Embroidery Movement Keeps the "Disappeared" in Public Eye

Borderland Beat

Relatives of people who have gone missing in Mexico are camped out in front of the country’s Interior Ministry on hunger strike. Shannon Young reports.

The women began their hunger strike on Tuesday as part of a last-ditch effort to pressure the federal government to take action on the issue of disappearances before the current administration leaves office.

The cold early Monday became the seventh consecutive day of the hunger strike undertaken by a group of women fighting against impunity in Mexico where kidnapped family members are killed and have not received justice.

But the hunger strike isn’t the only effort to keep the issue of drug war victims in the public eye and on the government’s agenda ahead of the change of power.


Borderland Beat - Calderon's Indifference, Calderon's Unnamed Leave a Mark

Mexico’s drug war has produced a series of hard-to-fathom statistics. More than 60 thousand people have been killed in the past 6 years. Thousands of others have gone missing. And now – an extensive investigation by the newspaper Milenio reveals tens of thousands of unidentified bodies found on the streets or elsewhere were buried in mass graves dug by the government over the past 6 years.

Embroidery Movement-Keep the "Disappeared" in Public Eye

As part of its investigation, Milenio sent out more than 470 public information requests to government agencies at the federal, state, and local levels. It found the unidentified, unclaimed bodies of more than 24 thousand people have been buried in formal mass graves in Mexico over the last six years.

While that’s a staggering figure, it’s far below the real number of John and Jane Does buried nationwide. Six of Mexico’s 31 states did not provide data in response to Milenio’s requests.

Mexico has thousands of cases of missing and disappeared persons and victims’ relatives have become increasingly vocal about what they say is the government’s lack of political will to deal with the issue.

The Movement of Embroidery for Peace in Mexico announced that on Saturday, December 1, 2012, the last day of Felipe Calderón's term, it will mount exhibits of hundreds of handkerchiefs embroidered with the names of those killed, missing and threatened throughout the administration. These exhibits will be mounted not only in various Mexican cities but abroad. In a statement, the activists said that these pieces of cloth embroidered by bereaved families are "the true memorial to victims of the war against organized crime" and are the symbol with which they want to bid farewell to the Calderón presidency.

Mexico: Farewell, Calderón - Thousands of Handkerchiefs Embroidered with Drug War Victims' Names in Red

"They are a symbol and a practical means of preserving the memory of the violence that has occurred since President Felipe Calderón took office; [Calderón] leaves the country mired in an arbitrary and sinister war against drug trafficking--[a war] with serious strategic and operational flaws."

The Movement also warned that "the most painful consequence has been the repeated failure to protect victims of this battle" between federal forces and organized crime. 

With the display of embroidered handkerchiefs, they announced, they will ask the incoming government to investigate each disappearance and kidnapping, under international standards, that may lead to recovery of victims still alive.

They also proposed that the next federal administration publish and hence bring into effect the General Victims Act proposed by the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity led by the poet Javier Sicilia.

Moreover, they will demand from Enrique Peña Nieto a "public and transparent" correction of the strategy for fighting organized crime and monitoring of the allegations in the trial against Calderón in The Hague for alleged human rights violations and war crimes.

The initiative of embroidering names of the dead with red thread on white handkerchiefs emerged in Mexico City [one handkerchief, one victim]. Later, others in Nuevo León began to embroider with green thread [for the disappeared; green represents hope for their return alive

Since then, various groups of citizens committed to peace in Mexico have formed embroidery groups in public plazas--activities in which foreigners have joined in solidarity.

The statement was signed by groups of embroiderers from the cities of Guadalajara, Mexico City, Toluca, Puebla, Aguascalientes, Mexicali, Tijuana, Chihuahua, Colima, Torreón, Saltillo, Xalapa and Oaxaca. And from Michoacán, Nayarit, Morelos and Nuevo León; and solidarity groups from Spain, Japan, Guatemala, Honduras, Italy, Argentina, Chile, Peru, United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, France, England and Cyprus. 

It is estimated that during this administration about 80,000 people have been killed, 30,000 have disappeared, and more than 130,000 have been forcibly displaced by the violence. 

Sources: Beginning of the movement,  Southnotes, Spanish original

Categories: bordando por la paz, embroidery, handkerchiefs, Mexican protest the disappeared, victims of mexican drug war