of persons (Article 7(1)(i)). These crimes were
committed as part of a systematic attack against a civilian population in the state of Veracruz,
involving the commission of multiple acts of enforced disappearance of persons against people
living in the municipalities of Veracruz and La Antigua.
152. Rome Statute, Article 7(2)(i).

153. Pre-Trial Chamber III, Public Redacted Version of “Decision Pursuant to Article 15 of the Rome Statute on the Authorization
of an Investigation into the Situation in the Republic of Burundi”, ICC-01/17-X-9-US-Exp, 25 October 2017, 9 November 2017,
ICC-01/17-X, para. 118.
154. Ibid.
155. Ibid.
156. Ibid, para. 121.
Based on the evidence available, in all the cases, state resources were used to disappear persons
who were considered undesirable or who represented an obstacle to the state authorities in one
way or the other. As detailed in the following sections, some disappearances occurred during
security operations and follow a rationale of “social cleansing”, in the framework of the unified
command established during the Duarte de Ochoa administration. In other cases, the disappeared
persons may have posed a threat to the criminal activities of state authorities.
In the 22 cases of enforced disappearance described below, officials belonging to state institutions
acted publicly, at different times of the day, depriving male inhabitants of the city of Veracruz,
municipality of Veracruz, or, in seven cases, the municipality of La Antigua, of their freedom. The
victims were detained in their homes, workplaces or in public places, such as bars, shopping
centres, parks and in streets or avenues, all located in the aforementioned municipalities. In all
the cases, the victims had been identified by the perpetrators; indeed, in the case of some of the
disappeared victims in Formando Hogar, it was established that the State Police who carried out
the detentions carried photos or descriptions of the victims. In most of the cases, the victims were
taken into vehicles with state or federal authorities on board, using weapons or force. Following the
deprivation of freedom of the persons who were subject to enforced disappearance, the relatives
searched for and inquired about each of the victims, including at the Veracruz Procuraduría General
de Justicia (Public Prosecutor’s Office) (which in 2015 became the Veracruz state Fiscalía General)157,
the Veracruz Investigation Agency, and the “Penalito” detention centre in Playa Linda. In response
they received denials of the deprivation of freedom of the relative concerned or refusals to provide
information about the detention.
Seven persons, whose cases are detailed below, were found in the clandestine grave “Colinas de
Santa Fe”. Although in most of the cases described here, relatives reported the disappearance to
the Veracruz Public Prosecutor’s Office, as of the date of finalisation of this report, based on the
information available, no perpetrator or person responsible for the disappearances had been linked
to the investigations in any of these cases.
One of the clandestine graves found in Colinas de Santa Fe, located on the outskirts of the city of Veracruz, November 2021.
© Colectivo Solecito de Veracruz
157. In 2015, the Veracruz Procuraduría General de Justicia was replaced by the state of Veracruz Fiscalía General. “Se instala en
Veracruz la Fiscalía General del Estado; sustituye a la PGJ” (The state Prosecutor’s Office is set up in Veracruz; it replaces the
PGJ), La Jornada, 31 January 2015, https://www.jornada.com.mx/2015/01/31/opinion/016n2pol, accessed on 13 July 2021.
A. Description of specific cases of enforced disappearance
This report details the cases of 22 victims, all of them men who disappeared or were found in the
city of Veracruz or nearby localities:
i. seven victims found in the clandestine grave “Colinas de Santa Fe”, disappeared between
November 2012 and May 2014;
ii. nine victims disappeared in Colonia Formando Hogar (Formando Hogar neighbourhood), city
of Veracruz, as part of the security operation “Guadalupe Reyes” in December 2013; and
iii. six victims who were disappeared by state authorities in the city of Veracruz between
December 2013 and July 2016.
Figure 2: Documented cases of 22 victims of enforced disappearance and perpetrators
1. Victims found in the clandestine grave “Colinas de Santa Fe” (November 2012 - May 2014)
In 2017, the signatory organisation Solecito located the clandestine grave “Colinas de Santa Fe”,158
north of the Port of Veracruz, which contains 305 skulls and 22,500 human remains. Of these, only
27 individuals have been identified,159 including the seven victims included in this report, whose
details were sent to the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC. As of today, most of these cases remain
in a situation of impunity.160 While some investigations have taken place, none has focused on the
158. Aída Palau, “Veracruz, la fosa clandestina más grande de México” (Veracruz, the largest clandestine grave in Mexico), RFI,
16 March 2017 https://www.rfi.fr/es/americas/20170316-veracruz-la-fosa-clandestina-mas-grande-de-mexico, accessed
on 9 July 2021.
159. F or the year 2019, 22 bodies had been identified. According to the information available, an additional 5 bodies were identified
in Colinas de Santa Fe during the year 2022. See Rodrigo Soberanes, “Cierran Colinas de Santa Fe, la fosa más grande de
México hallada por madres de desaparecidos” (‘Colinas de Santa Fe’, Mexico’s largest mass grave found by mothers of
the disappeared, closed down), Animal Político, 9 August 2019, https://www.animalpolitico.com/2019/08/veracruz-cierran-
colinas-santa-fe-busquedas-fosas/, accessed on 9 July 2021; “40 personas desaparecidas, identificadas entre los restos de
Santa Fe y El Arbolillo”, La Jornada (29 June 2022), in http://jornadaveracruz.com.mx/principal/40-personas-desaparecidas-
identificadas-entre-los-restos-de-santa-fe-y-el-arbolillo/, accessed on 8 July 2022.
160. F
IDH interviews; Stephanie Nolen and Félix Márquez, “Gone”, The Globe and Mail, 5 December 2020, https://www.
theglobeandmail.com/world/article-the-disappeared-inside-families-risky-search-to-uncover-the-truth/, accessed on
9 July 2021. In addition, it should be noted that the search for bodies continues in the Santa Fe area. See Víctor Toriz,
“Colectivos inician búsqueda de fosas clandestinas al norte de Veracruz” (Collectives begin search for clandestine graves in
northern Veracruz), m.e-veracruz.mx | Periódico Digital de Noticias de Veracruz, 22 September 2021, https://www.m.e-veracruz.
mx/nota/2021-09-22/veracruz/colectivos-inician-busqueda-de-fosas-clandestinas-al-norte-de-veracruz?fbclid=IwAR2xPuf
VI5Bcvk5UfULR7Iknac3LTTkq9o6xolg6_5QSW8rZ6X2i0E7n49c, accessed on 9 July 2021.
command structure of the perpetrators.161 Moreover, of the 305 bodies, fewer than 10% have been
identified, which confirms the impunity and lack of investigation of cases of enforced disappearance
in the state of Veracruz.
As an example, one of these cases is described below. In a confidential communication submitted

