Citing “official figures,” it stated that “from 2000 to 2011, 745 Mexicans have benefited from a reversal of the death penalty” in the U.S.
The National Human Rights Commission in Mexico is urging its government to “intensify actions” aimed at overturning the death sentence of 58 Mexican nationals held in U.S. prisons.
In a recent Spanish-language press release, the Comisión Nacional de los Derechos Humanos mentioned that as of 2011, there were 58 Mexicans sentenced to death in U.S. prisons, most of whom come from the states of Baja California, Chihuahua, Jalisco, and Michoacán.
“The commission considers it necessary to intensify actions to avoid the death penalty in cases of Mexicans held in foreign prisons and to safeguard their rights to life, dignity and bodily integrity,” the group stated.
“This is the most severe penalty against people, its compliance is irreversible, and it is a measure that does not guarantee the delivery of justice,” it said.
The commission pointed out that the Mexican government has filed a lawsuit – the “Avena case” – before the International Court of Justice in The Hague on behalf of 39 of the 58 cases, arguing that procedural safeguards provided in the Vienna Convention for Consular Relations have been violated.
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