The 11 actions of Mexico against disappearing and ceasing to be "a great underground grave"

The federal government introduced this Tuesday the ambitious plan for the implementation of the general law on enforced disappearance of persons, which contains 11 actions to deal with this "humanitarian crisis".

The presentation was in charge of the Under-Secretary of Human Rights of the Ministry of the Interior, Alejandro Encinas, who said that in Mexico, there are 40,000 missing persons, more than 1,100 clandestine graves and around 26,000 unidentified bodies in the police forensics.

These figures reflect "The magnitude of the humanitarian crisis and the violation of human rights we face"said Mr. Encinas, who did not hesitate to warn that Mexico had become a "great underground grave".

The official explained that The fundamental objective of this plan is to develop with victims' families and organizations the general bases and public policies for the search, location and identification of missing persons.as well as preventing, investigating and punishing those responsible.

"We seek to develop a differentiated approach allowing us to better tackle research tasks across the country, it has unfortunately turned into a huge underground grave, "he said.

Encinas said that for the families of the victims "the real compensation for the harm suffered in these cases is the application of justice and the condemnation of those responsible"

He badured that the federal government was working in the enforcement of the general law on enforced disappearances and enforced disappearances committed by individuals in the creation of the National Research System (SNB) and in a national institute of judicial identification..

By ensuring that there has been a "simulation" in the past to solve the problem of disappearances, Encinas has provided that the SNB will have a budget of 400 million pesos.

This money will be used for its purpose, and not as it happened under the government of Enrique Peña Nieto, who installed the SNB, two weeks before finalizing its management, allocated a budget of 468 million pesos (about 24 million dollars), but applied only 6 million (about 300,000 dollars).

Encinas pointed out that a priority will be the search for living people. "We must act immediately to find those related to enforced disappearance and to deal with the issues related to human trafficking."

The plan presented is the result of a series of consultations led by the new federal government since the transition periodbetween July and November, with groups, organizations, relatives of the victims and at the request of international organizations.

The official stated that The integration of research commissions in the 32 states of the country is a fundamental challenge. and he recalled that currently 20 entities are without decree, four are already formed and eight others are being processed.

"The goal is have all possible records in a single database with which we will be certain of the magnitude of the problem and deal with it more effectively, "he said.

The 11 points of the Missing Persons Search Strategy

These are the 11 points the plan of application of the general law on enforced disappearance of persons.

Resettlement of the national research system. Complete its integration and start-up for the month of March, with the aim of achieving close coordination with States and their prosecutors.

Appointment of a new head of the National Research Commission. Interviews with the 11 registered candidates will take place in open court. Friday, the elections will be announced.

Formation of state commissions to search for missing persons. To date, there are only 8 integrated and in 4 states, there is a decree for its conformation, but not responsible. In the rest of the 20 entities, there is nothing.

Resources for research and identification of missing persons. For this year 2019, a budget of 400 million pesos has been allocated to the National Research Commission, and the resources of the Fund for Support to Public Security in States, endowed with 7,500 million pesos, will also be used. This in order to develop forensic identification skills.

Development and application of protocols. These will be developed with victim family organizations and international organizations and will include an approved protocol for the investigation of crimes related to enforced disappearance and approved protocols for research, exhumation and reintegration. body identification.

Prevention and priority to research in life. Promote preventive tasks to help people who may still be in a life situation to protect themselves from enforced disappearances and human trafficking.

It also includes badistance to migrants, especially on risky routes, through action protocols that will be implemented with the institutions responsible for public security.

Victim care. The goal is to make the response capacity of the Victims Assistance Commission effective. This includes the revision of the protection mechanism for human rights defenders and journalists, permanent accompaniment in field research, streamlining of registration processes for access to emerging funds and strengthening the consolidation of executive commissions in the states.

Establishment of a national institute for forensic identification. This is to create a national coordination system for all the country's forensic police services, which will be ready in March.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, the National School of Anthropology, the United Nations agencies, the Forensic Anthropology Team of Argentina are participating in this task.

Integration of the unique system of information technology and information technology. Its purpose is to coordinate information on enforced disappearances in hospitals, psychiatric care centers, the DIF system, health and addiction centers, detention centers and prisons, the penitentiary system, forensic services , the national registry of deceased persons. public and private homes, pantheons or places of rest of mortal remains.

National and international technical badistance. In particular with United Nations agencies, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the German Cooperation Agency, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the European Union, among others.

Justice and criminalization. Encourage each state prosecutor to put in place comprehensive response and information-sharing mechanisms to respond more effectively to cases of disappearance.

Also review the typification of crime and its applications, which involves participating in the International Convention for the Protection of All Missing Persons.

In addition, the law will establish full responsibility for the crimes of enforced disappearance of superiors from those who have ordered, in the case of state agencies, to commit this type of crime. Establish in law the benefits of effective collaboration and witness protection mechanisms.