SAN CRISTÓBAL DE LAS CASAS (EFE).—Forced disappearances have increased by 29% year-on-year so far this year in Chiapas, as a result of the presence of organized crime, the alliance of local associations Red Lupa warned yesterday Wednesday.
The report recorded 1,192 disappearances in Chiapas, bordering Guatemala, from January to May 16, and warned of an “exponential growth” in violence in the last three years due to the dispute between drug cartels in the region.
“Since this government has taken over, the number of forced disappearances in Chiapas has become evident; it has grown alarmingly,” Luis Abarca, coordinator of the Digna Ochoa Human Rights Center, told EFE.
The expert stressed that this phenomenon corresponds to armed actors, successors of paramilitarism, armed organizations, self-defense groups, criminal groups and criminal cells.
He explained that the relatives of the victims of disappearances go through a “tortuous pilgrimage” in the institutions to find their relatives, because there is no political will.
“The Attorney General’s Office is under-reporting cases of forced disappearance, which are not filed in investigation files with the characterization of forced disappearance or are simply not registered, which is why relatives claim that the government wants to make the missing disappear,” concluded the activist.
Among the list of missing persons are Uberlaín Aguilar de la Cruz and Marco Antonio Díaz Gómez, activists in defense of the territory and human rights of indigenous peoples, members of the Emiliano Zapata Peasant Organization-Carranza Region (OCEZ-RC), who have been missing since June 26, 2023.
“To date we have not had any information (as to his whereregardings), we know nothing regarding them, we have been waiting for some response but there is nothing, we are still the same,” Aguilar de la Cruz’s wife, María Hernández, explained to EFE.
Relatives, OCEZ executives and the “Digna Ochoa” Human Rights Center protested in the Plaza de la Paz in San Cristóbal de Las Casas to demand the presentation of the two activists alive.
The protesters stood for a few minutes at the foot of the cross in the middle of the square, where they spread their banners with photos of the missing and legends such as “They were taken alive, we want them back” and “Land and Freedom: Emiliano Zapata Peasant Organization.”
362 days have passed without any trace of them, so they have asked the Chiapas and federal governments to return the two activists alive.
They also called for justice for Jorge Armando Hernández Pérez, Abenamar Hernández de La Cruz and Fernando López de La Cruz, activists murdered in 2022, and for an investigation into the attack on Luis Manuel Hernández Pérez.
Mexico is experiencing a crisis with more than 110,000 people missing since records began, although President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has denounced that this official census is “manipulated” and has ordered a new count.
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2024-07-06 01:14:05
