Mexico to compensate victims of drug violence
Congress passes law obligating government to pay reparations to survivors of the violence or families of casualties.
Mexico’s lower house of congress has approved a bill to compensate victims of drug-related violence and families of casualties.
The legislation creates a national institution that allocates federal funds paying reparations for damages to survivors of the violence. Families of victims will be eligible for payments up to $73,000.
The law, which was finally passed after much lobbying by activists, also obligates the government to investigate every registered case of a missing person.
About 50,000 people have been killed and many others have been kidnapped in the past six years of the country’s drug war.
Franc Contreras reports from Mexico City.