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News > Mexico

Mexico: Central American Mothers Looking For Missing Relatives

  • Central American mothers hold photographs of their missing migrant children during a march in San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico, Nov. 20, 2019.

    Central American mothers hold photographs of their missing migrant children during a march in San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico, Nov. 20, 2019. | Photo: EFE

Published 20 November 2019
Opinion

Over the last 15 years, the mothers' caravans have managed to locate 310 missing persons.

Accompanied by the Mesoamerican Migrant Movement (MMM), about 50 women from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua on Tuesday arrived in San Cristobal de Las Casas, in Chiapas, to search for their missing relatives.

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“Son, listen, your mother keeps fighting. I want you to know that I am looking for you,” was the slogan that mothers shouted when they entered the Mexican city holding their relatives' photographs.

This year Central American mothers installed a photo sanctuary at the Peace Square, where they demanded the help of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO).

Often women look for their missing relatives by following the most likely migratory routes which they could have passed through. Some of them, however, are highly dangerous paths due to the presence of organized crime.

They also seek in prisons, nightclubs, shelters or morgues, asking in all these places the help of local people to get some clue of their beloved.

“I ask God to give strength to my daughter. In my dreams, I see her alive and playing with a child. She tells me, 'Mom here I am',” Salvadorean mother Ana Ramirez said and commented she has not known anything about her daughter for the last 14 years.

In 2012 a Central American mothers' caravan toured Mexico in search of their missing relatives. Boldest calculations speak of up to 70,000 missing migrants. Mexicans say "Mexico is a gigantic mass grave for Central American migrants traveling to the U.S." The meme reads, "The massacre of 72 migrants, who touched Central America, remains unpunished after seven years. They were killed in San Fernando, Tamaulipas, by Los Zetas cartel. There is not a single person convicted so far."

Felicita Hueso reported that her missing son, Wilmer, left El Salvador 4 years ago. In his last call, Wilmer told her he was in Tecun Uman, a Guatemalan city where he tried to get "papers" to work.

"Over the last 15 years, the mothers' caravans have managed to locate 310 missing persons," the MMM coordinator Ruben Figueroa said.

"Compared to the total number of missing persons,  such an amount is minimal; however, it is much greater than what the government has achieved."

Figueroa denounced that human rights violations against migrants occur along the entire route they travel from Central America to the U.S.

"They are accused of crimes and chased," he said, adding that "increasing violence against migrants is one of the reasons why they continue to disappear."

This year the Central American mothers will continue their caravan following the routes going from Tabasco, Veracruz, Puebla, Oaxaca to Mexico City.

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