In the semi-annual federal report Search and Identification of Disappeared Persons issued in July 2021 by the Ministry of the Interior, Jalisco stands out, for having four of the 10 municipalities in the country where the largest number of bodies recovered from clandestine graves have been found (among June 1, 2018, and June 30, 2021).
The first national place is Tlajomulco de Zúñiga, with 277 bodies that represent 9.16 percent concerning the national, followed by El Salto (second national place), Zapopan (fourth place), and Tlaquepaque (seventh place). The other municipalities on that regrettable list are Tecomán, in Colima; Mazatlán and Ahome, in Sinaloa; Salvatierra and Acámbaro, in Guanajuato, and Puerto Peñasco, Sonora. Together these 10 places concentrate 43.47 percent of all the bodies that have been located during that period in the country.
Regarding the registry of missing and non-located persons from that same period (January 1, 2018, to June 30, 2021), Jalisco would be in the first national place, with 3 thousand 948 people representing 18.32 percent of the total. They are followed by Mexico City, Michoacán, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas, the State of Mexico, Guanajuato, Sonora, Sinaloa and Zacatecas. Together, these 10 states add 16,447 missing persons in three years and six months, representing 76.33 percent of the national total.
The data on missing persons and the number of bodies recovered from clandestine graves show the seriousness of the problem facing the state of Jalisco and if the experience of local search groups is considered, there would be many more people, as families have reported that for each search would be two more cases that for different reasons such as fear, threats or distrust towards the authority are not reported. The historical record indicates that to date in Jalisco there are 13,240 missing people (and not located). Most are male (77.64 percent).
Although the need to address this serious problem that Jalisco is facing has long been expressed, progress has been very slow: the entity’s forensic crisis remains unresolved, the process of implementing local legislation on disappearances and declaration of The absence has not been completed (there is a lack of legislative harmonization with other legal systems, the elaboration of various regulations and the creation of records that the new law contemplates) and there is still no clear policy on victim care and crime prevention, hence being the families who persist in the search and in the demand that the disappeared be located.
Source: NTR
