海角大神

As accusations stack up of human rights abuses at the hands of Mexican security officials, President Enrique Pe帽a Nieto has finally broken his more than weeklong silence to convey a clear message: His government will hold people accountable.聽

"I'm deeply indignant and disturbed with the information that's been coming out,鈥� President Pe帽a Nieto said, referring to the discovery of a mass grave outside the town of Iguala over the weekend. Late last month, scores of college students went missing there, about 120 miles south of Mexico City, allegedly at the hands of local police. Many suspect it contains the students' remains.

鈥淚 have instructed [my security cabinet] to take action, clarify the facts, find those responsible [for these disappearances], and strictly apply the law,鈥� the president said. He later wrote on Twitter that there 鈥渨ill be no impunity.鈥�

The president鈥檚 promise to bring assailants to justice is likely little comfort to Mexicans watching events unfold in Iguala. Impunity in Mexico runs high, with a recent study by the think tank Mexico Eval煤a finding that more than 80 percent of聽crimes go unpunished聽or uninvestigated. Other calculations put the聽overall impunity rate closer to 94 percent, meaning only 6 percent of all crimes make it to a preliminary investigation. Guerrero state, where the recent disappearances took place, had an impunity rate of 96.7 in 2013, according to INEGI, the national statistics agency.

Some 43 students from a rural teacher鈥檚 college, the Aytozinapa Normal School, went missing on Sept. 26 after a confrontation with local police. Six people 鈥� including three students and three bystanders 鈥� were reported killed when police opened fire on buses that the students had commandeered. The teacher鈥檚 college has a long history of radical protest, and witnesses say they saw police take several of the students away from the scene.

On Saturday, about a week after the disappearances, a mass grave was discovered on the outskirts of Iguala holding dozens of badly scorched bodies.DNA tests could take weeks to confirm聽the victims鈥� identities.

Monday, federal forces disarmed city police in Iguala and took over security functions there. Some 22 police officers have been taken into custody in connection to the shooting, and there have been reports of police links to local organized crime groups. An arrest warrant was issued for the city鈥檚 mayor and his security chief, both of whom are believed to have fled the area.

Some families are still聽holding out hope that their children will be found alive. 鈥淲e have to keep looking and praying,鈥� Santa Cruz Castro, the father of missing student Leonel, told The New York Times.聽Others have carried banners reading, "they took them alive, we want them back alive."

鈥淭he message is that聽in Mexico anything goes,鈥� Jose Miguel Vivanco, the head of Human Rights Watch鈥檚 Americas division told McClatchy News. 鈥淪ecurity forces 鈥� and that includes the army and the police 鈥� would reasonably think they could get away with atrocities and mass murder,鈥� Mr. Vivanco said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 very revealing of how grave, how serious, the human rights situation is in Mexico.鈥�

Another recent case 鈥� this one involving the military 鈥� also put Mexico鈥檚 human rights record in the spotlight. The incident, in June, was portrayed as a shootout between a military patrol and an armed gang. But recently, witnesses came forward accusing the military of executing more than 20 people who had surrendered their weapons. Though the attorney general vowed last week to prosecute three soldiers in a civilian court, so far no homicide charges have been filed.

Although the case of the students in Iguala has caught international attention as possibly 鈥� should it be confirmed 鈥� the country's worst known massacre since Pe帽a Nieto took office in 2012, many disappearances go unreported, or are reported and ignored by authorities, according to 海角大神.聽