PBI-Mexico accompanies the Paso del Norte Human Rights Centre in its search for the remains of disappeared persons

On July 5, PBI-Mexico posted: “PBI accompanies the human rights advocacy work performed by the Paso del Norte Human Rights Centre Ciudad Juarez [in the state of Chihuahua in northwestern Mexico that borders Texas and New Mexico].”

PBI-Mexico adds: “We recognize your unrelenting work in search of missing persons in the state of Chihuahua and will continue to be present in tracking.”

The Intercept recently reported: “At the very minimum, nearly 90,000 people and counting have disappeared in the past 15 years, a tally that exceeds the Cold War totals of desaparecidos in Argentina, Chile, and Guatemala combined.”

“Add in unreported cases and those involving Central American migrants who have vanished — by some estimates as many as 120,000 people in a single decade — and the picture turns staggeringly grim.”

“The current iteration of disappearances in Mexico is linked to former President Felipe Calderón’s 2006 deployment of thousands of troops into the streets in a supposed war on drug trafficking organizations. The following year, the Bush administration threw its support behind the campaign through the Mérida Initiative, a security program that to date has provided more than $3.3 billion in assistance to Mexico.”

That article then notes: “The 2009 military raid that killed [drug trafficker] Arturo Beltrán Leyva, for example, was based on U.S. intelligence. …The killing splintered Beltrán Leyva’s organization into smaller, warring outfits; among them was Guerreros Unidos, the organization widely believed to have collaborated with Mexican security forces in the disappearance of the 43 students from Ayotzinapa [on September 26, 2014].”

Echoing this, David Jiménez of the Fray Juan de Larios Centre for Human Rights has commented: “Putting the truth on the table about all the murders and disappearances would expose the role played by the military and the authorities. And still playing.”

NBC News has reported: “The majority of disappearances have been reported since 2006 and 40 percent were recorded since December 2018, since the start of the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.”

In the first five months of 2021 alone, 605 victims were recorded.

PBI-Mexico notes: “We stand in solidarity with families that require transparency, inclusion and diligence in search and identification processes.”

PBI-Mexico has accompanied the Paso de Norte Human Rights Centre since 2013.