According to data from the National Registry of Missing and Unlocated Persons (RNPDNO) of the Ministry of the Interior, in 12 entities of the country the cases of missing persons have increased in the first weeks of the year.
The State of Mexico is the most striking case on the list since, in the period between January 1 and February 14, disappearances went from 88 registered in 2022 to 249 in 2023, that is, a difference of 161, which means an increase of 182.9 percent.
In second place is Michoacán with an increase of 127 cases, which translates into an increase of 409.7 percent. In the period of last year, a total of 31 events were registered, while for the present there were 158.
Puebla occupies the third place since it registered only two cases of missing persons in the entity in 2022 and by 2023 the figure stood at 30, which means that there is an exponential increase of 1,400 percent.
Tlaxcala has a similar case, since, by increasing the disappearances from two in 2022 to 22 in 2023, there was a growth of 1,000 percent.
The fifth place in this top was for Querétaro, which presented a difference of 17 cases. In this year it presents 20 and for the same period of 2022 there were only 3.
For their part, other entities that suffered an increase in the number of disappearances during the first month and a half of this year were Campeche, which had an increase of 114.2%, registering 15 cases; Hidalgo, which had an increase of 109% due to the 23 disappearances, and Baja California Sur, which suffered an increase of 108.3% due to its 25 total cases.
On the other hand, at the national level, disappearances have decreased 16.3% compared to the same period in 2022.
In the 45 days so far in 2023, the total number of missing persons reported by the authorities is 1,056, which means 207 fewer cases of disappearances in the national territory; since, from January 1 to February 14, 2022, the total number of reported disappearances was 1,263.
No policy to reduce cases
César Contreras, a lawyer from the Defense area of the ProDH Center, explained that they do not see a clear trend of reduction in the number of disappearances in the country nor of policies in the Federal Government or in state governments that generate a decrease in the issue.
He commented that the ProDH Center considers the militarization policy that has spread and deepened throughout the six-year term to be worrisome, since it is not an effective policy to reduce disappearances and also generates greater risks of human rights violations.
On the other hand, he considered that it will be necessary to wait a few months to know the true figures of disappearances that occurred in the first 45 days of the year, because the complaints are not always made at the time the disappearances occur.
“They look for the dead, instead of the living”
Grace Fernández, outreach director at Buscando desaparecidos México Búscame, considered that the authorities seemed more concerned with looking for the disappeared among the dead than among the living.
“From 2019 to here, the main lines of search are forensically oriented. You have to search the clandestine graves, which I am not saying is not important Of course it is important, but the general law on disappearances said that the priority and focus must be a search while alive, ”he reproached.
He also explained that, although there are efforts by the authorities, they are not enough and this is largely due to the fact that each institution works separately.
“When you have two instances in charge of the disappearance that do not speak to each other – that do not coordinate, do not work hand in hand, that seem to be in an eternal fight of egos over who does what or who makes it more beautiful, instead of who it does it faster or first to facilitate the location of people– well, you cannot speak of any exercise working”, the specialist stated.
On the other hand, the outreach director explained that, since Searching for the Disappeared Mexico Find Me, they have not noticed a decrease in disappearances.
“For example, we as a group can tell you that in the month of January we have received more new cases (of disappearances) than with respect to those I received in 2022,” he said.
