Jessica Xantomila and Jared Laureles
La Jornada Newspaper
Saturday, January 31, 2026, p. 7
With the reform of the General Law on Disappearance of Persons, in July 2025, it is mandatory that all search reports be accompanied by an investigation folder. Hence the importance of these files not being seen as simple documents by the authority, since, according to complaints from relatives of victims, there are still cases in which Public Ministry personnel dirty them and do not keep them updated.
This was recognized by María Elizondo, legal advisor of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for Mexico and Central America, within the framework of the launch of the “Living Folders” campaign. He indicated that, in addition, the families have indicated that on many occasions they are the ones who provide the files with information.
The organization called on the competent authorities to do everything in their power to clarify the fate and whereabouts of the missing, who as of January 2026 numbered 130,000, according to the registry of the National Search Commission.
“All folders have to be treated with dignity, they cannot be lost, stained” or generate delays because no documents are attached, Elizondo emphasized.
“They are the life story of the missing people, because they are told from when they were physically present with their family, what they did, what they did, who their close circle was, where they were,” he said, but it is also the only thing that their relatives have after the disappearance and in which the possible trace of their whereabouts is kept.
He explained that although there are authorities that have the infrastructure to have these documents in decent conditions, others do not, “perhaps due to issues of resources or bureaucracy.”
The ICRC also distributed the “Information Guide: Investigation folder for the search for people” and Elizondo explained that it explains the minimum procedures, such as what a search plan must have. It also includes a glossary of technical terms.
For those who have a missing loved one, their search is a right, “it is not their obligation, but unfortunately there are cases where institutions for various reasons have turned families into the investigators themselves,” he lamented.