to the ICC, the seven cases of forced disappearance of the victims found in the clandestine grave
Colinas de Santa Fe are described in detail. For all of them there is evidence of actions by the
Veracruz State Police, in some cases in collusion with organised crime.
Case AB took place on Friday 30 November 2012. During this event, at least four people suffered
enforced disappearance. That day, between 11.30 pm and midnight, Victim A, aged 21, a nursing
student at the University of Veracruz, was in the street talking to his friend, Victim B, in the Colonia
El Modelo (El Modelo neighbourhood), city of Cardel, Veracruz, a few metres from his family’s house,
when members of the Veracruz State Police arrived, in the context of Operation “Veracruz Seguro”.
Some metres away, other people were arguing with each other – according to witnesses, one of
these individuals had a point of sale of drugs in the El Modelo neighbourhood. That evening, the
State Police detained eight persons, including Victims A and B. Following their detention, relatives
of the victims went to file a complaint at the office of the Ministerio Público (Public Prosecution).
There, they were informed that they had to wait 72 hours to file a complaint. After 72 hours, the
relatives filed a complaint and an employee from the Public Prosecution informed them that
special forces had conducted a security operation in the area and that Victim A was possibly being
held in detention. After receiving no additional news of his whereabouts, the relatives also went to
the offices of the Navy and the State Public Prosecutor’s Office in the city of Veracruz, where an
official advised them to stop looking, because “bad people were among those taken away”. Four
victims who suffered enforced disappearance on 30 November 2012, including Victims A and B,
were found between 2016 and 2017 in the clandestine grave “Colinas de Santa Fe”.162
Mass held for the third anniversary of the discovery of the clandestine
grave Colinas de Santa Fe, 8 August 2019. © Colectivo Solecito de Veracruz
161. FIDH interviews. See also Stephanie Nolen and Félix Márquez, “Gone”, The Globe and Mail, 5 December 2020, https://www.
theglobeandmail.com/world/article-the-disappeared-inside-families-risky-search-to-uncover-the-truth/, accessed on 9 July 2021.
162. The family of one of the victims was notified by the Federal Forensic Police in July 2016. FIDH interview. See also
Annex L – Solecito Collective – Narrative of family events; Annex M – Veracruz State Human Rights Commission –
Document CEDH/1VG/DAM-1195/2016 - REC-03-2018, para. 65.
According to a recommendation issued by the Veracruz State Human Rights Commission, the
State Office for Public Security is the entity responsible for the enforced disappearance and
subsequent extrajudicial execution of Victims A and B and the two additional victims found in
“Colinas de Santa Fe”. While the State Commission affirms that eight people suffered enforced
disappearance on 30 November 2012 in Cardel, it only attributes responsibility to the Veracruz
State Office for Public Security in five cases, four of which correspond to those found in “Colinas de
Santa Fe”, including Victims A and B.163 The recommendation issued by the State Commission also
affirms that additional human rights violations were committed by State actors given the failure to
investigate the incident of 30 November 2012 in a serious, impartial and effective manner.164
2. Victims from Formando Hogar (December 2013)
In the case of the nine victims who disappeared in Formando Hogar, the incident took place in the
framework of Operation “Guadalupe Reyes”, based on a “social cleansing” rationale, allegedly carried
out to address an increase in crimes perpetrated inside the campus of the University of Veracruz.
According to testimonies and press reports, in the months of September and October 2013,
there was growing insecurity inside the university campus, and a group of unidentified youths
would regularly steal mobile phones and valuables from students inside the university and in
nearby neighbourhoods. In this context, several students from the university identified, through
Facebook, as the “Icazo Gang”, a group allegedly responsible for robberies in the area, with a centre
of operations located in the Formando Hogar neighbourhood. On 22 October 2013, the students
held a press conference to announce that they had identified the members of the “Icazo Gang”.
In response, the Dean of the University of Veracruz asked the State Office for Public Security to
guarantee the safety of the students on campus. Arturo Bermúdez Zurita, then Head of the State
Office for Public Security, made a public commitment to stop these incidents and identify the
alleged perpetrators.165 In December of that same year, the security operation “Guadalupe Reyes”
began, involving both state and federal forces, with the supposed aim of combating insecurity
in the institution.166 This operation led to a wave of arbitrary detentions and cases of enforced
disappearance.
As an example, one of the Formando Hogar cases is described below. In the aforementioned
confidential communication submitted to the ICC, the nine cases of forced disappearance that
occurred in the Formando Hogar neighbourhood are described in detail.
In case C, which took place on Monday 9 December 2013, Victim C, who was 23 years old, suffered
enforced disappearance. That day, said victim, who worked as a trailer operator and mechanic
at the time of his disappearance, was at his workplace, the trailer park “Pensión El Oso”, together
with his colleague, in the area known as “Puerto Seco” in San Julián, Veracruz, 20 km from the
Formando Hogar neighbourhood.167 Three vans containing elements of the Veracruz State Police
and the Naval Police arrived at Victim C’s workplace and detained Victim C and his colleague, using
violence.
163. FIDH interviews; Annex M – Veracruz State Human Rights Commission – Document CEDH/1VG/DAM-1195/2016 - REC-
03-2018. See also Miguel Ángel Carmona, “Los 8 desaparecidos que dejó el operativo Veracruz Seguro” (The 8 disappeared
resulting from Operation “Veracruz Seguro”), Silla Rota, 21 March 2018 https://lasillarota.com/desaparecidos-veracruz-
miguel-angel-yunes-veracruz-seguro/212022, accessed on 13 July 2021.
164. Annex M –Veracruz State Human Rights Commission – Document CEDH/1VG/DAM-1195/2016 - REC-03-2018, paras 14,
46-50.
165. Annex T – IDHEAS - Communication to CED requesting urgent action on Formando Hogar (2016). See also Bárbara García,
“Descubren alumnos de ingeniera de la UV banda de asaltantes” (UV engineering students uncover gang of assailants),
Enlace Veracruz 212, 23 October 2013, https://www.enlaceveracruz212.com.mx/noticias-veracruz/villa-rica/51151/
descubren-alumnos-de-ingeniera-de-la-uv-banda-de-asaltantes.html?id=51151, accessed on 9 July 2021; Iván García,
“Veracruz fuertemente resgaurdado por elementos de la Marina y de SSP: Amadeo Flores” (Veracruz received strong rescue
response from Navy and SSP elements: Amadeo Flores’, Al calor politico, 7 December 2013, https://www.alcalorpolitico.
com/informacion/veracruz-fuertemente-resguardado-por-elementos-de-la-marina-y-de-ssp-amadeo-flores-129652.html,
166. Annex S – IDHEAS - complaint to CED (2021).
167. Although the incident took place 20 km from Formando Hogar district, the signatory organisations consider that they form
part of the same pattern.
Following his disappearance, relatives of Victim C approached various government authorities,
including the Veracruz Investigation Agency, the Mixed Unit on Drug Trafficking, the “Penalito”
detention centre in Playa Linda and the Specialised Public Prosecutor’s Office for “Offences of
Commercial Theft”. They were repeatedly denied information about Victim C’s whereabouts.
Having received no news, the relatives filed complaints with the Specialised Public Prosecutor’s
Office for Missing Persons in the Central Zone of Veracruz, but no prompt, objective and impartial
investigation into the incident was carried out.168
In September 2019, the relatives asked the Public Prosecution for copies of the preliminary enquiry
in the case of Victim C, as well as a copy of the investigation plan required in accordance with
the Standard Protocol for the Investigation of the Crime of Enforced Disappearance of Persons
(Protocolo Homologado de Investigación del Delito de Desaparición Forzada de Personas).169 On
2 December 2019, the request was denied and, in response, the signatory organisation IDHEAS filed
a request to guarantee the victim’s constitutional rights. On 3 August 2020 a judge ruled in favour
of the relatives of Victim C. The decision issued by the state of Veracruz Fifth District Court ordered
the Veracruz Public Prosecutor’s Office to hand over copies of the preliminary enquiry to Victim
C’s family and to draw up an investigation plan based on the provisions of the Standard Protocol.
Furthermore, the judge recognized the existence of serious human rights violations stemming
from the failure of the Veracruz Public Prosecutor’s Office to conduct an objective, effective, full
and impartial investigation.170
The families of the men disappeared in Formando Hogar between 6 and 11 December 2013 have
been confronted with the unwillingness of witnesses to testify in front of the authorities as well
as denials from the state government concerning the conduct of such operations and the state’s
involvement, with state authorities often claiming that it was not the authorities who participated
but rather organised crime posing as public officials.
Given this situation of impunity, on 2 February 2016, the signatory organisation IDHEAS, upon
request of the family members, submitted a communication to the United Nations Committee on
Enforced Disappearances (CED), asking it to examine six of the cases of enforced disappearance
that occurred in Formando Hogar in December 2013.171 On 1 May 2017, the CED issued urgent
actions, calling on the State of Mexico to develop a comprehensive strategy for the investigation
and search of these six victims and, in addition, to “take all necessary measures to ensure the
full investigation of Operation “Guadalupe Reyes” ... [and] ensure that the possible involvement
of members of the State Police, Municipal Police and the Veracruz Investigation Agency is also
investigated.”172 In addition, the CED requested the State of Mexico to “guarantee that the follow-up,
exhumations and identification procedures of the bodies are governed by international standards
on the matter, in order to ensure that the comparisons carried out with the fingerprints of the six
disappeared persons or with the DNA of their relatives yield scientifically reliable results”.173
168. IDHEAS, “Formando Hogar”, 13 September 2017, https://www.idheas.org.mx/casos-derechos-humanos/desaparicion-

