Relatives of Disappeared Call for Special Prosecutor in Mexico EFE
go to original January 15, 2013

People hold photographs of their relatives who went missing during a protest that is part of the campaign "March of National Dignity in May. (Associated Press)

MEXICO CITY - Relatives of people listed as disappeared in Mexico met with Government Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong over the weekend and called for the creation of a special prosecutor's office to handle the cases, officials said.

"Osorio Chong said he would explore that possibility," the secretariat said in a statement.

The Cabinet secretary agreed at Sunday's meeting to "look for all" of those listed as missing and "make contact with the corresponding state agencies to make the investigations move forward in an effort to find the disappeared," the secretariat said.

"The search for missing people, he said, is a matter of willingness, which the government has and has demonstrated with actions, with the enactment of the General Victims Law as proof," the Government Secretariat said.

The war on drugs launched by former President Felipe Calderon, who was in office from 2006 to 2012, left about 70,000 people dead in Mexico, the new administration says.

About 20,000 people are listed as disappeared in the country, the non-governmental Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity says.

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