Law enforcement officials in the United States say it can be frustrating for family members when they realize U.S. police have no jurisdiction in Mexico and have to rely on their Mexican counterparts to investigate cases of missing Americans. Mexico has officially registered more than 100,000 people as missing or disappeared, according to data from the Interior Ministry's National Registry of Missing People. San Diego Union-Tribune reporter Alexandra Mendoza contributed to this report. Each year, millions of Americans visit Mexico without incident. The authorities do little to solve missing person cases, she says. When Karla Izquierdos ex-husband, Francisco Aguilar, disappeared in Rosarito, she unwillingly joined a group no one wants to become a member of: the tens of thousands of families searching across Mexico for their missing loved ones. "I'm not well psychologically after that," she said as she showed photos of the deep graves where burnt remains were buried, some wrapped in barbed wire. Most who disappeared here were truck drivers, cabbies, but also at least one family and various U.S. citizens. That's why a forensic technician smiled amid the devastation on a recent day: She had found an unburnt tooth, a treasure that might offer DNA to make an identification possible. Seeking to put an end to this cycle of violence and rupture of everyday life, families and collectives, in addition to going out to search, have not stopped demanding that the Mexican government provide truth, justice, and an end to these crimes. The power poles lining the highway farther north have been blasted with large-caliber weapons. For years, the government looked the other way as violence increased and families of the missing were forced to become detectives. Most of the missing are young men, many of them gang members. Despite the progress made, including hundreds of discoveries and identifications of remains, today the absence of 100,000 people a number that increases daily continues to have a devastating impact on Mexican society. Eduardo Verdugo/AP MEXICO CITY Mexico marked a grim milestone this week: The number of people officially listed as disappeared passed 100,000. And there are many thousands more missing in Mexico than there were in Cyprus. Those who did were often victims of the government itself, which was fighting an ugly campaign against left-wing student and guerrilla groups. Two suspects were arrested on Oct. 8, in possession of Aguilars stolen credit cards. Only three have been identified from pieces of burnt bones. As the CED Committee noted following its visit to Mexico last November: we received worrying information, both from authorities and victims, about varying patterns in the commission of enforced disappearances in different regions of the country, which operate simultaneously and evidence. Persons currently reported as missing in Mexico 1964-2021, by state. But even when remains are found, the task of identifying the dead can be arduous, at times taking investigators months of digging through the brush and combing through dirt for tiny fragments of bone, many of which can be too small or worn to help identify the body. Asked to comment, an FBI spokesperson said in a statement, While the FBI does not have jurisdiction on missing persons overseas, we are always ready to assist our international partners.. The missing haunt Mexicos collective memory, a crushing testament to the inability of government after government to staunch the bloodshed and bring criminals to justice. Documentary tells story of asylum-seeking mother in Southern California and Tijuana, Supreme Court wont hear arguments Title 42 case as planned, Driver extricated from overturned car after crashing off I-5 in La Jolla, 25 years to life in prison for nanny who fatally injured 4-week-old baby in her care, Imperial Beach school placed on lockdown after unsubstantiated threat of gun on campus, Feds say discovery of 2,200 pounds of meth at border crossing among largest seizures in San Diego County, Woman, 24, pleads not guilty in suspected DUI crash in downtown San Diego that killed passenger. A un committee reckons there is almost absolute impunity for disappearances. Tucson Samaritans / Los Samaritanos - 520.549.8903 - a Tucson based organization of humanitarian . According to Ms. Durn-Martnez, the crisis of the disappeared in Mexico speaks not just to the prevalence of organized crime, but also to the propensity for state security forces to be engaged in the violence. That day, accompanied by the state search commission and escorted by the National Guard, they entered the brush in search of a drug camp. Still, 324 American citizens have vanished since 2006 and not been found, according to the Mexican federal governments official tally of the missing. hide caption. A man who has been linked to her killing, Joran van der Sloot, is now serving a 28-year behind bars in Peru for the slaying of another young woman. Each state or federal database of fingerprints or genetic profiles is like an island, despite calls for bridges to connect them. Since then, the list has been updated monthly. It is incredible how having the evidence, having the audios, looking at photographs, looking at how these criminal groups do very severe damage to society, but just because of technicalities, because of details of interpretations and personal criteria, (the judges) let them go free, said Isaas Bertn, a top federal law enforcement official in Baja California. Mariano Escobedo #526, Col. Anzures, Miguel Hidalgo, C.P. A lock () or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Los Angeles firefighter Francisco Aguilar, who is now missing in Baja California, posed in front of his fire station with