forzada-y-de-particulares/formando-hogar//, accessed on 9 July 2021.
169. The Protocolo Homologado de Investigación del Delito de Desaparición Forzada de Personas (Standard Protocol for the
Investigation of the Crime of Enforced Disappearance of Persons) was established by the Ley General en Materia de
Desaparición Forzada de Personas, Desaparición Cometida por Particulares y del Sistema Nacional de Búsqueda de Personas
(General Law on the Forced Disappearance of Persons, Disappearance Committed by Private Individuals and the National
System for the Search for Persons - “General Law”), which entered into force on 15 January 2018. Under the Protocol,
there is an obligation to describe “in detail the processes of search, location and identification of disappeared or missing
persons, which shall be carried out by the authorities, Search Commissions and Specialised Public Prosecutor’s Offices
and other competent authorities”. See “Protocolo Homologado de Investigación del Delito de Desaparición Forzada de Personas”
(Standard Protocol for the Investigation of the Crime of Enforced Disappearance of Persons) (2018), Conferencia Nacional de
Procuración de Justicia, 6.
170. A
lthough an investigation plan was subsequently drawn up, it does not comply with the recommendations of the decision
issued by the judge. IDHEAS, “Juez ordena a la Fiscalía de Veracruz cumplir con el Protocolo Homologado de Investigación
por desaparición forzada” (Judge orders Veracruz Public Prosecutor’s Office to comply with the Standard Protocol for the
Investigation of Enforced Disappearances), 6 August 2020, https://www.idheas.org.mx/comunicaciones-idheas/sala-de-
prensa-idheas/comunicados/juez-ordena-a-la-fiscalia-de-veracruz-cumplir-con-el-protocolo-homologado-de-investigacion-
por-desaparicion-forzada/, accessed on 9 July 2021.
171. Annex T – IDHEAS – Communication to CED requesting urgent actions on Formando Hogar (2016).
172. Annex E – CED - Urgent Actions on Formando Hogar (2017).
173. Annex X - CED – Requests to the State of Mexico, Veracruz Case (2017), p. 2.
To date, none of the investigations into the persons who disappeared in Formando Hogar between
6 and 11 December 2013 have shown any significant progress in determining the whereabouts of
the disappeared persons or in identifying the perpetrators responsible.
3. Other victims disappeared by state authorities in the city of Veracruz (December 2013 -

July 2016)
In the aforementioned communication, submitted to the ICC, the signatory organizations presented
a description of six cases of enforced disappearance by state authorities that took place in the
city of Veracruz between December 2013 and July 2016. While these cases occurred outside the
framework of Operation “Guadalupe Reyes” and the individuals were not found in the clandestine
grave “Colinas de Santa Fe”, they follow a similar pattern, and in all of them there is evidence of
participation by state security forces. All these cases are detailed in the database developed by the
signatory organisations, which indicates the source of information for each one.174
B. Contextual elements of crimes against humanity

