MEXICO CITY (AP) — If there’s a nonetheless open wound in Latin America, it’s that of the tens of hundreds of disappeared individuals and decades-long ache that has amassed in components of the area corresponding to Mexico and Colombia.
Two visions of the trauma had a central position on the 97th Academy Awards: the Brazilian movie “Ainda Estou Aqui” (“I’m Still Here”), which tells the drama of the household of a leftist former congressman who disappeared in 1971 on the top of the army dictatorship; and the musical “Emilia Pérez,” a couple of fictional Mexican drug lord who leaves a lifetime of crime to develop into a transgender girl and searcher for the disappeared in Mexico.
“We hope that in this way the society will be sensitized,” stated activist Indira Navarro, who directs the Guerreros Buscadores de Jalisco collective in Mexico and has been looking for her brother, who disappeared within the northern state of Sonora 9 years in the past.
The Academy Awards’ recognition of the movies, each of which have been nominated in a number of classes, was an unparalleled alternative to make the issue seen, Navarro stated.
“I’m Still Here,” by Brazilian Walter Salles, received the Oscar within the class of greatest worldwide movie. “Emilia Pérez”, by famend French director Jacques Audiard, was this yr’s most-nominated movie and received within the classes of greatest unique track and greatest supporting actress for Zoe Saldaña.
Salles and Audiard’s movies additionally had a typical denominator of disappearances in Latin America: impunity.
The story behind ‘I’m Nonetheless Right here’
“I’m Still Here” was impressed by the ebook “Ainda Estou Aqui” by Marcelo Rubens Paiva, son of the disappeared former congressman Rubens Paiva. Greater than 5 a long time after he was taken from his Rio de Janeiro residence and disappeared, none of these liable for Paiva’s case have been held accountable.
His widow, Eunice, and their 5 kids have sought justice for years. His household needed to wait 40 years to obtain his loss of life certificates and even longer for the authorities to acknowledge that he, like others, died within the context of the violence of the army dictatorship.
Salles, accepting the award, stated from the Oscars stage: “This goes to a woman who, after a loss suffered during an authoritarian regime, decided not to bend and to resist…Her name is Eunice Paiva.”
Marcelo Rubens Paiva informed The Related Press of the impression of the Oscars recognition: “People everywhere are afraid of watching their democracies become dictatorships… This movie glorifies democracy and the understanding that human rights, empathy are in short supply.”
The disappeared in Mexico
Within the case of “Emilia Pérez” the central character, a drug trafficker nicknamed Manitas del Monte ( Karla Sofia Gascón ), tries to vindicate his years as a felony in search of disappeared individuals together with lawyer Rita Castro (Saldaña). He by no means pays for his crimes nor are these liable for disappearances held accountable earlier than the Mexican justice system.
That’s similar to the truth in Mexico, the place in accordance with official figures there are presently 123,147 disappeared.
The United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances acknowledged in a report it introduced in April 2022, after a go to to Mexico, that solely between 2% and 6% of instances of disappearances have been prosecuted.
“Organized crime has become a central perpetrator of disappearances in Mexico, with varying degrees of participation, acquiescence or omission of public servants,” the committee stated.
The phenomenon of disappearances in Mexico started within the Sixties, however the numbers skyrocketed from the 2000s with the rise in drug trafficking actions and the struggle towards cartels undertaken by the federal government of then-President Felipe Calderón (2006-2012).
In Mexico the seek for many disappeared rests on the shoulders of their relations who, with scarce assets and with out safety from the authorities, enter areas managed by criminals to seek for their family members.
That’s true for Navarro, who spoke Monday whereas looking out a grave in western state of Jalisco that she and different activists positioned. She stated she hopes the Oscars will function “a wake-up call for the whole world and to know what we are really experiencing here in Mexico.”
____
Comply with AP’s protection of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
