From February 2011 to August 2024, 22 murders of relatives of missing persons have been recorded in 13 states of the country, according to the Movement for Our Disappeared in Mexico. In addition, during the six-year term of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, 9 searchers disappeared.
“Of the 22 murders, 12 were committed against women and 10 against men searchers, 5 people were disappeared before being murdered. Regarding the relationship or kinship they had with the missing person they were looking for, the data collected showed that in 8 of the cases, the searchers were murdered; 6 cases of fathers; 6 cases of brothers and sisters and 2 cases of searchers wives,” explains the alliance of organizations.
Guanajuato (5) and Sonora (3) are the entities with the highest number of relatives of missing persons murdered for their search work; and the year 2022 was the deadliest for searchers, with five registered cases that occurred in Guanajuato (2), Puebla, Sinaloa and Sonora.
Regarding the cases of forced disappearance, only one remains missing, the Movement reported. Five were found dead and three alive. The entities where the disappearances occurred were: Jalisco with 3, Sonora and Guanajuato with 2 each, Zacatecas and Sinaloa with one case, respectively.
“These are cases where prior to the disappearance, both they and their families and groups experienced threats, physical attacks, theft of documents, attacks on their property, armed attacks and ultimatums,” said the “Diagnosis on security for groups of missing persons in Mexico.”
In 2018, Pablo Iván Miramontes Vargas disappeared and was found dead; In 2021, the disappearance of Gladys Aranza Ramos and José Nicanor Araiza was reported, the latter was found alive. In 2022, Rosario Lilian Rodríguez Barraza disappeared in Guanajuato and was found dead.
Last year, Yesenia Guadalupe Durazo Cota and Catalina Vargas disappeared, both found alive. While in 2024, the disappearance of Lorenza Cano Flores, Lucero Berenice Romo and Jesus Isaac Castillo Mireles was reported, the latter found dead.
“In six of the nine cases, the people being searched for were abducted from their homes by armed men, who entered them forcibly and with the use of violence. Most of these cases occurred in the presence of other family members, who received threats and physical attacks during the abduction,” says the Movement.
In one case, the report says, the son and husband of the woman who was being searched for were murdered and forcibly abducted. She remains missing.
In addition to being victims of murder and disappearance, members of Search Collectives often face physical attacks, threats, attacks on property, harassment and intimidation, break-ins, armed attacks, criminalization and stigmatization, among others.
Source: eluniversal
