In seven entities, 71% of unidentified bodies

Experts and relatives of disappeared persons agreed that challenges remain in Mexico, such as strengthening forensic medical services and applying the recommendations that international organizations have given to the authorities.

Olivier Dubois, head of the regional delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross, commented that in Mexico medical-forensic services should be strengthened in terms of identification of bodies of disappeared persons.

Although there is forced disappearance as such, what we have seen is that there is also an administrative disappearance due to lack of follow-up of good practices when a body arrives at an expert service, a forensic medical service,” Dubois said during the presentation of the third edition of the publication “Enforced disappearance in Mexico: a view from the organizations of the United Nations System”, at the Guadalajara Book Fair.

The document reported that there are currently more than 52,000 unidentified bodies in mass graves, forensic service facilities, universities, and forensic shelter centers.

The states of Baja California, Mexico City, the State of Mexico, Jalisco, Chihuahua, Tamaulipas and Nuevo León concentrate 71.7% of the unidentified bodies.

“Forensic services are insufficient, and, as further developed, several of the instruments provided for in the General Law have not yet been established and there is no public policy for human identification in relation to the disappearance of persons.

“According to various experts interviewed, under the current conditions it would take 120 years to identify them, not counting the new bodies that are added every day,” the delivery reads.

Crisis worsens

Anna Karolina Chimiak, coordinator of the Center for Justice for Peace and Development AC, commented that, in the country, since last year, there has been a worsening of the severe crisis of disappearances and that there is “almost absolute” impunity.

He mentioned that Jalisco has occupied the first national place in terms of the number of disappeared people since 2019 and that, during the last year, the figure has increased by 8 percent.

He said that the absence of guarantees of effective access to justice has caused impunity of more than 99% for crimes of disappearance of persons.

“In Jalisco, in particular, there have been several advances in what corresponds to the creation of tools, institutions or laws in the face of the seriousness of the context, but the same seriousness of the context constantly reminds us that this has not been enough,” Karolina commented. Chimiak.

Revictimization in Jalisco

Marlety García, mother of César Ulises Quintero, a student from the University of Guadalajara who is missing, commented that in the municipalities of Jalisco the families of the victims suffer from the transfers since most of the justice administration units are centralized in the Guadalajara Metropolitan Area and many of them do not have the resources for travel.

In addition, he mentioned that many people suffer from re-victimization, are unaware of the tools they can use to request justice and that the state government has left them with a duty.

The searching mother commented that the searches they carry out for their loved ones cause them, in many cases, illnesses that cannot be treated due to the actions they carry out to find the whereabouts of their loved ones.

But, he indicated that the death of search mothers is not only due to sadness or these illnesses, but also because of the risk that carrying out the searches entails, several mothers have been murdered.

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