The Rome Statute provides, in Article 7(1), that, for the purpose of the Statute, “crime against
humanity” means any of the acts referred to in this Article when committed “as part of a widespread
or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack”.
Article 7(2) of the Statute provides that “‘Attack directed against any civilian population’ means a
course of conduct involving the multiple commission of acts referred to in paragraph 1 against any
civilian population pursuant to or in furtherance of a State or organisational policy to commit such
attack”.175
The Chambers of the Court have noted, in accordance with these definitions, that crimes against
humanity involve the following contextual elements: (i) an attack directed against a civilian
population, (ii) a State or organisational policy, (iii) an attack of a widespread or systematic nature,
(iv) a nexus exists between the individual act and the attack, and (v) knowledge of the attack.176
Figure 3: Contextual elements of crimes against humanity
174. Annex B – Database – men disappeared during Duarte’s administration in the municipality of Veracruz (Dec. 2010 to
Oct. 2016).
175. Rome Statute, Article 7(2).
176. Trial Chamber VI, Prosecutor v. Bosco Ntaganda, Judgment, 8 July 2019, ICC-01/04-02/06, para. 660; Pre-Trial Chamber III,
Corrigendum to “Decision Pursuant to Article 15 of the Rome Statute on the Authorisation of an Investigation into the
Situation in the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire”, 15 November 2011, ICC-02/11, para. 29.
In order to demonstrate our grounds for considering that the 22 cases of enforced disappearance
documented in this report constitute crimes against humanity, we will first refer to the existence of
an attack directed against a civilian population and, secondly, to the characterisation of the attack
as widespread or systematic. Finally, we will address the nexus between the individual acts and
the attack.
1. Existence of an attack directed against a civilian population
The first element to be analysed is the existence of an “attack directed against any civilian
population”, understood within the meaning of Article 7(2)(a) of the Statute, before going on to
analyse the characterisation of the attack, to ascertain whether it was widespread or systematic.177
Article 7(2)(a) defines an “attack against any civilian population” as: (a) “a course of conduct
involving the multiple commission of acts referred to in paragraph 1”; (b) directed “against any
civilian population”; and (c), “pursuant to or in furtherance of a State or organisational policy to
commit such an attack”.178 Together, these three sub-elements, if established, demonstrate the
existence of “an attack directed against any civilian population”.179
We set out below our grounds for considering that the cases of enforced disappearance that
took place in the state of Veracruz between November 2012 and July 2016 constitute an “attack
directed against any civilian population” within the meaning of Article 7(2)(a) of the Statute. It
should be noted that, given the unified command and the widespread policy of militarisation during
the Duarte de Ochoa administration, it is possible that these attacks are part of a broader and more
generalised attack, with a unified policy emanating from State government. This communication
will not analyse that possibility, due to the lack of sufficient information on which to base such a
determination
a. Course of conduct involving the multiple commission of acts referred to in Article 7(1) of the Statute
An “attack” need not constitute a military attack or be part of a military operation.180 An attack may
involve any form of violence against a civilian population.181 Within the meaning of Article 7(1) of
the Statute, “attack”, understood as a “course of conduct” refers to a campaign, an operation or a
series of actions carried out against the civilian population,182 i.e. a “series or overall flow of events”
as opposed to a mere aggregate of isolated or random acts,183 involving the “multiple commission”
177. Trial Chamber II, Prosecutor v. Germain Katanga, Judgment pursuant to Article 74 of the Statute, 7 March 2014, ICC-01/04-
01/07, paras 1097-1098; Pre-Trial Chamber I, Prosecutor v. Charles Blé Goudé, Decision on the confirmation of charges against
Charles Blé Goudé, 11 December 2014, ICC-02/11-02/11, para. 126.
178. Trial Chamber VI, Prosecutor v. Bosco Ntaganda, Judgment, 8 July 2019, ICC-01/04-02/06, para. 661; Trial Chamber III,
Prosecutor v. Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo, Judgment pursuant to Article 74 of the Statute, 21 March 2016, ICC-01/05-01/08-
3343, para. 148.
179. Trial Chamber III, Prosecutor v. Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo, Judgment pursuant to Article 74 of the Statute, 21 March 2016,
ICC-01/05-01/08-3343, para. 670.
180. E
lements of crimes. Article 7, paragraph 3; Trial Chamber VI, Prosecutor v. Bosco Ntaganda, Judgment, 8 July 2019, ICC-
01/04-02/06, para. 662; Trial Chamber III, Prosecutor v. Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo, Judgment pursuant to Article 74 of the
Statute, 21 March 2016, ICC-01/05-01/08-3343, para. 149.
01/07, para. 1101.
182. Trial Chamber III, Prosecutor v. Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo, Judgment pursuant to Article 74 of the Statute, 21 March 2016, ICC-
01/05-01/08-3343, para. 149; Trial Chamber II, Prosecutor v. Germain Katanga, Judgment pursuant to Article 74 of the Statute,
7 March 2014, ICC-01/04-01/07, para. 1101; Pre-Trial Chamber II, “Decision Pursuant to Article 61(7)(a) and (b) of the Rome
Statute on the Charges of the Prosecutor Against Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo”, 15 June 2009, ICC-01/05-01/08-424, para. 75.
3343, para. 149; Pre-Trial Chamber I, Prosecutor v. Laurent Gbagbo, Decision on the confirmation of charges against Laurent
Gbagbo, 12 June 2014, ICC-02/11-01/11, para. 209; Trial Chamber II, Prosecutor v. Germain Katanga, Judgment pursuant to
Article 74 of the Statute, 7 March 2014, ICC-01/04-01/07, para. 1101.
of acts referred to in Article 7(1).184 This indicates a “quantitative threshold” requiring “several” or
“many acts”.185 The Chambers of the Court have held that the number of the individual types of
acts referred to in Article 7(1) is irrelevant, “provided that each of the acts fall within the course of
conduct and cumulatively satisfy the required quantitative threshold”.186
Therefore, as the Chambers of the Court have also noted, while a “course of conduct” must involve
multiple acts under Article 7(1) of the Statute, the occurrence of those acts is not the only evidence
that may be relevant to prove its existence. Since the “course of conduct” requires a certain pattern of
conduct, evidence relevant to proving the degree of planning, direction or organisation by a group or
organisation is also relevant to assessing the links and commonality of features between individual
acts that demonstrate the existence of a “course of conduct” within the meaning of Article 7(2)(a)
of the Statute.187
The events that occurred between November 2012 and July 2016 show that multiple acts of
enforced disappearance were committed against a civilian population during this period. In the
course of these events, at least 22 people suffered enforced disappearance in the municipalities of
Veracruz and La Antigua. Seven of these persons were found in the clandestine grave “Colinas de
Santa Fe”, which contains 305 bodies, thus satisfying the “quantitative threshold” required by the
Statute.
Furthermore, given the 22 cases of enforced disappearance described above and the existence of
a clandestine grave with 305 bodies, it can be affirmed that these enforced disappearances were
not isolated or random acts and reveal a degree of organisation that indicates the existence of a
“course of conduct”.
In particular, in eleven of the cases described, the victims suffered enforced disappearance in
a period of only five days, between 6 and 11 December 2013, all in the city of Veracruz, which
demonstrates a series or overall flow of events. In addition, each of the events described above
involved persons identified by witnesses and/or family members as members of the Veracruz
State Police or Ministerial Police. In most of the events, weapons or some form of force or violence
were used.
In each of the 22 cases documented, the perpetrators entered the places where the persons to be
disappeared were located, removed them from these places and then, in most cases, loaded them
onto vehicles. Eleven individuals were detained in a public place, in full view of many witnesses,
while seven victims were detained in their homes or workplaces, all by state authorities.188 The
persons who detained the 22 victims described above arrived, in each of the instances, at the
places that had been selected and did so at different times of the day; they remained, without
concealing their presence, at the places for the minimum time necessary to wait for, search for,
take away or intercept the persons who were disappeared; and they left the places, usually in
vehicles, after detaining the victims without facing any significant obstacle. The victims detained in
the city of Veracruz, including those in Formando Hogar neighbourhood, are still missing and their
relatives do not have information regarding their whereabouts, while the seven victims detained
in the municipality of La Antigua have been found on the outskirts of the city of Veracruz, in the
clandestine grave “Colinas de Santa Fe”, along with 298 other dead bodies.
ICC-01/05-01/08-3343, para. 150; Pre-Trial Chamber I, Prosecutor v. Laurent Gbagbo, Decision on the confirmation of charges
against Laurent Gbagbo, 12 June 2014, ICC-02/11-01/11, para. 209.
