"Since the Mexican government escalated its war on organized crime at the end of 2006, over 150,000 Mexicans have been intentionally murdered. Countless thousands of others have been tortured; no one knows how many have disappeared. Caught between government forces and organized crime cartels, the Mexican people have suffered as atrocities and impunity reign. Based on three years of research, over 100 interviews, and previously unreleased government documents, this report finds a reasonable basis to believe that government forces and members of criminal cartels have perpetrated crimes against humanity in Mexico. The report comprehensively examines why there has been so little justice for atrocity crimes, and finds the main answers in political obstruction. Given the lack of political will to end impunity, new approaches must be taken. The report argues for a series of institutional changes, most importantly the creation of an internationalized investigative body, based inside Mexico, with powers to independently investigate and prosecute atrocity crimes."--Page 4 of cover.

Confronting organized crime requires an understanding of its workings. The Zeta Yoke is based on legal documents made available by the government of the state of Coahuila, information submited by the National Human Rights Commission and an exhaustive research of other material. This report details how the Zetas controlled northern Coahuila for several years and their interactions with the authorities at various levels. It focuses on this cartel's control of the Piedras Negrasprision and the brutal reprisals in Allende and other local districts following a betrayal, responsibility for which lies at the door of the DEA and Mexico's Federal Police.

Victim Activists in Mexico: Social and Political Mobilization amid Extreme Violence and Disappearances examines the collective action of the courageous family members of the disappeared in the midst of Mexico’s ongoing humanitarian crisis over the last decades. Yael Siman and Matthew Hone analyze this grassroots mobilization and argue that the activists have created rutinary, contentious, and innovative types of resistance through building local and trans-local links of support and solidarity that reinforce their struggle. This mobilization from below has contributed to constructing transitional justice including laws, public apologies, and memorials. The combination of internal and external factors impacting the collectives and their environment has enabled significant changes in the institutions, state responses, and the victimhood narratives in the country. This book adds to the scholarship on the collective action of grieving families by focusing on both the social and political aspects of mobilization.

In the five decades after the Nuremberg trials, not one single international trial for war criminals took place until 1993. In that year a court was finally set up -- at the urging of Aryeh Neier and other high-profile activists -- to judge and sentence war criminals from the former Yugoslavia.In War Crimes, Neier argues for the creation of a permanent tribunal at the U.N. and shows how the continuing absence of such a tribunal is the result of paranoia on the part of governments worldwide. He addresses conflicts in Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia, South Africa, Cambodia, and the occupied territories of Israel. This is a powerful and sure-to-be-controversial book.

This authoritative volume explores different perspectives on economic and social justice and the challenges presented by and within the criminal justice system. It critically discusses key concerns involved in realizing economic and social justice, including systemic issues in economic and social justice, issues related to organizations and social institutions, special issues regarding specific populations, and a review of national and international organizations that promote economic justice. Addressing more than just the ideology and theory underlying economic and social justice, the book presents chapters with practical examples and research on how economic and social justice might be achieved within the criminal justice systems of the world. With contributions from leading scholars around the globe, this book is an essential reference for scholars with an interest in economic and social justice from a wide range of disciplines, including criminal justice and criminology as well as sociology, social work, public policy, and law.

Juárez, Mexico, is known for violence. It began with the femicides of the 1990s, then continued with the cartel-related mayhem that made it one of the world’s most dangerous cities from 2006 to 2012. Along with the violence came a new lexicon that traveled from person to person, across rivers and borders—wherever it was needed to explain the horrors taking place. From personal interviews, media accounts, and conversations on the street, Julián Cardona and Alice Leora Briggs have collected the words and slang that make up the brutal language of Juárez, creating a glossary that serves as a linguistic portrait of the city and its violence. Organized alphabetically, the entries consist of Spanish and Spanglish, accompanied by short English definitions. Some also feature a longer narrative drawn from interviews—stories that put the terms in context and provide a personal counterpoint to media reports of the same events. Letters, and many of the entries, are supplemented with Briggs’s evocative illustrations, which are reminiscent of Hans Holbein’s famous Alphabet of Death. Together, the words, drawings, and descriptions in ABCedario de Juárez both document and interpret the everyday violence of this vital border city.