▲ Several civil organizations demanded justice and posted tokens on the roundabout for the missing in Mexico City on August 30.Photo by Yazmin Ortega Cortes
Jessica Xantomila and Jared Laureles
The newspaper La Jornada
Sunday, September 15, 2024, p. 7
Despite the crisis of missing persons in the country, with 115,567 cases reported in the National Registry of Missing and Unlocated Persons, there are currently 14 states that do not have a state coordination system or mechanism for searches for the connection, operation and monitoring of the actions carried out by local authorities in this area, according to information from the National Search Commission (CNB).
The national registry of missing persons, which contains data dating back to December 1952, is fed daily with search forms, data from federal and state prosecutors, search commissions and reports from the victims’ families themselves, which can be submitted via the Internet.
Among the 14 states without a state coordination system or mechanism for searching are several of those with the highest number of missing persons reported nationwide, such as Tamaulipas, with 13,043 cases; Sinaloa, 5,628; Sonora, 4,836; Guerrero, 4,253; Coahuila, 3,598, and Baja California, 2,841.
In addition, in six states (Chihuahua, Durango, Oaxaca, San Luis Potosí, Sonora and Yucatán) there are no specialized prosecutors’ offices for missing persons. In 20 states there are no forensic identification centers and 13 lack centers for the safekeeping of bodies of unidentified persons.
Furthermore, while all states have a local search commission, five are without a position (Baja California, Colima, State of Mexico, Tlaxcala and Veracruz), so they are headed by people in charge of the office.
In 14 commissions there is little staff, with a maximum of 30 workers. Regarding this point, the head of the CNB, Teresa Reyes Sahagún, acknowledged that the number of workers is small for the size of the task
that lies ahead.
For this reason, in a session of the National Search System, held last Thursday, he urged With all due respect and the corresponding protocol
to find a mechanism to encourage state governments to help us with more personnel, because it is a great task that is being carried out.
.
He pointed out that among all the local commissions We would bring together a universe of 1,211 people
current workers, while the CNB alone has 263.
The entities with the least personnel are Oaxaca, with five; Campeche, seven; Querétaro, eight; Yucatán, 10; Morelos, 11; Colima, 13; Tabasco, 16; Aguascalientes, 19; Nayarit, 20; Quintana Roo, 20; Guanajuato, 22; Durango, 23; Tlaxcala, 24, and Baja California, 30.
The local commissions with the most workers are Jalisco, with 152; Coahuila, 82; Veracruz, 81; Nuevo Leon, 69; San Luis Potosi, 66; Puebla, 64; State of Mexico, 63; Mexico City, 56, and Sinaloa, 50.
