Human rights organisation Amnesty International (AI) has severely criticised the Mexican authorities for ignoring human rights violations committed by the military in the crackdown on drug cartels.

According to Amnesty, there have been numerous reports of disappearances, murders and torture but the civilian and military authorities are usually deny any wrongdoing. Almost 2,000 complaints have been lodged with the Mexican human rights commission between January 2008 and June 2009, compared to just 367 in 2007. AI accused the authorities of failing to investigate allegations of abuses including disappearances, extrajudicial killings, torture, ill-treatment and arbitrary detention.
 

Three years ago, Mexico announced an all-out war on drugs and deployed around 50,000 troops in a severe crackdown on the powerful drug cartels. Some parts of the country are almost totally under the control of the powerful and extremely violent drug cartels. Since then around 14,000 people, including many civilians have died in a wave of suspected drug-related murders.
 

Although Amnesty acknowledges that drug trafficking and the cartels that control the drug trade are an enormous problem for Mexico, the organisation says that is no reason to abrogate human rights or turn a blind eye to crimes committed by the military or the government.