As the discovery of a so-called “extermination camp” in the state of Jalisco continues to provoke horror in Mexico, President Claudia Sheinbaum on Monday announced six “immediate” actions against the crime of disappearance.
At her morning press conference, Sheinbaum declared that “attending to the problem of missing persons” — there are more than 100,000 in Mexico — is a “national priority” for her government.
Reading from a prepared statement, the president said that discovering the “truth” in missing persons cases — such as that of the 43 students who disappeared in Guerrero in 2014 — and delivering justice for the victims and their families is also a priority for her administration.
“The construction of peace and the fight against impunity is a central tenet of my government. That’s why I’ve made the decision to carry out the following immediate actions,” she said.
Sheinbaum’s 6 actions against abductions
The president said that the crime of enforced disappearance in Mexico used to be “perpetrated by the state.”
However, abductions now are “mainly linked” to organized crime, Sheinbaum said.
“In any case, it’s an extremely serious crime that must be prevented, dealt with and punished,” she said.
“That’s why we’ll act within the framework of the law but with the complete force of the state,” Sheinbaum said.
🚨 Sheinbaum responde a manifestaciones por desaparecidos en #México: anuncia acciones de gobierno y reformas para atender problema de desapariciones en el país.
Tras las protestas en diversas ciudades de México y en el extranjero, a propósito de las personas desaparecidas, la… pic.twitter.com/6HW0z8YhWM
— Luis Alberto Medina (@elalbertomedina) March 17, 2025
The six “immediate actions against the crime of disappearance” she outlined are as follows.
1. Strengthening of the National Search Commission
Sheinbaum said she would sign a decree to strengthen the National Search Commission.
The aim, she said, is to bolster the commission’s capacity to respond to missing persons cases.
Sheinbaum also said that the decree will allow the commission to acquire new “technological equipment” to assist search efforts.
2. Legislative reform
Sheinbaum said she would submit two reform proposals to Congress this Thursday.
Her first proposal is a reform to the General Population Law in order to “consolidate” a person’s CURP identity number as their “only source of identity.”
Sheinbaum said that the reform would allow a missing person’s CURP to be checked against “all administrative records in the country” in order to “generate alerts that facilitate the identification of signs of life.”
In late 2023, then interior minister Luisa María Alcalde announced that the government had discovered in official databases signs of life — albeit not “proof of life” — of almost 18,000 people registered as missing. Providing an example of the kind of thing she was talking about, she said that a girl registered as missing in 2014 had subsequently benefited from a range of government programs and schemes, indicating that she was not in fact missing (or was a victim of identity theft).
The first reform Sheinbaum spoke about on Monday could help authorities identify and locate a person registered as missing if that person registers for a government program, for example.
The president said that her second proposal is a reform to the General Law on Enforced Disappearance. If approved by Congress, the proposed reform would:
- Allow the creation of a “Single National Forensic Information Base” that compiles information from state and federal authorities including Attorney General’s Offices.
- Allow the creation of a “National Human Identification Platform” that “communicates and updates all administrative and forensic records” held by authorities across Mexico. This platform, Sheinbaum said, would help to “identify signs of life” of missing persons “or even deceased people.”
- Provide additional support to the National Center for Human Identification, which would be responsible for the management of the aforesaid platform.
3. New protocols for ‘immediate’ missing person alerts
Sheinbaum said the government would “incorporate in the law new protocols” that allow “immediate” search alerts to be issued to security forces and authorities across the country when a person is reported as missing.
The president said that the new protocols would also allow authorities to immediately open investigations in missing person cases “without the need to wait 72 hours as still occurs in some states of the republic.”
“… Those 72 hours can be key,” she said later in her Monday morning press conference.
4. Increasing the penalty for the crime of ‘disappearance’
Sheinbaum said the government would “put the crime of disappearance (desaparición) on the same level as kidnapping” (secuestro) in terms of seriousness.
While the two crimes are similar, a disappearance, or enforced disappearance, occurs with the authorization, support or involvement of authorities. The abduction of a person by a crime group that colludes in one way or another with authorities, whether they are municipal, state or federal authorities, could be classified as a desaparición rather than a secuestro.
Remarkably, the maximum sentence for a person convicted of the crime of disappearance is less severe than that for a person convicted of kidnapping.
By putting the crime of disappearance on par with kidnapping, the maximum sentence for a person convicted of the former crime would increase by 20 years to 80 years.
Sheinbaum said she would also seek to make “investigation procedures for the crime of disappearance” uniform across all states of Mexico.
5. The publication of missing persons statistics on a monthly basis
Sheinbaum said the government would publish on a monthly basis statistics on missing persons derived from federal and state investigations into cases of “disappearance.”
6. Strengthening of the Executive Commission for the Attention of Victims
Sheinbaum said that the government would strengthen the Executive Commission for the Attention of Victims in order to better provide “accompaniment, support and advice” to the families of missing persons.
Sheinbaum pledges no impunity and no concealment in Teuchitlán case
After outlining the government’s “six immediate actions against the crime of disappearance,” Sheinbaum turned her focus to the Teuchitlán case involving the discovery this month of burnt human remains along with more than 150 pairs of shoes and other discarded personal items at a property in the state of Jalisco.
Search collective calls on authorities to investigate a grisly find in Jalisco
The property in the municipality of Teuchitlán has been variously described as an “extermination camp,” an “apparent mass killing site” and even “Mexico’s Auschwitz.”
Reading from her prepared statement, Sheinbaum said that her government is “committed to providing certainty and truth” to the families of missing persons whose remains might be at the Teuchitlán ranch linked to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
The Federal Attorney General’s Office is investigating the case and will provide a preliminary report on it at a press conference scheduled for Wednesday.
“There will be no impunity,” Sheinbaum said.
The president also said that her government “won’t hide anything” related to the Teuchitlán case.
“The truth must always prevail. In my government there will be no construction of dark historical truths — never,” she said.
That was a reference to the widely discredited “historical truth” presented by the government of former president Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-18) after the abduction and presumed murder of 43 Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College students in September 2024. Earlier this month, the Sheinbaum administration created a new investigative unit to review the still unresolved case.
On Monday, the president pledged that her government “won’t tolerate the construction of half-truths or falsehoods” about the Teuchitlán case or any other case.
“We will always stand for truth and justice,” she said.
Mexico News Daily
