Marking the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances
In May 2022, a dark landmark was reached in Mexico as the number of people registered as disappeared reached 100,000.
As many disappearances go unreported, the true scale of this horror is tragically unknown. On the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearance, we revisit the challenges and risks faced by those seeking to uncover the truth in Mexico in our short film ‘THE SEARCH’
AYOTZINAPA
Almost eight years after the enforced disappearance of 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teacher Training School, progress towards justice is finally being seen.
The Commission for Truth and Access to Justice, created by the government of President López Obrador three years ago, recently concluded that the disappearance of 43 Ayotzinapa teacher training students was a “state crime”, with “obvious collusion” seen “between agents of the Mexican state [and the] criminal group Guerreros Unidos that tolerated, allowed and participated in events of violence and disappearance of the students, as well as the government's attempt to hide the truth about the events."
As the Commission’s investigations continue, PBI hopes that the Mexican Government will keep working to clarify the facts of the case, address the systemic issue of disappearances, and vitally - establish the whereabouts of the young students so that their families can begin to heal.
PASO DEL NORTE
“Most cases of disappearance in El Valle are perpetrated by organized crime groups. These are people who seek to reach the United States and in some way do not pay these organized crime groups so that they can access the United States through these routes and they are disappeared”
- Carla Palacios, Paso del Norte Human Rights Center.
The Paso del Norte Human Rights Centre in Ciudad Juárez, on the border with Texas, was the first organisation to receive accompaniment from PBI in northern Mexico. The Centre emerged as a space that could advise and instruct the local community about their civil rights. Its goal is to build awareness of human rights, advocate for their promotion and defence, and to work towards the cultural and social transformation of Juárez, which is marred by violence against women, executions, corrupt security forces and a climate of impunity.
Due to their work in defence of human rights and denouncing violence, the Centre has been harassed and threatened by organised crime, as well as state and federal authorities. In recognition of their work representing families and victims of torture and enforced disappearance, Maricela Vazquez and Carla Palacios were awarded the Sir Henry Brooke Award for Human Rights Defenders in 2019.
Mexico is far from the only State in which people are forcibly disappeared. PBI stands in solidarity with all those seeking the truth about the whereabouts of their loved ones, today and every day.
