With 106,837 missing people, Mexico’s government announced a new “life” geenral search program. Alejandro Encinas, Undersecretary of Human Rights, considered that “it was urgent to recognize that the crsis of disappeared people is part of the most painful legacy that this government received.” The State failed to search for people and protect human rights,” he said. In addition, the Undersecretary mentioned that “although the number of missin people continues to grow, the number of people located is already higher.
However, Encinas stressed that from February 8, 2019, to October 24, 2022, 3,356 search activities were carried out in 28 entities and 404 municipalities. In Mexico, the states with the highest number of disappeared are Jalisco (12,719), Tamaulipas (9,561), and the State of Mexico (6,536).
El Solecito collective has submitted a report, with evidence, to the International Criminal Court to demand that the crimes of forced and systematic disappearance be considered crimes against humanity. There are more than 105,000 missing people in Mexico. 88,000 cases were from 2006, when the then president of the country, Felipe Calderón, initiated the so-called war on drugs that increased during the mandate of Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018) and continues during the current Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
The Solecito collective is integrated by mothers of disappeared persons in Mexico. These, in particular, belong to the state of Veracruz. Due to impunity, incapacity, and the lack of will of the institutions, authorities, and government, they have carried out a crusade: they have become seekers, researchers, experts, anthropologists, and activists … This is the endless list of activities that mothers have carried out (even though professionals should have executed them) to find the remains of their loved ones, tasks tinged with pain, time, illness and economic losses.
Lucía Díaz Genao, from El Solecito collective, whose son has been missing since 2013, is one of the mothers who has traveled to The Hague, where they have delivered relevant information. “We are trying to have Javier Duarte (former governor of Veracruz), and his secretary of public security (Arturo Bermúdez) criminally charged (internationally) due to the disappearances. “The International Criminal Court (ICC) must get involved; as long as impunity continues, the tragedy will have no end”, Lucia said.
Netherlands-based human rights activists are demonstrating to ask the International Criminal Court to start an investigation complaint for alleged crimes against humanity related to enforced disappearance in Veracruz, Mexico. — Felix Marquez
Members of the Citizen Council of the National Search System, and the National Movement for Our Disappeared in Mexico, met with US authorities to request support with resources, training, experts, and political relations to intervene with Mexican authorities to address disappearances and forensic identification of people.
The coordinator of the National Citizen Council, Virginia Garay Cázares, met with US members of Congress, including Jesús ‘Chuy’ García, of Mexican origin representing Illinois. They explained that there are more than 106,000 missing people in Mexico and that in addition to the disappearance, the forensic crisis, impunity persists in the country without the capacity of local authorities to address these issues.
The search group requested the Mexican prosecutor Alejandro Gertz Manero to discuss these issues within the framework of binational activities, the Mexico-United States High-Level Security Dialogue.
The National Movement for Our Disappeared in Mexico is also In Washington to receive the Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award for human rights defenders. Members of the Movement took the opportunity to dialogue with political representatives who attended the High-Level Security Dialogue and presented these circumstances. They also called for an end to firearms sales in the United States because it affects Mexico’s security. Virginia Garay called on Mexican authorities, so that next year’s budget for the National Search Commission and all the organic instruments to address the problem of disappearances in Mexico become more significant and more evident in terms of their work.
El Ajusco, a wooded area, located south of Mexico City, is used to get rid of victims of feminicide and homicide. In the last two years, the bodies of at least 11 women have been found dead in El Ajusco. The middle part of El Ajusco is considered a clandestine grave. Therefore relatives of the disappeared went into this coniferous forest, where the vegetation and loneliness of the places cover up abandoned bodies. Among ravines, mud and fallen trees, the relatives of missing persons carried out a massive search for human remains.
Mayte Valadez, the founder of the collective “Guerreras Buscadoras de Sonora”, reported: “We already worked here yesterday, and there was a positive finding of skeletal remains; El Ajusco is such a beautiful place, so beautiful, that one would never imagine that it is a clandestine grave. We found a skull and a jaw.”
At 78 years old, Don José does not stop looking for his niece Josefina Díaz, who disappeared eight years ago in Iztapalapa, Mexico City. José Díaz, a relative of the disappeared, commented: “I believe she might be here. We brought iron sticks to dig into the land; yes, one gets tired, but it turns out that the need to find your relative makes you go on.”
Relatives, students, collectives, and members of civil society joined the demonstration to commemorate the eighth year of that unfortunate night in Iguala
Baruc Mayen / Infobae / September 27, 2022
Eight years after that tragic night in Iguala, the 43 disappeared Ayotzinapa students’ relatives continue searching for the truth and justice in the case.
Despite the uncertainty, the families of the students and their fellow students maintain their conviction to fight to have the answers they need. Around seven thousand people marched – according to official figures from the Secretariat of Government of Mexico City – from the Angel of Independence to the Zócalo downtown. The mobilization began minutes after 4:00 p.m. Among some classic slogans of these demonstrations, the attendees chanted, “September 26 is not forgotten”, “Quiet student will never be heard,” and “They were taken alive, alive we want them!”.
One of the elements to highlight today’s march was the low police presence during the first hours, which contrasted with the usual deployment of police officers on the sides of avenues such as Paseo de la Reforma, Juárez, and 5 de Mayo. On this occasion, those who accompanied the demonstrators from the beginning were members of the Rescue and Medical Emergencies Squad (ERUM) and personnel from the Ministry of Interior, headed by Martí Batres.
No More Blood in Mexico 