Senate OKs Forced Disappearance Law, Calls for National Search System The Associated Press
go to original April 28, 2017

Maria Guadalupe Orozco points to an image of her missing son Francis Garcia Orozco on a leaflet of missing persons, during an interview in Iguala, Mexico. The leaflet reads in Spanish "Army return our children. Present them Now!" (AP/Eduardo Verdugo)

Mexico's Senate approved a legislation Thursday that would impose long prison sentences for forced disappearances and calls for a national system for searching for missing persons.

The measure passed on 90-3 vote, with three abstentions, and now goes to the lower house for consideration.

Disappearance refers to abductions in which the victims are not found, an issue that has surged to the forefront in Mexico amid a bloody drug conflict and searches by families for missing loved ones. The government's human rights agency says 32,236 people have gone missing across the country over the past two decades.

Kidnapping is already illegal in Mexico. But the legislation defines disappearance as a continuing crime, for which there is no statute of limitations. It would set prison terms of 40 to 60 years for public servants and 25 to 50 years for other people who engage in the crime.

The measure also would establish a responsibility for the government to look for the disappeared, but the details of how such searches would be carried out must still be determined.

Human rights groups praised the vote, saying thousands of families have suffered for years after their relatives were disappeared by drug gangs, police or military units.

Read the rest at ABC News

Related: Senate’s Approval of New Law on Enforced Disappearances Is a Step Forward Which Must Be Finalized Soon (Amnesty International)

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