Official Leading Search for Mexico’s Disappeared Resigns as Critics Worry Government May Rig Numbers Megan Janetsky - Associated Press
go to original August 25, 2023

The head of Mexico's commission leading the search for tens of thousands who have disappeared over past decades of violence has stepped down as critics accuse the government of trying to undermine the true numbers of the missing in the run-up to presidential elections.

Escalating cartel violence has increasingly eclipsed large swaths of Mexico, leaving thousands of Mexicans reported missing this year alone.

Karla Quintana, head of the National Search Commission, did not elaborate on the motives for her resignation, saying only that she is leaving her post “in light of current circumstances.”

“The challenges surrounding the disappearance of people remain," Quintana posted on X, the social platform formerly known as Twitter. "The State must continue to push for a comprehensive policy geared toward prevention, searching and fighting impunity.”

Populist President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's government has recently come under criticism for announcing it would carry out a census of the country's disappeared. Critics say this is a tactic to manipulate numbers and “present a fictitious decrease” in those missing ahead of elections next year.

More than 110,000 remain missing across the country, according to Quintana's commission figures — likely an undercount due to lack of reporting, distrust in authorities and endemic impunity. Many families of those disappeared have taken it upon themselves to seek justice, often with fatal consequences.

Read the rest at The Independent

Related: Mexican Mothers Mark Day of the Disappeared With Protest and Demands for the Government to Do More (Associated Press)

Related: Church in Mexico Prays With Relatives of ‘The Disappeared’ (National Catholic Register)

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