Mexico Drug Cartels Force-Recruit Indigenous Children: UN

Mexican drug cartels are forcing children and teens from Indigenous communities to join them, torturing or killing them if they refuse, the United Nations said. 

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Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, the U.N.'s special rapporteur on Indigenous rights, said she is "particularly worried" about this type of violence.

"In areas affected by organized crime and the production and trafficking of drugs, the only choice left to young people is to join these groups or be tortured, disappeared or killed," she said in a press conference.

Tauli-Corpuz spoke to Indigenous communities from Mexico during a 10-day tour, when she met with members of 23 ethnic groups from 18 different regions.

"I have been presented with numerous cases of serious violations."

The official, from the Philippines, visited the states of Chihuahua, Guerrero and Chiapas, where she said many young Indigenous people have disappeared.

The official, from the Philippines, visited the states of Chihuahua, Guerrero, and Chiapas, where she said many young Indigenous people have disappeared.

Tauli-Corpuz said criminal groups, military and in some cases authorities had allegedly forced some Indigenous communities off their land to clear the way for mining projects.

They used massacres, murders, kidnappings, rape and torture, according to the official.

From the 125 million people living in Mexico, around 6.5 percent are Indigenous, and 61.9 percent live in poverty or extreme poverty, according to Tauli-Corpuz.