They don’t party; They ask for justice for their absent children

Jessica Xanthomila and Cesar Arellano

Newspaper La Jornada
Wednesday, May 11, 2022, p. 3

On Mother’s Day, as for 11 years, women looking for their children they took the streets of the country’s capital to demand truth and justice for their loved ones. Enough of impunity, we want our disappeared back, demanded at the Angel of Independence, after marching from the Monument to the Mother. Between photographs of their relatives, they reproached the federal and state authorities for not having stopped this tragedybecause today there are almost 100 thousand disappeared.

The representative in the country of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Guillermo Fernández Maldonado, asserted that There are no more mothers in the world looking for their children than in Mexico. and recognized those that they searched until they died, starting with Rosario Ibarra de Piedrawho passed away on April 16 last and was one of the pioneers.

The mobilization, which began with an ecumenical prayer, started under a harsh sun from the Monument to the Mother shortly after 10 in the morning. Relatives of disappeared persons from various entities in the country participated, such as Nuevo León, Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Coahuila, Guerrero and the state of Mexico, as well as from Central America, who made their message clear: This day is not a party, it is a day of struggle and protest, son, listen, your mother is in the fight!

Most of the demonstrators came with t-shirts, caps and scarves with the faces of their children, while others printed the search forms of their relatives on posters and blankets. Some more carried banners that read: I do not sleep, I do not live, because my son is not with me, Today, May 10, my daughter should be celebrating with her baby and I should not be marching to be heard.

One of the mothers who attended was Aracely García, who shared that her son Juan Luis Lagunilla, a federal police officer, was disappeared in Nuevo León. We do not know what happened to him, his colleagues only told us that he was missing, counted. In an interview, he said that as a result of this, for 11 years, his family no longer celebrates May 10, since it became a day to demand justice.

Although mainly mothers participated in the march, fathers and sisters also joined, some, representing them, because they have already passed away.

This is the case of Lizeth and Maricarmen, who are looking for their father, Gersain Cardona Martínez, who has been missing since 2009. My mother died in 2016 looking for her husband, since 2012 she came to the march, but now it’s just usthey commented.

Before reaching the Angel of Independence, the contingent made a stop at what was the roundabout of La Palma to reiterate their request that it be renamed as missing persons roundabout. There they placed transparent containers filled with soil with photographs of their loved ones.

Already at the rally, in the Winged Victory, the organizing groups of the March for National Dignity demanded that the authorities after we put our trust in choosing them, they allowed the ones we love most to disappear.

They pointed out that theylike yesterday and today, they are complicit in allowing disappearances to continue and, above all, that this humanitarian tragedy engulfs the entire country.

In his turn, Bishop Raúl Vera and Fernández Maldonado recognized the work of mothers and relatives who are looking for their loved ones. you guys they are the main engine that has moved this human machinery that has been unleashed, thank God, throughout the Republic to force the federal, state and municipal governments to search for the disappearedsaid Vera.

Fernández Maldonado stated that the mothers they have overcome the pain and have faced what the State has not been able to do up to now: an investigation and the search for.

At night, the National Migration Institute (INM) reported that the head of this unit, Francisco Garduño, established a dialogue table with the members of the Caravan of Central American Mothers, with the aim of broaden search pathways and processes. He said that among the scope of the meeting is the opening of the files of the National Immigration Registry, to verify data of one of his missing relatives, in addition to making available INM personnel files to report a case of extortion.