his daughter, Bella. Get FBI email alerts The suspects that are going to kidnap you want to make sure you have something for them to take.. The government announced last week that the remains of one of 43 teaching students kidnapped in Guerrero in 2014 had been identified by forensic scientists at the University of Innsbruck in Austria. Strangers are filmed with cell phones. Disappearances are considered the perfect crime because without a body, there's no crime. Share on Twitter Twitter They pointed out that day by day, in their search for answers and justice, they suffer the indifference and lack of progress. But the case is a relative rarity, in one sense because Aguilar, a 20-year veteran of the Los Angeles Fire Department, is an American citizen. Still, the work goes on at Nuevo Laredo. They have helped draft laws on searching for missing people, too. Following its visit to Mexico in November 2021, the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances stated: During these two weeks, the victims with whom we spoke conveyed the image of a society overwhelmed by the phenomenon of disappearances, the systemic impunity and their powerlessness in the face of the inaction of some authorities. Only a small fraction of those who have disappeared in Mexico went missing during this period (1,500 out of an estimated 73,200 total). In 2020, the federal auditor said that that system had only 7,600 registered disappeared and 6,500 registered dead. Mexico has officially registered more than 100,000 people as missing or disappeared, according to data from the Interior Ministrys National Registry of Missing People. The Interior Ministrys national registry of missing people dates back to 1964 and is updated periodically. The ICRC delegation for Mexico and Central America helps migrants and the families of missing persons, monitors detainee welfare, backs efforts to prevent violence among youth, supports Red Cross . In at least some of those cases, the missing party does not want to be found, police said. More than one quarter: in the last three years. In May, the FBI conducted an internal audit of its field offices and compiled a. The first time he went he saw "pelvis, skulls, femurs, everything just lying there and I said to myself, 'It can't be.'". But we dont know, and its like torture, that not knowing.. But he also promised in 2019 that authorities would have all the resources they needed. Did you encounter any technical issues? Working with picks and shovels, they have discovered clandestine graves and extermination sites, facing risks, lack of resources, and extreme conditions. The area was known as kilometer 26, a point on the highway and the invisible entrance to the kingdom of the Northeast cartel, a splinter of the Zetas. Today, under President Andrs Manuel Lpez Obrador, who took office in 2018, the daily toll of disappearances is 25. 2023 Cable News Network. I believe that every single hour after his disappearance was valuable A lot of time was wasted with people who did almost nothing, said Izquierdo this week. (This year, from January through June, there were nine deaths.) Each day, technicians place what they find -- bones, buttons, earrings, scraps of clothing -- in paper bags labeled with their contents: "Zone E, Point 53, Quadrant I. They investigated day and night, said Enrique Mndez, a spokesman for the Attorney Generals office in Baja California. To submit a letter to the editor for publication, write to, In Mexico, Nearly 100,000 People Are Missing. The nations largest federal law enforcement agency has new use-of-force rules. They will wait a long time; there are not enough resources and too many fragments, too many missing, too many dead. After six months of work, forensic technicians still don't dare offer an estimate. A government investigation concluded that local police pulled the teachers from a bus and handed them over to a drug gang, which murdered them. That is unlikely to be enough, given that this year the money is meant to include setting up the national human-identification centre too. Mr Lpez Obrador has made a few attempts to improve matters. Mexico is nearing a grim milestone: 100,000 disappeared people, according to Mexico's National Search Commission, which keeps a record that goes back to 1964. of missing persons received ICRC support and advice whether as members of working groups with the authorities, in training workshops, at events and during the search for their loved ones, whether alive or dead. It would be difficult to make a poster big enough to feature all of them, said Ms Nez. Almost 70 percent: in the last ten years. Crime gangs have a strong presence in all five. The house has been cleared, but four blackened spaces used for cremation remain. (Cynics reckon the police also prefer it when there is no body to be found, as it makes the homicide figures look lower than they really are.). Their dimensions are such that they are leaving deep and irreparable marks for the victims, but also for society at large. Some of the young men who disappear are not dead; they have been abducted and forced to join a gang. Grouped in the many collectives that have sprung up across the country, families have also led the forensic search. Theyre really good at boots on the ground with the limited resources and the other challenges they face.. Both the ICRC and the UN have called for family members to be allowed to work with government authorities in working to find their loved ones. He never made it to work. Marlene Harbig of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) discussed the trauma suffered by families with missing persons. Your browser does not support the
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