The Colectivo Contra la Tortura y la Impunidad (CCTI) is based in Acapulco on Mexico’s Pacific coast. CCTI was born from the onslaught of police brutality faced by citizens during the past two decades of the State’s War on Drugs. “In Mexico, torture is systematic and widespread,” says CCTI’s founding member, Dr Javier Enriquez Sam, who sadly passed away in 2021. “Grave violations of human rights continue in Mexico, since there is no way to stop this situation, or to punish or sanction the ones responsible for these acts.” So CCTI’s mission, says Cristian Urbalejo Luna, General Coorindator, is to “contribute to the construction of the rule of law” through documenting torture, and thereby challenging prevailing impunity.

With some 40,000 people suffering enforced disappearance between 2009 and 2018, CCTI provides psychosocial support to not only survivors, but the families of those still missing. “The purpose of repression is to hinder the mobilisation of our struggle, our voices, our cause,” says Enrique Guerrero Avina, a former political prisoner who was held for over five years. “But in the end, as a collective, we managed to demonstrate that we were right.”
Learn more about CCTI’s work at: www.contralatortura.org