By Ana Baez
Mexico City, May 10 (EFE). – Thousands of mothers marched on Saturday, ahead of Mothers’ Day in Mexico, to demand truth, justice, and reparations for over 127,000 people who have disappeared in the country, demanding that those dedicated to searching for their loved ones not disappear or be murdered.
“We’re living in death, we can’t taste food, we’ve lost our taste for life,” said Hector and Teresa Aguila, a couple who have been searching for two years for their son,27, who disappeared in Jalisco.
Both traveled across the country to participate in the “XIII National March of Mothers in Search,” which began at the Monument to the Mother and ended at the Angel of Independence in Mexico City.
Among hundreds of banners and names of the disappeared, the family of Hector Aguila shouted loudly that “the federal authorities must do something about disappearances.”
“I would like them (the authorities) to accompany us to Jalisco one day (…) and see how they kill the searchers; in April they killed two of us, we are afraid,” said Hector, referring to the murders of searchers Maria del Carmen Morales and her son Jaime Daniel Ramirez.
Fear of searching and being killed
Gloria Carmona, a searcher with the group Amor por los Desaparecidos (Love for the Missing Ones) in Tamaulipas (northwest Mexico), who has not found her son, Bernardo Iván Pérez, since 2021, told EFE that the fear of being murdered is latent.
“I have worked in the field with my hands. We have pulled out many people, and I don’t know who they are. I am very frustrated because despite everything we have brought out in two years, I have no answers,” she said, knowing that more than 29 searchers have been murdered in Mexico.
Carmona, like many relatives, is responsible for finding the remains of the missing in clandestine graves.
She says that she has found “bones, pieces of teeth, and kilos of burnt bones” that often make her “lose faith” in seeing her son alive again.
Mothers search “with their hands, with picks and shovels,” because in this country the state does not search for missing persons,” explains the executive director of Amnesty International Mexico, Edith Olivares Ferreto.
“I hope that when we arrive at the Angel of Independence, President Claudia Sheinbaum will be there to receive them and tell them how she is going to repair the damage caused by all the violence,” she added.
“Multigenerational search”
The march included families who have been waiting for a response from the state since the istration of former President Felipe Calderón (2006-2012).
Dan Férnandez, son of a searching mother and brother of Dan Jeremeel, who disappeared 17 years ago in Coahuila, says that his children are already involved in the investigation, because it is a “multigenerational problem.”
“It started with the mothers, then the children, and now the grandchildren. Unfortunately, many mothers and fathers have died without knowing the fate of their children, and it is our turn to assume this responsibility,” he said.
Araceli Rodríguez, who became a teacher of criminal law after her son Luis Ángel disappeared 13 years ago in Michoacán, points out that “they never stop looking,” after so long, “you turn your pain into a cause,” she concludes. EFE
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