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This event will be in English with Spanish interpretation. This event will be hybrid, to attend virtually register here.
Join us for a two-day panel series on Violence and Disappearance in Mexico.
April 24, 2024 from 3-5 pm: Dialogues of Knowledge on Disappearance in Mexico
In Mexico, we are confronting one of the world's worst human rights crises: The disappearance of more than 112,000 people. Decades of violence and government impunity have transformed the country into a giant cemetery, filled with clandestine mass graves. Across the nation, mothers search deserts and barren fields for signs of their loved ones, while the faces of the disappeared loom large on posters and banners in cities from north to south. Faced with these urgent challenges, it has become necessary to recognize the different kinds of expertise and experiences that are available for documenting, denouncing and resisting the practice of disappearance.
The construction of political alliances to confront this crisis requires building spaces for listening and dialogue among diverse social actors, including academia, the relatives of disappeared persons, human rights activists, journalists and public servants. We want to create this space for interdisciplinary dialogue in which different social actors that have approached the problem of disappearance from distinct perspectives and practices can share their knowledge and challenges as we search for new ways to tackle this crisis.
Welcome remarks by Julián Cancino, Director of the Mexico Studies Program at the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies.
Moderated by Oscar Lopez, award-winning Mexican writer and journalist. For the past two years, Lopez has been reporting on the crisis of forced disappearance in Mexico, examining how more than 100,000 people across the country have vanished. Lopez’ work on forced disappearance has received widespread recognition and support, including a Livingston Award nomination, a Logan Nonfiction Fellowship, an Alicia Patterson Fellowship, and, most recently, a Radcliffe Fellowship from Harvard University. At Radcliffe, Lopez is working on a nonfiction book investigating the origins of forced disappearance and how it relates to the current crisis. Normally based in Mexico, Lopez has reported in more than a dozen countries for the likes of The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, Time, Newsweek, and many more.
Speakers: Gaudencia Margarita Garcia Hernandez, member of the Colectivo Regresando a Casa Morelos since 2017, formed by women relatives of disappeared persons. Her daughter Rubit Amador Garcia, was kidnapped in 2010, victim of a transnational sex trafficking network; Karla Quintana Osuna, National Commissioner for the Search of Disappeared Persons in Mexico (2019-2023) and is an International Expert (amicus curiae) for the Special Peace Jurisdiction in Colombia. She graduated as an attorney from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Quintana also obtained a graduate degree in Hispanic Literature from the same university. She has a Masters in Law (LL.M) from Harvard University and a Master in Gender Studies from the University of Barcelona. She holds an SJD from the Legal Research Institute at UNAM. Quintana was the head of the federal public defense of victims (Asesoría Jurídica Federal) of human rights violations and federal crimes. She also worked as a human rights specialist at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, being part of the Litigation Group, which provides support in litigating cases before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights; R. Aída Hernández Castillo, Senior researcher at the Center of Advanced Studies in Social Anthropology at Mexico City (CIESAS-CDMX) and Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Studies at Harvard (2023-2024). She did her undergraduate studies in the Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia, in Mexico City, and earned her master and doctorate in anthropology from Stanford University. She is the author of Multiple InJustices: Indigenous Women, Law, and Political Struggle in Latin America (University of Arizona Press, 2018), Histories and Stories from Chiapas. Border Identites in Southern Mexico (University of Texas Press 2005), and the coeditor of Transcontinental Dialogues Activist Alliances with Indigenous Peoples of Canada, Mexico, and Australia (University of Arizona Press, 2019), Dissident Women. Gender and Cultural Politics in Chiapas (University of Arizona Press 2006) and Mayan Lives, Mayan Utopias (Rowman and Littlefield 2003) among other books.
April 25th from 12-2pm: The AMLO Sexenio: Reflections on Violence, Organized Crime, and the Road to Peace
Upon taking office in late 2018, Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador promised a rupture with the war on drugs in search of alternatives for peace. However, insecurity and militarization remain pressing issues as the AMLO sexenio comes to a close. This panel will convene leaders from Mexican academia and civil society to answer several important questions. What changed in public security under AMLO and what has stayed the same? How has organized crime evolved during this period? What will be the role of civil society in brokering peace as we near a new presidency?
Introductory remarks Steve Levitsky, David Rockefeller Professor of Latin American Studies and Professor of Government at Harvard University
Moderated by Academy Scholars Joel Herrera and Marco Alcocer. Joel Herrera’s work examines the relationship between state building, drug trafficking, and violence in Mexico. He holds a PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles. Marco Alcocer studies organized crime and violence in Mexico and holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of California, San Diego.
Speakers: Luis Astorga is a Researcher at the Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. He holds a Doctorate in Sociology from the University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne. Astorga is also a member of Mexico’s Sistema Nacional de Investigadores (level II) and the Academia Mexicana de Ciencias. He is the author of ‘¿Qué querían que hiciera?’ (2015); Seguridad, traficantes y militares (Tusquets, 2007); Drogas sin fronteras (2003; 2015); El siglo de las drogas (1996; 2005; 2016); and Mitología del ‘narcotraficante’ en México (1995); Anabel Hernández is one of Mexico’s leading investigative journalists renowned for her extensive work over three decades. Hernández investigates Mexico’s drug cartels—principally the Sinaloa Cartel—and the corruption, violations of human rights, forced disappearances, and abuses of power of the Mexican government. As a result of her journalism, Hernández, her family, and her sources have received death threats and been victims of intimidation, acts which have gone unpunished. Throughout her career, Hernández has earned numerous accolades, including Mexico’s National Journalism Award in 2001, formal recognition by UNICEF in 2003, the Golden Pen of Freedom award from the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) in 2012, being named one of “100 information heroes” in the world by Reporters Without Borders in 2014, the “International Journalism Award” by the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, and the Freedom of Speech Award from Deutsche Welle in 2019. Additionally, she was decorated by the government of France with the medal of the Legion of Honor in 2017. Hernández has also been selected twice as a fellow in the Investigative Reporting Program (IRP) at the University of California, Berkeley; Karla Quintana was the National Commissioner for the Search of Disappeared Persons in Mexico (2019-2023) and is an International Expert (amicus curiae) for the Special Peace Jurisdiction in Colombia. She graduated as an attorney from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Quintana also obtained a graduate degree in Hispanic Literature from the same university. She has a Masters in Law (LL.M) from Harvard University and a Master in Gender Studies from the University of Barcelona. She holds an SJD from the Legal Research Institute at UNAM. Quintana was the head of the federal public defense of victims (Asesoría Jurídica Federal) of human rights violations and federal crimes. She also worked as a human rights specialist at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, being part of the Litigation Group, which provides support in litigating cases before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Quintana has also been a law professor at FLACSO-Mexico, Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) and, currently, at UNAM´s Law School. She also has a number of publications in human rights and constitutional law.
Presented in collaboration with the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs.