UN human rights chief denounces Mexican violence
Michelle Bachelet says violence reminds her of the darkest days of the police state in Chile during the 1970s and 1980s
Mexico City — UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said on Tuesday the deadly toll of Mexico’s rampant gangland violence was reminiscent of the era in her native Chile when thousands died or disappeared during a military dictatorship. Bachelet, a former Chilean president, concluded a five-day visit to Mexico where she met with victims of violence as well as government officials and pushed for a full accounting of past abuses. She told reporters at a news conference that stories of anguish she heard from the families of victims reminded her of the darkest days of the police state that Augusto Pinochet oversaw in Chile during the 1970s and 1980s. “It was like returning to a part of my own history,” she said. During the military dictatorship in Chile from 1973 to 1990, about 3,000 people were killed or disappeared and 28,000 others were victims of torture, including Bachelet and her father, an air force general. In Mexico, homicides rose by one-third in 2018, according to government...
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