Mexican Government Announces The Creation Of Specialized Unit For The Search Of Missing People

The Mexican government announced a new unit that will search for missing persons. The creation of this task force comes amidst a continuing drug war that begun during the administration of former president Felipe Calderon and continues to this day.

Mexico's Attorney General, Jesús Murillo Karam, said that with the creation of this unit the government will be better equipped in the search for missing persons and that it will put an end to the bureacracy which the families of those that have disappeared have to face.

During the announcement Murillo Karam, reported that the task force had been created in response to the most common complaints frequently received during investigations. "The common thread among all the complaints was that it the investigation was almost always abandoned, sometimes for reasons directly attributable to an individual and sometimes, because of a badly coordinated system."

The Attorney General said, "What we a reassessing today is a bureaucratic maze. We'll exhaust all our options and speak with absolute transparency."

Murillo Karam said that his office has accepted monitoring from outside agents so that the rights of the families involved are always guaranteed: "because it is the only way that we will keep this effort on the right track."

Miguel Angel Osorio Chong, Mexico's Minister of the Interior, said that he is looking to use all the tools and resources available in this effort. "We know how dissatisfied these families have been for a long time," the official acknowledged the families, many of whom have been complaining that the authorities are not interested in finding their children.

The government's last record was that 26,121 people had disappeared during Calderón's term, which was characterized by a wave of violence attributed to organized crime and the fight against it, in which over 70 thousand people were killed.

However, Osorio Chong said that he was reviewing the official number of missing people case by case and that in about two months time a new figure which he predicts will show a "significant" decrease in the number of missing persons will be announced.

He explained that many people considered missing had simply left their homes temporarily for personal reasons or had decided to emigrate.

The specialized unit will be headed by the Attorney General's Office (PGR) and was announced this month in response to a hunger strike held for nine days by a dozen mothers still searching for their missing children.

Without specifying the number of investigators and forensic experts required to work for the unit, or the resources involved, Osorio Chong admitted that procedures will still have to be defined (along with the transfer of resources needed and the office space available), but concluded that all will be resolved "in a matter of days."

(Source)