For the Sixth Year, Mothers and Relatives of the Disappeared March to Find Their Loved Ones Jose Antonio Roman - La Jornada
go to original May 12, 2017

Mothers of the disappeared Ayotzinapa students joined those of missing migrants and other victims of Mexico's violence to march in Mexico City. They want justice from the state. (teleSUR English)

On Mother’s Day, the 10th of May, the mothers and relatives of disappeared people marched with heavy hearts, together with hundreds of supporters, to demand truth, justice and a search for their loved ones.

Slowly and with photographs of those who had been violently separated from their families in their hands, and relentlessly yelling out that they will not rest until they have been found, the mothers and their contingent of hundreds of people walked from the Monument to the Mother to the Angel of Independence, where they held a rally and a cultural event.

On the sixth anniversary of this march there were harsh complaints about the lack of results in preventing disappearances, of which there have now been 30,000 in Mexico, according to official figures, and which in the midst of an avalanche of impunity, have turned the whole country into a clandestine grave. The cries remain the same, “where are our children?”

The reproaches and accusations launched against policy makers for not having a general law on disappearance of people were also directed at the Secretary of Government Relations, Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong, who just a few weeks ago had promised the civil organizations the creation of a robust national search commission. “He did not keep his word!” accused Yolanda Morán Isais, mother of Dan Jeremeel, missing since 2008 in Torreón, Coahuila.

From the steps of the Ángel of Independence, Mrs Morán, from United Forces for Our Disappeared in Mexico (Fundem), said that "the State has also disappeared". Because of its indolence and complete absence, mothers in different regions have had to go out looking for their sons and daughters, searching the morgues and clandestine and mass graves.

Marán also lamented the deaths of mothers and grandmothers, fathers and grandfathers that passed away during the search for their disappeared children. For the last year alone, she gave the names of five of these people whose deaths came before there was truth, justice and reparation of the damage done. She said,

"It seems that a government corrupted by organized crime bets that we will back down from fatigue, or that the grave will silence us forever, and that forgetfulness will cover the State’s responsibility entirely. However, we tell the government we will never rest."

Read the rest at Mexico Voices | Spanish original

Translated by Rebecca Nannery

Mexico Voices is a blogging endeavor aimed at raising the awareness of U.S. citizens regarding the destructive impact of the U.S. economic policy and the War on Drugs on Mexico - on its people, their economic and physical security and their human rights, on the nation’s dysfunctional justice system, and on the rule of law and Mexico’s fragile democracy. Visit the website at MexicoVoices.blogspot.mx

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