Factors associated with maternal deaths included parents with lower levels of education, poor hospital infrastructure and human capacity, and lack of access to maternity care, especially for pregnant women living in rural areas. According to a 2019 National Child Labor Survey, the number of children ages five to 17 in child labor, including in hazardous household work, was 3.3 million, or approximately 11.5 percent of children in the country. The law mandates the creation of a public registry of companies supplying specialized services to verify only registered companies fulfilling tax and administrative requirements may supply those services. In July the Mexico City Prosecutor Generals Office issued the fourth arrest warrant for Roemer. In November 2020 a judge suspended five officials from the Mexico City Prosecutor Generals Office for failing to search for Fatima within 72 hours after she went missing. A 2016 ruling by the Supreme Court removed the cap on fines for moral damages, leaving journalists vulnerable to exorbitant fines. Freedom of Expression for Members of the Press and Media, Including Online Media: Independent media were active and expressed a wide variety of views without restriction but often self-censored due to fear of reprisal. For information regarding the security environment in other areas of Mexico, please reference the OSAC Crime and Safety Reports from the following Consular Districts: Tijuana, Nogales, Hermosillo, Ciudad Juarez, Nuevo Laredo, Matamoros, Monterrey, Guadalajara, and Merida. Crime Rating: Critical Crime Threats Crime varies widely. Emergency contraception was available, including for survivors of sexual assault. In October 2020 the Electoral Tribunal granted registration to three new political parties: Solidary Encounter Party, Progressive Social Networks, and Social Force for Mexico. State and municipal laws addressing domestic violence largely failed to meet the required federal standards and often were unenforced. In July the army provided reparations to two of the three families of persons killed in July 2020 by soldiers in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, during an encounter with suspected cartel members. The National Population Council estimated that in 2020 and 2021, a total of 1,172,000 women had limited access to contraceptives due to COVID-19. In June the Federal Telecommunications Institute, an autonomous agency created to increase the transparency of media regulation, released internet neutrality guidelines for internet service providers. Informal workers were in every sector of the economy, with agriculture as the sector with the greatest number of informal workers. Some prisons were undersubscribed, while others were overcrowded. The government did not restrict or disrupt access to the internet or block or filter online content. The Monterrey Country Council is active, meeting quarterly. Citizens generally registered the births of newborns with local authorities. The midterms marked a large increase in female candidates. Reports indicated that women suffered disproportionately from pretrial detention. The guidelines allow internet service providers to deny access to certain applications, content, and services based on commercial criteria, in breach of their obligations to protect neutrality. Sexual Exploitation of Children: The law prohibits the commercial sexual exploitation of children, and authorities generally enforced the law. In response to a 2020 civil society organization lawsuit, a Mexico City court ruled authorities must implement COVID-19 detection and preventive health protocols for detainees and their families in prisons in Mexico City and psychiatric wards nationwide. Womens rights activists supported the law as critical to combat the increasingly prevalent problem of online sexual harassment. In April authorities arrested and prosecuted Alexis Rafael Valadez Vazquez under the new law for publishing intimate photographs of women online, without their consent, to extort them. Conflicts arose from the interpretation of indigenous communities self-governing normative systems. Uses and customs laws apply traditional practices to resolve disputes, choose local officials, and collect taxes, with limited federal or state government involvement. Many workers were compelled into forced labor through debt bondage, threats of violence, and nonpayment of wages by recruiters and employers. Through a nationwide assessment process, the National Search Commission (CNB) revised the governments official number of missing or disappeared persons repeatedly as additional data became available. State human rights commissions investigate state and municipal police forces and can issue similar recommendations. The states with the most teenage pregnancies were Chiapas, Coahuila, and Guerrero, and Tabasco. In addition, Consular Messages, Travel Warnings, and Travel Alerts are also available. Failure to register births could result in the denial of public services such as education or health care. According to the Mexican Commission for the Promotion of Human Rights, from 2006 to 2020, federal authorities issued 27 sentences for torture. Defendants have the right to free assistance of an interpreter, if needed, although interpretation and translation services for indigenous languages were not always available. On June 19, a dispute between factions of the Gulf cartel killed 15 persons in the state of Tamaulipas. Government officials stated that the harassment of Catholic priests and evangelical Protestant pastors reflected high levels of generalized violence throughout the country and not targeted attacks based on religious faith. The government has an established procedure for determining refugee status and providing protections. Due to low internet penetration and television ownership in indigenous communities, distance learning was often inaccessible. Any corporate, non-profit, academic, faith-based or other U.S.