What is done when a soldier disappears?
The Armed Forces have a protocol to implement when a soldier disappears. According to the Secretary of National Defense, when an item’s whereabouts are unknown:
a) The search, location and, if possible, rescue of the military is ordered. Preparing the official parts and including the background of the missing element.
b) The agent of the military Public Prosecutor’s Office is summoned to proceed in accordance with his faculties and attributions.
c) Coordination is established with the instances of the three levels of government with the purpose of implementing mechanisms that help to locate the whereabouts of the disappeared military.
d) Advice is given to the next of kin so that they can present their complaint to the Federal Public Ministry and they are guided on the actions they must follow, as well as the benefits to which they are entitled while their legal situation is determined. They are given 100% of the resources that the military received.
Military in security tasks
During the last three six-year terms, the military has performed public security tasks.
Former President Felipe Calderón took them out of the barracks to take charge of public security tasks. On December 11, 2006, 7,000 military and police officers were sent to Michoacán to implement the largest anti-drug operation that had been carried out up to that time.
The use of the Army in public security tasks has been questioned and rejected by experts and civil society organizations because they are not prepared for it.
“They are very different disciplines. The Army’s task is to take charge of national security, from abroad. It is up to the civil bodies to take charge of public safety. The civil police are governed by a series of protocols such as the Single Police Certificate, first responder action protocols and more, it is a specialization scheme for civil police, which the military does not have, their training is different, ”says Juan Carlos Piña, security specialist and professor at the Monterrey Technological Institute of Higher Education (ITESM).
Until last December 19, in Mexico there were 179,079 soldiers deployed in tasks of public security, maritime and port protection, immigration control, intensive eradication of illegal plantations, combating hydrocarbon theft, among others.
