CIVICUS discusses enforced disappearances in Mexico with Anna Karolina Chimiak, co-director of the Justice Centre for Peace and Development (CEPAD). CEPAD is a civil society organisation (CSO) in Jalisco state that provides comprehensive support to victims of torture and enforced disappearance.
The Guerreros Buscadores de Jalisco collective recently discovered a training and extermination camp allegedly operated by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. The discovery reignited the debate on the crisis of disappearances in Mexico, where more than 124,000 people remain unaccounted for, although the number could be much higher as many families don’t report disappearances for fear of reprisals. While President Claudia Sheinbaum promises a thorough investigation, civil society questions the state’s will and ability to confront the territorial dominance of organised crime.