-incorporated organization of any size with operations outside the United States may apply to join. In addition to criminal libel and defamation laws, civil law defines moral damage as similar to defamation concerning harm to a persons feelings, affections, beliefs, dignity, honor, reputation, and privacy, according to the NGO Committee to Protect Journalists. Journalists in Iguala, Guerrero, received anonymous messages through social networks, such as Facebook and WhatsApp, threatening them and their families, according to civil society. In October 2020 authorities announced they would release Brenda Quevedo Cruz, who had been in prison without trial since 2007. Administration: Authorities did not always conduct investigations into credible allegations of mistreatment. The filtering tool offers the user the ability to fully customize the app and . There were 600 federal labor inspectors to cover the entire country; 60 percent of state level labor authorities had fewer than 10 inspectors. Children performed dangerous tasks in agriculture in the production of beans, chili peppers, coffee, cucumbers, eggplants, melons, onions, tomatoes, and tobacco. Independent Monitoring: The government permitted independent monitoring of prison conditions by the International Committee of the Red Cross, CNDH, and state human rights commissions. The government increased the CNB budget 8 percent over the 2020 budget. While penalties for conviction of forced labor were commensurate with those for similar crimes, very few cases were successfully prosecuted. As of September no alleged perpetrators of the disappearances had been convicted, and 78 of those initially accused were released due to lack of evidence, generally due to irregularities in their detention, including confessions obtained through torture. Ramos had been searching for her missing husband for the previous seven months as a member of two search collectives. The Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System reported more than 1,889 killings of women, including 672 femicides, from January to September. The midterm elections, the largest in the countrys history due to the record number of more than 20,000 offices up for election, had a 52 percent turnout, a record for a nonpresidential election. OSAC 2021-N-0015, Guiding Principles for Scene Investigation and Reconstruction (added September 7, 2021 and sent to ASB for further development and publication). The Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC) was created in 1985 under the Federal Advisory Committee Act to promote security cooperation between American private-sector interests worldwide and the U.S. Department of State. NGOs reported that acts of excessive use of force and arbitrary detention occurred against female protesters, especially those protesting gender-based violence. Under the accusatorial system, judges conduct all hearings and trials and follow the principles of public access and cross-examination. See the Department of States Trafficking in Persons Report at https://www.state.gov/trafficking-in-persons-report/. Safety Tips for Travelers . Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and family members of disappeared persons alleged the prosecutors undercounted the actual number of cases. The CNDH did not report on the merits of the complaints. Nongovernmental Impact: Organized criminal groups exercised a grave influence over media outlets and reporters, threatening individuals who published critical views of crime groups. According to civil society organizations, up to 3,250 persons, mostly women and children from indigenous communities, were forcibly displaced in July in Chenalho and Pantelho, Chiapas, due to territorial disputes between armed groups. The COVID-19 pandemic generated additional risks and exacerbated vulnerabilities for IDPs, including overcrowding in shelters and difficulty accessing food, basic health care, and education. Federal labor law requires a minimum of 20 workers to form a union. The Prosecutor Generals Office also obtained an arrest warrant against Lozoyas mother for money laundering, and in 2019 Interpol agents arrested her in Germany. When authorities fail to accept a recommendation, the CNDH makes that known publicly. Informal Sector: According to INEGI informal workers represented 56 percent of total workers in the country as of the second quarter of the year. The National Council to Prevent Discriminations 2017 national survey on discrimination found 58 percent of Afro-Mexicans and 65 percent of indigenous persons considered their rights were respected little or not at all. The survey also reported 22 percent of persons said they would not share a household with an Afro-Mexican. Approximately 23 percent of informal workers (6.8 million persons) were employed by formal businesses or organizations but paid in cash off the books to evade taxes and social security payments. The INE requested information from all 32 states, reviewed a sample of 1,177 of the 6,962 federal deputy candidates, and canceled the registration of three candidates for filing false reports. The government worked with UNHCR to improve access to refugee status and the procedure to determine refugee status, reception conditions for vulnerable migrants and refugee applicants, and integration in local communities (including access to school, work, and other social services) for those approved for refugee and complementary protection status. Nonetheless, NGOs and media reported on sexual exploitation of minors, as well as child sex tourism in resort towns and northern border areas. Investigations, prosecutions, and convictions for the crime of forced disappearance were rare. Indeed, the Yucatan is one of the only states in Mexico with no transnational criminal organization or terrorist group. In 2019 legislators passed a constitutional reform recognizing Afro-Mexicans as an ethnic group. Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC) | 11,629 followers on LinkedIn. Of the 32 states, 29 stipulate similar penalties, although sentences were often more lenient. Freedom of expression advocacy groups reported the government, despite reductions in its advertising budgets, continued to have a strong financial impact and influence on the largest media companies. Communities and NGOs representing indigenous groups criticized the government for failing to consult indigenous communities adequately when making decisions regarding extractive industry and natural resource development projects on indigenous lands. Mexico has relied heavily on the military to control drugs and fight organized crime, leading to widespread human rights violations. Discrimination: The law provides women the same legal status and rights as men and equal pay for equal work performed in equal jobs, hours of work, and conditions of efficiency. The law establishes penalties for discrimination based on gender, race, ethnicity, color, religion, language, pregnancy, political belief, or any other nature that violates human dignity.