The Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, announced reforms to address the serious issue of disappearances in the country following the discovery of an alleged extermination camp in Jalisco. Sheinbaum emphasized the importance of acting with the full strength of the State to prevent, address, and punish such crimes.
The actions come after protests from families of missing persons across Mexico in response to findings made by the group "Guerreros Buscadores de Jalisco" at a ranch in Teuchitlán, where they reported having found a "recruitment concentration camp" of organized crime. In the area, clothing items, mostly women's, and 400 pairs of shoes were discovered. Additionally, it was mentioned that last year the National Guard uncovered a forced training center of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
Sheinbaum committed to providing certainty and truth to the families of the victims, clarifying the facts based on scientific evidence and pursuing those responsible. Among the announced reforms are changes to the General Law on Forced Disappearance to establish a single base of forensic information, as well as the creation of a federal human identification platform.
Furthermore, Sheinbaum announced the signing of a decree to strengthen the National Search Commission, a reform to the General Population Law to use the "Unique Population Registry Key" as the sole source of identification for individuals, and new protocols to expedite the search for the missing, equate the crime of disappearance with that of kidnapping, and publish monthly statistics on investigation files. These measures aim to address the crisis of disappearances, which has led to more than 120,000 missing persons in Mexico to date.
