Prosecutors must provide information to find the disappeared: CNB

Nestor Jimenez

Newspaper La Jornada
Monday, May 23, 2022, p. eleven

The National Search Commission (CNB) and state agencies of this type lack tools to, among other things, request searches or request information on calls that could be decisive in locating people; State or federal prosecutors do have all of this, however, there is resistance to sharing details, explained Karla Quintana, head of that body.

He stressed that if it is not understood that this is a State issue, it will be difficult to achieve the results expected by the families of the victims. To facilitate his actions, he called for a discussion even on constitutional matters that allows other instances to have greater participation and powers.

After more than 100,000 people were reported missing last week, Quintana emphasized that they are not numbers; they are people, they are families that have broken upbut the count allows for a broad analysis of disappearances to establish public policies.

He indicated that the authorities of the three levels of government are obliged to deal with the cases, as well as the legislatures and the prosecutor’s offices, but the search for people and prevention “is a state matter, and that is how it has to be seen, while let’s understand it from the different authorities from that perspective, beyond ‘it’s your turn, it’s my turn’, the only thing we are doing is paying for the non-resolution of the crisis”.

There are more than 52 thousand unidentified bodies

In interview with the day, pointed out that an institution cannot solve a multifactorial crisis alone. He also indicated that accompanying the disappearances is the forensic crisis (with more than 52 thousand unidentified bodies, at least) and in matters of justice there is a high rate of impunity.

“As long as there is no clear message that if you disappear someone there will be a consequence, obviously there is an open field for impunity and the repetition of the facts. If all these crises are combined with the different forms of violence, this scenario arises, that no matter how much progress is made –little or much, depending on the evaluation– if it is not parallel in an integral manner, there will not be the results to which the victims are entitled. .”

He criticized the lack of collaboration of some instances. For example, “more than 400 fields of information are requested from the authorities, mainly prosecutors – more than 70 percent is provided by these dependencies – and they do not give us all of it. That could be very valuable for people search.”

He argued that the lack of cooperation is multifactorial, and although there are highly committed personnel if there is no directive from the head, they are isolated efforts.

Other reasons for the refusal is that obviously we are going to realize many things, and I think that deep down there is fear for many people who are there that they could be involved through negligence, action or omission.

Quintana explained that another factor that hinders the searches is the legal difference between missing persons and those who have not been located, on which the CNB does not agree with that classification, since the difference is that the latter are considered not to have been of a crime.

The prosecutor’s office has legal teeth to do things that we commissions can’t do, I can’t ask for a call sheet, I can’t ask for a search warrant, I can’t ask for a geolocation. Everything has to go through a Public Ministry.

Given that, they can say that the commissions have the obligation to look for them, yes, but with what legal tools?

She recognized that this leaves her with absolute frustration, because regardless of who gets it, it’s not about fighting attributions, but about getting it done. If you are not going to do it for whatever reason, which we consider unjustified in terms of the ultimate goal of locating people, others should be allowed to do it.