The official number of missing persons in this Latin American country exceeds 130,000.

On Friday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warned that Mexico must translate its legal framework on disappearances into effective action, with protected funding and sufficient forensic capacity.

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The organization noted that Mexico, along with Argentina, Colombia, Peru, and Brazil, already has specific laws, but stressed that legislation alone is insufficient without concrete and sustainable public policies.

Mariano Griva, ICRC’s Coordinator for the Protection of Family Ties, stated that “having a law is a historic step, but it is only the starting point.” The organization insisted on the need to guarantee urgent searches from the earliest hours, with specialized approaches and the active participation of families.

It also called for protected funding and the strengthening of medico-legal services to recover, identify, and provide dignified repatriation of the remains of deceased persons.

The official number of missing persons in Mexico exceeds 130,000, reflecting a regional crisis: Colombia has registered more than 226,000 cases, Brazil 85,233 in 2025, and Peru an 18% increase.

The ICRC warned that the lack of centralized registries and underreporting make it difficult to know the true extent of the phenomenon, a situation exacerbated by the obstacles families face in reporting disappearances.

In Mexico and Central America, the ICRC is working to strengthen search mechanisms. “Every missing person has the right to be searched for, and every family has the right to know,” the Red Cross stressed.

teleSUR: JP

Source: EFE

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