3343, para. 150.
ICC-01/05-01/08-3343, para. 150.
187. Pre-Trial Chamber I, Prosecutor v. Laurent Gbagbo, Decision on the confirmation of charges against Laurent Gbagbo,
12 June 2014, ICC-02/11-01/11, para. 210.
188. In the case of the remaining four victims, there is no detailed information on the place of their detention.
This form of action could not have been carried out, in the regular and continuous manner in
which it was executed, if it had not been the product of an operation directed and organised by the
Veracruz Governor’s Office itself and operationally executed by the State Office for Public Security,
with the participation of the Veracruz State Police and Ministerial Police, sometimes acting together
with the Veracruz Investigation Agency, federal security forces deployed in the state of Veracruz,
in particular the Navy, and/or elements of organised crime. All these elements demonstrate the
existence of a “course of conduct” within the meaning of Article 7(2)(a) of the Statute.
b. Directed against a civilian population
The “course of conduct” must be directed against “a civilian population”. According to the Chambers
of the Court, the expression “civilian population” refers to “civilians” as opposed to “members of
armed forces and other lawful combatants”189 and denotes a “collective” as opposed to individual
“civilians”.190 Furthermore, as noted by the Chambers of the Court, the requirement that the attack
be “directed against” the civilian population “means that the civilian population must be the primary,
as opposed to incidental, target of the attack”,191 without meaning that the entire population of
a geographical area was being targeted during the attack.192 What must be established is that
civilians were targeted during the attack in “numbers or in a manner sufficient” to prove that the
attack was directed against a civilian population193 and not against a limited group of specific
individuals.194 The Chambers of the Court have also noted that the reference to “any” civilian
population in Article 7(1) of the Statute “means that the provision is not limited to populations
defined by a common nationality, ethnicity or other similar distinguishing features”.195
This communication refers to 22 persons who suffered enforced disappearance between
November 2012 and July 2016, eleven of them in a period of under six days in December 2013.
These individuals all disappeared in a limited geographical area, and seven of them were found
in a clandestine grave of 305 bodies. The victims for whom documentation is available were all
civilians, not members of military forces or those considered to have combatant status.
01/07, para. 1102.
190. T
rial Chamber III, Prosecutor v. Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo, Judgment pursuant to Article 74 of the Statute, 21 March 2016,
ICC-01/05-01/08-3343, para. 152; Trial Chamber II, Prosecutor v. Germain Katanga, Judgment pursuant to Article 74 of the
Statute, 7 March 2014, ICC-01/04-01/07, para. 1102.
7 March 2014, ICC-01/04-01/07, para. 1104.
7 March 2014, ICC-01/04-01/07, para. 1104.
ICC-01/05-01/08-3343, para. 154.
194. Ibid; Trial Chamber II, Prosecutor v. Germain Katanga, Judgment pursuant to Article 74 of the Statute, 7 March 2014, ICC-
01/04-01/07, para. 1105.
3343, para. 155.
One of the graves found in Colinas de Santa Fe, located on the outskirts of the city of Veracruz,
uncovered by the Solecito collective. © Colectivo Solecito de Veracruz
In all the cases documented for this communication, state resources were used to disappear people
who were considered undesirable or constituted an obstacle to the Veracruz state authorities in
one way or another.
As explained in the context section of this communication, during the administration of former
governor Duarte de Ochoa, through the State Office for Public Security, security operations
supposedly designed to combat drug trafficking were carried out as part of Mexico’s war on drugs.
Far from combating crime and drug trafficking, some security operations served as mechanisms
of “social cleansing”, in which people from Veracruz were detained and disappeared.
This is the case of the nine victims disappeared in Formando Hogar, described above. These
incidents took place within the framework of Operation “Guadalupe Reyes”, based on a “social
cleansing” rationale and allegedly carried out to address an increase in crime inside the campus
of the University of Veracruz. The security Operation “Guadalupe Reyes” was launched under
the command of Arturo Bermúdez Zurita and involved both state and federal forces, with the
alleged aim of combating violence in the institution. Similarly, the detentions of other victims were
carried out as part of a security operation in the city of Cardel, in an area where, according to
witnesses, there was a point of sale of drugs. As in the Operation “Guadalupe Reyes”, the detention
and disappearance of the young men in Cardel by the State Police appears to have taken place
in accordance with a rationale of “social cleansing”. Indeed, an employee from the State Public
Prosecutor’s Office justified these events to some family members of victims from Cardel based on
this rationale, indicating to them that those detained were “bad people”. These events, motivated
by a rationale of “social cleansing”, within the framework of security operations carried out by
the Veracruz State Police, demonstrate that this group of young people were part of a civilian
population targeted, and not incidental, in the attack carried out by state authorities.
It should also be noted that the disappearance of at least three victims may have been motivated
by the aim of suppressing or concealing evidence of criminality perpetrated by state authorities
and/or organised crime. Regarding two of the victims found in the clandestine grave “Colinas de
Santa Fe”, disappeared by the Veracruz State Police, both worked for the Public Prosecution in the
city of Veracruz, and their work may have constituted a threat to the criminal activities of the state
authorities of Veracruz, according to the evidence available. Likewise, in the case of one victim
who disappeared in the city of Veracruz, this individual worked in a garage where State Police
vehicles used to carry out security operations were repaired; therefore, his disappearance may
also have been motivated by an attempt by the state authorities to suppress or conceal evidence
of criminality. In any event, all the victims identified in this document were detained by state
authorities and, for one reason or another, were considered undesirable or constituted an obstacle
to the Veracruz state authorities.
Among the cases documented for this communication, the majority of the victims were young men
of low socio-economic status, who were students or had jobs as a painting assistant, mechanic,
taxi driver or debris loader, ranging from 16 to 46 years old, over 68% of them under the age of 40.
This group of men was specifically identified by the state authorities, who in some cases carried
with them photos of the young men they were searching.
The common characteristics of this group of disappeared persons, all young men of low socio-
economic status, selected because they were considered undesirable or constituted an obstacle
to the Veracruz state authorities, demonstrate that this attack was directed against a civilian
population of inhabitants of the municipalities of Veracruz and La Antigua. This group of men was
the primary, and not incidental, target of the attack carried out by the Veracruz state authorities.
c. Pursuant to or in furtherance of a State or organisational policy to commit such attack
According to Article 7(2)(a) of the Statute, the course of conduct involving the multiple commission
of acts referred to in paragraph 1 of the Article must be “pursuant to or in furtherance of a State
or organisational policy to commit such an attack”, thus requiring a link to be established between
the attack and the policy.196 The Chambers of the Court have held that, within the meaning of this
article, the term “policy” refers “essentially to the fact that a State or organisation intends to carry
out an attack against a civilian population, whether through action or deliberate failure to take
action”.197 While “policy” does not preclude a design adopted by a state or organisation with regard
to a certain population in a given geopolitical situation, the Statute does not require that a “formal
design” exists, i.e. the policy need not to be formalised.198 What is required is that the policy targets
196. Trial Chamber VI, Prosecutor v. Bosco Ntaganda, Judgment, 8 July 2019, ICC-01/04-02/06, para. 673.
01/07, para. 1108. Elements of crimes. Article 7. Crimes against humanity, Paragraph 3: “It is understood that “policy to
commit such attack” requires that the State or organization actively promote or encourage such an attack against a civilian
population”. The Elements of Crimes further specify that the policy which has a civilian population as the object of the attack
“would be implemented by State or organisational action. Such a policy may, in exceptional circumstances, be implemented
by a deliberate failure to take action, which is consciously aimed at encouraging such attack. The existence of such a policy
cannot be inferred solely from the absence of governmental or organisational action”. Elements of Crimes. Article 7. Crimes
against humanity, Paragraph 3, endnote 6.
ICC-01/05-01/08-3343, para. 160.
a particular civilian population or a part thereof.199 Evidence of the existence of the “policy” can be
inferred from a variety of factors which, taken together, establish that the policy existed.200. Such
factors include:
i. that the attack was planned, directed or organised;

