Coahuila has 1,314 unidentified bodies and Durango has 595, according to the report “In Search of a Budget: Investment in the Identification and Search for Missing Persons,” which contains information from local search commissions across the country.
The document presents data through the end of 2024 and was published in late 2025. It highlights that Coahuila is among the 10 states with the largest discrepancies in the number of unidentified bodies between local search commissions and prosecutors’ offices, meaning there are differences in their records. Meanwhile, Durango is among the 10 states that invest the most resources in this issue, but with fewer results.
“In many cases, forensic services operate with historical backlogs, insufficient resources, and fragmented information systems, making it difficult for unidentified bodies to become points of truth and restitution for families,” the report states.
Among the states that allocated the most resources in 2024, Guanajuato, Baja California Sur, and Durango ranked 17th, 26th, and 24th, respectively, in terms of the number of unidentified remains.
“These figures show a significant gap between the magnitude of the problem and the budgetary response of the states.”
Coahuila’s Commission Has the Largest Staff
The document also provides information about the human resources working in search commissions across all states in the country, as well as the salaries of their directors.
In this regard, Coahuila’s commission has 69 employees, and its director earns 73,609.74 pesos, making them the seventh-highest-paid official in that position nationwide.
In Durango, the Search Commission has 15 employees, and its director receives a salary of 54,210 pesos.
“Accountability requires that state policy regarding the search for and identification of missing persons stop operating under principles of discretion or political will and move toward an institutional approach based on proactive transparency that guarantees measurable and continuous results,” the report prepared by Política Colectiva, Elementa, and Fundar states in its conclusions.
Source: milenio
