Mothers of missing migrants take their search to Mexico-Guatemala border

Tapachula, Mexico (EFE).- Mothers of missing migrants arrived in Tapachula to visit several southern cities in the hope of finding clues about their loved ones amid Mexico’s acute crisis of disappearances.

These mothers and grandmothers are part of the fifth international brigade of the Regional Network of Migrant Families from Ecuador, Honduras, Colombia, and Cuba. They are searching for relatives who have been missing since 2024.

As of Tuesday, Ana Enamorado, a member of the Regional Network of Migrant Families, stated that they visit rehabilitation centers, shelters, and streets, going house by house to ask if their children passed through and to find their whereabouts.

«We were in Tonalá, and we arrived in Tapachula in the morning. The missing people are those who disappeared in San José El Hueyate de Mazatán in Dec. 2024. They were crossing by boat to reach the United States,» she explained.

The official registry listed over 1,800 missing foreigners, but civil organizations like the Observatory on Disappearance and Impunity in Mexico (ODIM) claimed that there is significant underreporting. They estimate that the actual number of missing people could exceed 10,000.

Tapachula, located in the state of Chiapas, is the largest Mexican city on the border with Guatemala and has been one of the epicenters of the recent migration crisis.

The international search brigade is accompanied by authorities from the National Search Commission (CNB), as well as members of the National Guard, the Mexican Army, and the Secretariat of the Navy, who provide security for the group.

The search group entered the Belén shelter, where they met migrants of different nationalities and showed them photographs to see if anyone had seen the missing individuals.

It is the case of Cuban migrant Juliana Bravo Díaz, who has not heard from her daughter and grandson, Meiling «N» and Samei «N,» since Dec. 21, 2024.

César Augusto Cañaveral Pérez, the director of the Belén Shelter of the Catholic Church, considers it crucial to continue the search.

«It is a titanic task that we should all undertake, not just the three levels of government. It is up to all of us,» he told EFE.

In April, during a visit to Mexico, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk warned about the tragedy he considers the crisis of missing persons in the North American country represents. Over 133,000 people are officially missing in Mexico.EFE

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