On March 8, a collective of families and volunteers searching for missing persons entered the Izaguirre ranch in Jalisco, Mexico. The clues they had acquired led them to a place where they would find a secret they were not prepared for. Hundreds of shoes, T-shirts, pants, letters with goodbyes, bullet casings, and more. In addition, three crematoriums were found at the site. According to the authorities, the place was a center for recruitment (often forced), confinement, and extermination operated by one of the most powerful drug trafficking groups in Mexico.
It seems commonplace to talk about disappearances in Mexico, especially after the start of the so-called “War on Drugs” in the 21st century. Somehow, the sheer number of people whose families are still searching for them has numbed the Mesoamerican country’s capacity for repudiation.
Thousands and thousands of posters are plastered in cities, towns, and highways across Mexico with faces of lost humans, longed for, and vanished in the ghostly uncertainty of a state that can do little or nothing in the face of the enormous pile of folders with names. According to official figures, there are more than 125,000 missing persons in Mexico.
Sheinbaum’s proposal
Nevertheless, the discovery in Jalisco has served as a sort of collective jolt. The government of President Claudia Sheinbaum presented a series of legal reforms at the end of March that seek to improve the state’s ability to find the missing. Specifically, the president intends to modify the General Law on Forced Disappearance of Persons, Disappearance Committed by Private Parties, and the National System for the Search for Persons. The reform will likely be approved in the next few days.
“These are reforms to two laws to facilitate and expand investigations related to cases of enforced disappearance by private individuals, both by the Prosecutor’s Office and the Search Commissions,” said Sheinbaum when presenting the proposal to the press. In addition, she emphasized that it is the absolute responsibility of the National Government to address the problem of the disappearance of people in Mexico.
“What are we proposing with these laws? That, in the case of investigations related to high impact crimes, such as disappearances, all the databases should be available for the search,” stated the president.
What does the reform consist of?
The reform aims to effectively consult the data from different information systems, with the expectation that the disappearance of a person will be dealt with in a coordinated manner at the local and national level, both by state and federal authorities and private institutions.
Among the most important points of the reform are:
- The creation of the National Database of Investigation Files of Missing Persons.
- The creation of the Single Identity Platform that facilitates the management of the Unique Population Registry Keys (CURP), which will be the only source for identifying a person.
- The unification of biometric data in a single Administrative Registry.
- Participation of private institutions in the location of missing people, including the provision of data on financial services, health, parcels, transportation, telecommunications, etc. In addition, private companies must promptly provide any biometric data, and images (including satellite and aerial) required by the Prosecutor’s Office or agencies investigating missing people.
- Reduction of almost two-thirds of the penalty for persons who, within 10 days, release captives, as well as for perpetrators of kidnappings who provide information leading to the location of the persons alive.
- Reduction of one-quarter of the sentence for persons who clarify the facts of disappearance or who identify those responsible.
Controversy
After several meetings with collectives that search for the disappeared, the government incorporated a series of considerations that will have to be addressed by the Senate, which will ultimately decide on the final version of the law. However, many people associated with collectives searching for missing persons feel that Sheinbaum’s measures are insufficient in improving the state’s capacity to find missing people and are therefore requesting that their demands be heard in an open parliamentary forum. Others have even described the reform as one that will allow massive spying.
“We demand that the Senate of the Republic and the Chamber of Deputies of the Congress of the Union address this issue with professionalism, humanity, and seriousness,” a statement by over 300 families of missing persons reads. “That they be open to convening an Open Parliament in which the Federal Executive’s initiative can be publicly discussed. Failure to do so would concretize the process of simulation, which will result in greater impunity and prolong the torture we families are experiencing,” the document reads.
Among the 30 modifications accepted by the president is the power for forensic experts to act ex officio when identifying the bodies, as well as the power to denounce and report any authorities that do not act immediately upon a report or news of a disappearance. In addition, the authorities investigating disappearances must provide family members with the case number of the investigation, so that they can inquire about the status of the investigation. Also, the authorities must establish protocols to protect the sons and daughters of missing people.