ii. a recurrent pattern of violence;
iii. t he use of public or private resources to further the policy;
iv. t he involvement of the State or organisational forces in the commission of the crimes;
v. s tatements, instructions or documentation attributable to the State or organisation
condoning or encouraging the commission of the crimes; and/or
vi. an underlying motivation.201
Moreover, the State or organisational policy may become clear to the perpetrators only in the
course of its implementation, such that definition of the overall policy is possible only in retrospect,
once the acts have been committed and in the light of the overall operation or course of conduct
pursued.202
In relation to a State policy to commit an attack, the Chambers of the Court have also noted that
the policy does not necessarily need to have been conceived “at the highest level of the State
machinery”. A policy adopted by regional or even local organs of the State could satisfy the
requirement of a State policy.203
In the present case, there was a policy of the state of Veracruz to commit an attack against a
civilian population, specifically carried out by the State Police and Ministerial Police authorities,
sometimes acting together with the Veracruz Investigation Agency, Federal Forces, in particular
the Navy, and/or organised crime elements. These are therefore high-ranking regional authorities
in Mexico and, to that extent, if the existence of such a policy is proven, the requirement of a “policy”
of a State would be satisfied.
With respect to factors (i) and (ii), as explained in the element “course of conduct involving the
multiple commission of acts referred to in Article 7(1) of the Statute”, the events that occurred
could not have taken place, in the regular, continuous, coordinated and smooth manner in which
they were executed, if they had not been the result of an operation planned, directed or organised by
the State Office for Public Security, including the State Police, and the Veracruz Governor’s Office.
The existence of an operation in which victims were searched out and taken from their homes,
workplaces, or detained on public streets by state authorities, all in the municipality of Veracruz or
La Antigua, reveals that there was a planned attack.
In particular, with regard to the nine victims of enforced disappearance in Formando Hogar, the
attack occurred within the framework of Operation “Guadalupe Reyes”, announced to the press on
10 December 2013 by the Head of the State Office for Public Security, Arturo Bermúdez Zurita. The
operation was announced in anticipation of the winter holidays of the “Guadalupe Reyes” period,
the colloquial name for the holiday period which traditionally runs from 12 December to 6 January
and was supposedly designed to “guarantee the safety of people visiting the state” and to patrol the
main tourist sites in the state to protect its visitors.
In his speech announcing the operation, the Veracruz Head of the State Office for Public
01/07, para. 1108.
200. T
rial Chamber III, Prosecutor v. Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo, Judgment pursuant to Article 74 of the Statute, 21 March 2016,
ICC-01/05-01/08, para. 160.
201. T
rial Chamber VI, Prosecutor v. Bosco Ntaganda, Judgment, 8 July 2019, ICC-01/04-02/06, para. 674; Trial Chamber III,
3343, para. 160; Trial Chamber II, Prosecutor v. Germain Katanga, Judgment pursuant to Article 74 of the Statute, 7 March 2014,
ICC-01/04-01/07, para. 1109.
202. T
rial Chamber II, Prosecutor v. Germain Katanga, Judgment pursuant to Article 74 of the Statute, 7 March 2014, ICC-01/04-
01/07, para. 1110.
203. P
re-Trial Chamber III, Corrigendum to “Decision Pursuant to Article 15 of the Rome Statute on the Authorisation of an
Investigation into the Situation in the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire”, 15 November 2011, ICC-02/11, para. 45.
Security, Bermúdez Zurita, stated that in the conurbation of the city of Veracruz and Boca del Río,
400 additional elements of the State Police had been sent to support the Naval Police in preventive
duties,204 and a parade of Federal and State law enforcement agencies took place, who rode in
vehicles and on horseback along the Boulevard Ruiz Cortines in the city of Veracruz.205 As part of this
operation, in addition to the nine victims of enforced disappearance already mentioned, hundreds
of people from the city of Veracruz were detained, many of them in the “Penalito” detention centre,
which demonstrates a planned, directed or organised operation.206
In the remaining cases, although the victims were not connected to Operation “Guadalupe
Reyes”, they were all detained and disappeared by the same perpetrators, namely Veracruz state
authorities. In all the cases described, a recurring pattern of violence occurred, with enforced
disappearances carried out by state authorities, sometimes in conjunction with Federal authorities
and/or organised crime, after which Veracruz state authorities repeatedly refused to conduct
investigations into the crimes that took place. Furthermore, the existence of a mass clandestine
grave with 305 bodies on the outskirts of the city of Veracruz suggests a planned, targeted or
organised attack, given the number of victims and the geographical proximity of the grave to the
site of enforced disappearances. All these facts, taken together, demonstrate (i) the existence of
an attack that was planned, directed or organised and there was (ii) a recurrent pattern of violence.
In relation to factor (iii), the use of public or private resources to further the policy, in all the cases
documented between November 2012 and July 2016, public resources were used, aimed at the
fulfilment of the State policy of committing an attack against a civilian population, including:
human resources (officials of the Veracruz State Police, the Ministerial Police of the Veracruz
State Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Veracruz Investigation Agency and the Navy); “the Penalito”
detention centre facilities in Playa Linda (where some of the victims were detained); vehicles (state
and federal authorities’ vehicles, including pick-up vans, Suburban vans, Naval Police patrol cars
and other vehicles); official government clothing (including navy blue uniforms with the “police”
logo and Veracruz State Police clothing); various firearms; and other items (bullet-proof waistcoats
and handcuffs).
Additionally, in each of the events documented, according to the information available, the state
was involved in the commission of the crimes of enforced disappearance (iv), in particular elements
of the Veracruz State Police and the Veracruz Ministerial Police, sometimes acting together with
the Veracruz Investigation Agency or the Navy.
Moreover, there are statements, instructions or documentation attributable to the state of Veracruz
that condone or encourage the commission of the crimes (v), which suggests a policy of the state
of Veracruz to commit the attack described herein. In particular, as mentioned above, the Head
of the State Office for Public Security publicly announced the launch of Operation “Guadalupe
Reyes”, within the framework of which the nine Formando Hogar victims disappeared, for which
thousands of state and federal security forces were deployed during the holiday period between
December 2013 and January 2014. Following the events in Formando Hogar, as in all the cases
documented for this communication, the authorities of the state of Veracruz failed to carry out
impartial and effective investigations into the disappeared persons. In particular, it is worth noting
again that, despite the existence of a grave with 305 bodies on the outskirts of the city of Veracruz,
less than 10% of the bodies have been identified and no effective investigation has been carried
out regarding the perpetrators of the crimes pertaining to this grave. All of this, taken together,
condones the commission of the crimes of enforced disappearance described herein.
204. R
odrigo Barranco, “Arranca operativo Guadalupe-Reyes en Veracruz” (Operation “Guadalupe-Reyes” gets underway
in Veracruz), El Universal, 10 December 2013, https://archivo.eluniversal.com.mx/estados/2013/operativo-navidad-
veracruz-971940.html, accessed on 9 July 2021.
205. A
ndrés Salomón, “Inicia operativo Guadalupe-Reyes con más de seis mil elementos” (Operation “Guadalupe-Reyes” begins
with more than 6,000 personnel), Quadratin, 10 December 2013, https://veracruz.quadratin.com.mx/Inicia-operativo-
Guadalupe-Reyes-con-mas-de-seis-mil-elementos/, accessed on 9 July 2021. See also Rodrigo Barranco, “Arranca operativo
Guadalupe-Reyes en Veracruz” (Operation “Guadalupe-Reyes” gets underway in Veracruz), El Universal, 10 December 2013,
https://archivo.eluniversal.com.mx/estados/2013/operativo-navidad-veracruz-971940.html, accessed on 9 July 2021.
206. A
nnex Q.
Finally, in relation to the underlying motivation (vi), as detailed in the section “directed against
a civilian population”, in all the events described in this communication, state resources were
used to disappear persons who were considered undesirable or constituted an obstacle to the
Veracruz state authorities in one way or another. In some cases, including some of those that
took place in Formando Hogar and Cardel, the facts suggest that the security operations served
as mechanisms of “social cleansing”, whereby students or working people from Veracruz were
detained and disappeared, within the context of the war on drugs. In the case of other victims, the
acts of enforced disappearance appear to have been motivated by an objective of suppressing or
concealing evidence of criminality on the part of state authorities and/or organised crime. While
there is insufficient information on the underlying motivation in each of the cases, the manner
in which the state authorities acted and the testimonial evidence available suggests that all the
victims identified in this document were, for one reason or another, considered undesirable or an
obstacle to the authorities of the state of Veracruz.
These six factors, taken together, give grounds to consider, on a reasonable basis, that the attack
against a civilian population, implemented between November 2012 and July 2016 in Veracruz
by state security authorities and the Veracruz Governor’s Office, was carried out pursuant to or in
furtherance of a state policy to commit such an attack.
2. A widespread or systematic attack
Having established the existence of an attack directed against a civilian population, it is now
necessary to analyse the characterisation of the attack by determining, in accordance with
Article 7(1), whether the attack was widespread or systematic.
The attack directed against a civilian population must be “widespread or systematic”. This implies
“that the acts of violence are not spontaneous or isolated”.207 It is generally recognised by the
Chambers of the Court that the adjective “widespread” means that the attack “is large-scale in
nature and targeted at a large number of persons”, whereas the adjective “systematic” reflects “the
organised nature of the acts of violence and the improbability of their random occurrence”.208 The
“systematic” character of the attack also refers to the existence of a pattern of crimes, evidenced
by non-accidental repetition of similar criminal conduct on a regular basis.209 In this regard, in
considering the systematic character of the attack, we can assess whether:
i. identical acts took place or similarities in criminal practices can be identified;

