Mexican Feds To Create Police Investigative Joint Unit For Missing Persons

A federal government joint unit composed of Segob and the PGR will investigate thousands of missing reports of Mexican nationals, but will it also investigate Central and South American undocumented immigrants missing in Mexico.

By H. Nelson Goodson

May 18, 2013

Mexico City, Mexico - On Friday, both Jesús Murillo Karam from the Attorney General's Office (PGR) and Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong, the Secretary of Government (Segob) announced during a press conference that they will create a federal missing persons investigative police joint unit (FMPIPJU) composed of members from the Segob and PGR to investigate more than 26,000 registered missing reports of Mexican nationals. Both Karam and Chong didn't confirm, if the specialized police unit will also investigate missing reports of at least 70,000 of undocumented immigrants from Central and South America. 

Shortly after the decision was made to create the FMPIPJU, hundreds of mothers from Mexico City, the states of Mexico, Oaxaca, Jalisco, Tamaulipas and Veracruz ended their hunger strike that began on May 9, to bring awareness of the thousands of sons and daughters that have been reported missing in Mexico.

The Mexican government reported that at least 26,000 missing persons reports are filed since 2006, but those reports get lost or ignored in different Mexican federal government agencies. The new FMPIPJU (Segob/PGR) will now be in charge of investigating those reported disappearances. 

In 2011, the National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) in a press release reported that more than 5,000 people had disappeared between 2006 to 2011. Of those, 3,457 or 79 percent were men and 1,885 were women.

The NCHR also reported that 8,898 deceased victims have not been identified. The PGR reported that between 2006 to the end of 2010, at least 34,612 deaths were caused by violent crimes.

Some of the missing undocumented immigrants traveling through Mexico have also become victims of criminal organizations and drug cartel feuds, murder, kidnappings for ransom, prostitution rings, drug trafficking, human organ trafficking and extortions.

In the last six years, at least 70,000 of undocumented immigrants from Central and South America have been reported missing in Mexico by their families. More than 140,000 immigrants, including women and children make their way every year through Mexico on their way to the U.S. border.