Guadalajara, Mexico (EFE).- Insecurity has mounted since the Feb. 22 military operation in which Nemesio Oseguera, also known as El Mencho, the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), was killed in Jalisco, forcing search collectives to stop looking for missing persons to suspend their activities in western Mexico.
As of Friday, Guadalupe Aguilar, founder of the Jalisco collective “United Families for Our Disappeared” and mother of José Luis Arana, who has been missing since 2011, told EFE that the security situation has prevented the resumption of search brigades until at least April.
“In searching for the living, we went to rehabilitation centers, prisons, and different hospitals and psychiatric hospitals. After Feb.22, field searches were prohibited as no National Guard personnel can accompany us,” she said.
For the collectives in Jalisco, searching properties suspected to contain human remains is urgent given the state’s disappearance crisis, where hundreds of cases of forced recruitment by criminal groups have been recorded.
The federal government’s National Registry of Missing and Unlocated Persons has recorded 131,840 cases since 1960. Most of these cases are in Jalisco, with 16,079, according to the state registry.
The risk of crossfire
Héctor Flores, a member of the Luz de Esperanza Desaparecidos Jalisco collective, revealed that those who make up the search groups are concerned about security logistics during field trips.
“We are waiting for the planning to finish at the 10-hectare property where we found remains a month ago. We are concerned that the National Guard or the Secretary of Defense will not accompany us,” he noted.
The collective has also decided to suspend posting search forms in public spaces for two weeks, fearing shootouts or vehicle burnings like those that occurred during the operation against El Mencho, in which 25 National Guard members and over 30 organized crime members died.
“On the other hand, we are worried about exposing families to crossfire in case of an attack against federal forces. Without a doubt, it is a very complicated issue, and we are going to rely on state security to carry out our actions,” Flores underlined.
Arturo Ochoa, whose children Carlos Arturo and Gustavo Ochoa Cabrales disappeared in Jan. 2023, said that the three collectives he belongs to are concerned that the violence will lead to more deaths or disappearances of people looking for their loved ones.
“The collectives demand that the National Guard accompany us, as field searches are very risky without protection due to organized crime. We have always been under threat,” he said.
Meanwhile, the collectives have reinforced their security protocols and remain active by disseminating information on social media and maintaining encampments outside the Forensic Medical Service to follow up on the identification of bodies. EFE
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