ii. the same modus operandi was used; or
iii. victims were treated in a similar manner across a wide geographical area.210
The disjunctive language of Article 7(1) of the Statute requires that the acts contemplated by this
article be committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population and,
therefore, it is not necessary for the attack to have both of the characteristics.211
As already described in previous sections, in relation to each of the victims of the attack, according
to witnesses and/or relatives, state agents of the Veracruz State Police or the Ministerial Police,
sometimes acting together with other authorities, located and arrived at the places where each of
the persons who were victims of enforced disappearance were to be found, these places being the
person’s home or workplace or public places, such as a bar, a park, a shopping centre and in streets
or avenues. According to witnesses, in some cases, the authorities carried photographs of the
207. T
rial Chamber II, Prosecutor v. Germain Katanga, Judgment pursuant to Article 74 of the Statute, 7 March 2014, ICC-01/04-
01/07, para. 1123.
208. T
rial Chamber VI, Prosecutor v. Bosco Ntaganda, Judgment, 8 July 2019, ICC-01/04-02/06, paras. 691 and 692; Trial Chamber II,
Prosecutor v. Germain Katanga, Judgment pursuant to Article 74 of the Statute, 7 March 2014, ICC-01/04-01/07, para. 1123.
209. T
rial Chamber VI, Prosecutor v. Bosco Ntaganda, Judgment, 8 July 2019, ICC-01/04-02/06, para. 692; Trial Chamber II,
Prosecutor v. Germain Katanga, Judgment pursuant to Article 74 of the Statute, 7 March 2014, ICC-01/04-01/07, para. 1124.
210. T
rial Chamber VI, Prosecutor v. Bosco Ntaganda, Judgment, 8 July 2019, ICC-01/04-02/06, para. 693.
01/07, para. 1162.
persons they intended to detain and/or had previously identified the victims in one way or another.
The victims were taken from their place of residence or work or from the public place where they
were found and abducted using force, and almost all detentions were carried out using some form
of weapons or violence, including beatings. After being detained, usually in vehicles with state
authorities on board, the victims disappeared and their relatives never heard from them again, or
they were found in the clandestine grave “Colinas de Santa Fe”.
The events therefore occurred in an organised and coordinated manner, adopting a modus operandi
that was repeated. All these elements, taken together, show that there was a clear pattern in the
commission of the crimes, with all the victims sharing common denominators and treated in a
similar way. This clearly shows that the attack directed by the authorities of the state of Veracruz
against a civilian population of inhabitants of the municipalities of Veracruz y La Antigua was a
systematic attack.
3. Nexus between the individual acts and the attack
The individual acts must be committed as part of a systematic or widespread attack. The
determination of whether an act under Article 7(1) of the Statute is part of a systematic or
widespread attack requires consideration of the attack as a whole and also of its individual
components, taking into account the nature of the act, the aims it pursues and the consequences
it occasions.212 Isolated acts that clearly differ in their nature, objectives and consequences from
other acts that form part of an attack fall outside the scope of Article 7(1) of the Statute.213
This communication describes 22 cases of enforced disappearance of young men, which occurred
in the period from November 2012 to July 2016, and the existence of a clandestine grave containing
305 bodies. The 22 cases took place during events that followed one after the other, in a period
of 44 months, and in the same clearly defined geographical area, the municipalities of Veracruz
and Antigua. The enforced disappearances were committed by persons identified by witnesses as
state authorities, members of the Veracruz State Police or Ministerial Police, sometimes acting in
conjunction with the Veracruz Investigation Agency, the Navy and/or organised crime elements.
Each of the enforced disappearances was committed as part of the systematic attack against
the group of civilians identified by the Veracruz state authorities, between November 2012 and
July 2016.
7 March 2014, ICC-01/04-01/07, para. 1124.
7 March 2014, ICC-01/04-01/07, para. 1124.
Victims’ collectives in their efforts to find their loved ones. © Colectivo Solecito de Veracruz
VIII. Conclusion
The manner in which the events documented in this communication, in which 22 enforced
disappearances were committed, as part of a systematic attack against a civilian population of
male inhabitants of Veracruz, in the adjacent municipalities of Veracruz and La Antigua, between
November 2012 and July 2016, gives grounds to consider, on a reasonable basis, that crimes
falling within the jurisdiction of the Court, specifically crimes against humanity, were committed in
during that period. These crimes were committed by Veracruz state authorities, including the State
and Ministerial Police, sometimes acting in conjunction with other state or federal authorities and/
or organised crime, during the term of office of former governor Duarte de Ochoa.
The signatory organisations to this report therefore consider that the ICC Office of the Prosecutor
should open a preliminary examination into the situation in Mexico in relation to the events that
took place in Veracruz, in addition to the events already documented by FIDH, together with other
organisations, on which there is also a reasonable basis to conclude that crimes against humanity
have been committed in Mexico.
IX. Recommendations
The signatory organisations of this report consider that it is imperative that both the State of Mexico
and the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC investigate the possible commission of crimes against
humanity in the State of Veracruz, which would contribute positively to the fight against impunity,
and make progress in the search for and identification of cases of enforced disappearance in said
State.
1) For this reason, we urge the government of Veracruz to:
. Reinstate a dialogue with Solecito, Red de Madres of Veracruz and other victims’ collectives,
setting up monthly roundtables to report on progress in the search for disappeared persons;
. provide, in particular through the State Executive Commission for Holistic Victim Support
(Comisión Ejecutiva Estatal de Atención Integral a Víctimas, CEEAIV), legal and psychosocial
support to victims of enforced disappearance in Veracruz;
. increase the budget and improve the training of officials of the Veracruz State Public
Prosecutor’s Office (Fiscalía General del Estado), with the aim of investigating all cases of
enforced disappearances in Veracruz independently and efficiently; and
. to the Veracruz State Public Prosecutor’s Office, implement and comply with investigation
plans in individual cases of enforced disappearance.
2) To the Mexican State, including its judicial branch:
. To the State, recognise the existence of crimes against humanity in Mexico.
. To the FGR, carry out an analysis of the context of enforced disappearances in the state of
Veracruz, in particular during the government of Javier Duarte de Ochoa;
. investigate the existence of crimes against humanity and, in particular, the possible
responsibility of former Governor Duarte de Ochoa and former Secretary of Public Security
Bermúdez Zurita in the commission of said crimes;
. and improve dialogue and coordination between the FGR and the Veracruz State Public
Prosecutor’s Office, which is required by the General Law on Enforced Disappearances of
Persons (Ley General en Materia de Desaparición Forzada de Personas).
3) To state and federal entities in charge of the search for disappeared persons, including the
CNB:
. Identify all bodies that have been found in clandestine graves in Veracruz, including in
“Colinas de Santa Fe”, as well as other graves identified by the Solecito collective and others,
and carry out new excavations; and
. in particular to the CNB, to engage in a dialogue with victims’ collectives in the state of
Veracruz when carrying out searches for clandestine graves in the state.
4) To the ICC Office of the Prosecutor: open a preliminary examination on Mexico, including the
state of Veracruz, which would contribute to the investigation of patterns of systematic and
widespread violence in the country, as well as provide a new space for justice for the victims
of crimes against humanity committed in Mexico.
ANNEX 1: Timeline
ANNEX 1: Timeline
December 2011: begining of

