The Search

Nearly 100,000 people have been disappeared in Mexico. Their bodies lie unclaimed in morgues, in clandestine graves, or somewhere else unknown - disappeared without a trace.

In the absence of official efforts to locate the missing, human rights groups such as Paso del Norte Human Rights Centre and Families United for Truth and Justice have taken up the search for the missing.

The families of missing people put their physical and emotional integrity at risk during their tracking efforts. For speaking out and ‘dredging the past’, they can face reprisals. Yesterday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN-DH) released a statement on the murder of Gladys Aranza Ramos Gurrola, a member of Madres Buscadoras, or Searching Mothers in Ortiz, Guaymas municipality (Sonora).

Gurrola had been searching for her husband, Brayan Omar Celaya Alvarado, since he went missing in December 2020, and was an active campaigner on the issue of disappearances in Mexico. She was abducted and shot dead on 15 July.

The UN-DH notes: “The disappeared persons should never have missed their families, but after their disappearance it must be the state institutions that carry out the immediate search with the maximum of the resources available to locate the person alive. When a state fails to fulfil this duty, the families of missing persons are placed at risk.”

Despite their situation of risk, the organisations PBI accompany continue to fight for justice and for human rights.

Earlier this week, Canal 44 News - a Ciudad Juarez-based channel - reported on the work of the groups PBI accompanies in the city. PBI Mexico accompanied Paso del Norte and Families United and expressed concerns that local authorities were absent during the search.