the militarisation of public 2012-2016: increase
security with Operation in violence and 2016: the victims’
December 2006: 2007: beginning of “Veracruz Seguro”. The unified enforced collective Solecito
President Felipe Calderón conlicts and fragmentation command is established and disapperances uncovers the clandestine
(PAN) initiates the war on between oganised crrime inter-municipal police forces registered in the state grave Colinas de Santa
drugs groups dissolved of Veracruz Fe
2016: end of the

Beginning in 2006: 2010-2016: Duarte de 2011-2018: federal forces government of Duarte de Today, most judicial
Violent disputes beetween Ochoa is Governor of operate in the state of Ochoa, currently serving a processes are stalled.
the main cartels of Veracruz Veracruz 9 year sentence for Impunity and enforced
Veracruz: Gulf, Sinaloa, money laundering and disappearances continue
Los Zetas, and CJNG criminal association in Veracruz
“Hasta encontrarlos”: enforced disappearances by security forces in Veracruz constitute crimes against humanity
55
Keep your eyes open
Establishing the facts - Investigative and trial observation missions

Supporting civil society - Training and exchange
Mobilizing the international community - Advocacy before intergovernmental bodies
Informing and reporting - Mobilizing public opinion
For FIDH, transforming societies relies on the work of local actors.
The Worldwide Movement for Human Rights acts at national, regional and international levels in support
Director of of its member and partner organisations to address human rights abuses and consolidate democratic
publication: processes. Its work is directed at States and those in power, such as armed opposition groups and
Alice Mogwe multinational corporations.
Editor in chief: Its primary beneficiaries are national human rights organisations who are members of the Movement,
Éléonore Morel and through them, the victims of human rights violations. FIDH also cooperates with other local partner
Authors: organisations and actors of change.
FIDH, IDHEAS y el
Colectivo Solecito
de Veracruz
Non-profit civil society organization that, through strategic human rights
Design:
litigation and the provision of legal assistance and support to victims of serious
FIDH/CB
human rights violations (torture, forced disappearances and extrajudicial
executions), seeks to bring about normative, procedural and policy changes
within State institutions to combat impunity and protect victims and/or their
families.
Contact:
www.facebook.com/idheasdh/ - @idheasdh
info@idheas.org - www.idheas.org
Collective of mothers and relatives of victims of enforced

disappearance in Veracruz. Fighting for our children with love - Until
we find them! (Hasta encontrarlos)
Contact:
www.facebook.com/Lucidige/ - @SolecitodeVer
solecitodeveracruz@hotmail.com - (228) 283 7089
lucidige@icloud.com (Lucy Diaz Genao, leader of Solecito)
CONTACT
FIDH
17, passage de la Main d’Or
75011 Paris - France
Tel: (33-1) 43 55 25 18
www.fidh.org
Twitter: @fidh_en / fidh_fr / fidh_es
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FIDH.HumanRights/
“Hasta encontrarlos”: enforced disappearances by security forces in Veracruz constitute crimes against humanity
Dépôt légal mars 2022 - FIDH (Éd. anglaise) ISSN 2225-1804 - Fichier informatique conforme à la loi du 6 janvier 1978 (Déclaration N°330 675)
57
FIDH
is an
international human rights
NGO
federating 192 organisations
from 117 countries
About fidh
FIDH takes action for the protection of victims of human rights violations, for
the prevention of violations and to bring perpetrators to justice.
A broad mandate
FIDH works for the respect of all the rights set out in the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights: civil and political rights, as well as economic, social and cultural rights.
A universal movement
FIDH was established in 1922, and today unites 192 member organizations in
117 countries around the world. FIDH coordinates and supports their activities and
provides them with a voice at the international level.
An independent organization
Like its member organizations, FIDH is not linked to any party or religion and is
independent of all governments.
www.fidh.org

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“Hasta encontrarlos”: enforced disappearances

by security forces in Veracruz constitute

February 2022 / N° 787a

This publication was produced with the financial support of the

This document has been produced with the support of the

II. INTRODUCTION AND METHODOLOGY....................................................................................... 7

III. CONTEXT OF THE VIOLENCE IN VERACRUZ........................................................................... 10

IV. ICC JURISDICTION................................................................................................................. 31

V..STANDARD TO BE APPLIED IN DETERMINING THE ALLEGED COMMISSION OF CRIMES WITHIN

VI. CRIMES UNDER THE JURISDICTION OF THE COURT............................................................. 32

VII. LEGAL CHARACTERISATION OF THE CRIMES COMMITTED.................................................. 36

CED UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances

CJNG Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación (Jalisco New Generation Cartel)

CMDPDH Comisión Mexicana de Defensa y Promoción de los Derechos Humanos (Mexican

CNDH Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos (National Human Rights Commission)

FIDH International Federation for Human Rights

FGR Fiscalía General de la República (Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office)

ICC International Criminal Court

PAN Partido Acción Nacional (National Action Party)

PDLM Dignificando la Memoria (Dignifying Memory) project

PGR (subsequently Procuraduría General de la República (Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office)

PRD Partido de la Revolución Democrática (Party of the Democratic Revolution)

PRI Partido Revolucionario Institucional (Institutional Revolutionary Party)

RNPDNO Registro Nacional de Personas Desaparecidas y No Localizadas (National Register of

SEGOB Secretaría de Gobernación (Ministry of the Interior)

SEDENA Secretaría de Defensa Nacional (Ministry of National Defence)

SEMAR Secretaría de Marina (Ministry of the Navy)

SINPEF Sistema de Información Nacional de Personas Extraviadas y Fallecidas No Identificadas

A. Origins of the violence

1. Rise and fragmentation of the power of organised crime groups

2. Militarisation of public security and the “mando único” (unified command)

Federal entity in charge N° of operations

Source: authors’ work, based on Annex H

3. The collusion of political power and organised crime

The level of involvement of state forces in cases of disappearances is shocking: according to a

Likely perpetrators (SINPEF)

Source: authors’ work, based on SINPEF figures.82

The alleged high-level of involvement of state authorities in cases of enforced disappearances

Source: authors’ work, based on IMDHD DLM project figures.84

124 125 126

127. “States Parties - Chronological list” (International Criminal Court), https://asp.icc-cpi.int/en_menus/asp/states%20parties/

A. Places of commission of the crimes

The crimes of enforced disappearance

B. Period of commission of the crimes

136. Annex S - IDHEAS - complaint to CED, (2021); Annex Q.

C. Persons and state entities involved in the commission of the crimes

VII. Legal characterisation of the crimes committed

i. the victim’s deprivation of liberty; and

152. Rome Statute, Article 7(2)(i).

Figure 2: Documented cases of 22 victims of enforced disappearance and perpetrators

As an example, one of these cases is described below. In a confidential communication submitted

2. Victims from Formando Hogar (December 2013)

168. IDHEAS, “Formando Hogar”, 13 September 2017, https://www.idheas.org.mx/casos-derechos-humanos/desaparicion-

3. Other victims disappeared by state authorities in the city of Veracruz (December 2013 -

B. Contextual elements of crimes against humanity

Figure 3: Contextual elements of crimes against humanity

1. Existence of an attack directed against a civilian population

127. “States Parties - Chronological list” (International Criminal Court), https://asp.icc-cpi.int/en_menus/asp/states%20parties/

136. Annex S - IDHEAS - complaint to CED, (2021); Annex Q.

152. Rome Statute, Article 7(2)(i).

168. IDHEAS, “Formando Hogar”, 13 September 2017, https://www.idheas.org.mx/casos-derechos-humanos/desaparicion-

3. Other victims disappeared by state authorities in the city of Veracruz (December 2013 -

i. that the attack was planned, directed or organised;