Search Underway for Missing Citizens on Road That Connects Tamaulipas With Nuevo León

"Sol Prendido" for Borderland Beat

The federal government confirms that within six months there have been 71 cases, most of them cargo drivers or taxis; relatives of victims followed the operation by a video camera installed in a drone

On Wednesday, search work began at kilometer 26 of Federal Highway 85 Monterrey-Nuevo Laredo and its surroundings, where in recent six months at least 71 people disappeared, most of them Uber and cargo transport drivers.

At 7:30 in the morning, Tamaulipas search teams arrived at that point to begin tracking the disappeared.

The actions are part of the agreement reached last week by relatives of the victims and the Tamaulipas prosecutor's office, after a meeting to analyze the cases.

The families of the victims were able to follow the operation through a session via Zoom, whose signal was transmitted by a drone and cell phones of the participating officers.

The Ministry of the Interior confirmed that in the past six months 71 drivers have disappeared on that stretch of road. After presenting the biannual report on Search and Identification of Missing Persons, the agency considered that these events are part of the war between the Northeast Cartel (CDN) and  Cartel Jalisco New Generation (CJNG).

The head of the National Search Commission, Karla Quintana, said that there are versions that 17 of those 71 people were released, but they have not confirmed this data.

"We are corroborating the number of people who have been released, but we cannot confirm it until we complete the protocol. We have talked to a person who was released, but we cannot release his identity, although it serves us to understand what is happening," he added.

The fact that the majority of the disappeared are drivers of cargo transport and Uber services or taxis in general suggests, the official said, that they use transportation services to differentiate their criminal activities.

Meanwhile, the Undersecretary of Human Rights of Segob, Alejandro Encinas, detailed that this situation began in the last months of 2020. For this reason a search operation has already been established around kilometer 26.

Close historical figure

The official specified that so far within this six-year term the disappearance of 49,581 people have been reported and although 28,35 were located, Mexico is already approaching the historical figure of 90,000.

He added that the official number of disappeared is 89,488, of which 24.70 percent are women, mostly girls and adolescents victims of the crime of trafficking in persons.

From 1964 to date (including the period of the dirty war) 220,330 missing persons are registered. Of that number, 40.6 percent are still haven’t been located, he explained.

As for the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), there is a figure of 21,546 missing people.

Encinas also detailed that 2,25 bodies have been exhumed in this administration, of which 1,153 were identified (38.11 percent) and 822 were delivered to their families (27.17 percent).

He warned that only 35 convictions have been achieved despite thousands of cases of enforced disappearance in the country, he warned that impunity remains the biggest problem in these cases.

Karla Quintana explained that the states that concentrate the highest number of reports of missing persons are Jalisco, Mexico City, Michoacán, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas, State of Mexico, Guanajuato, Sonora, Sinaloa and Zacatecas, with 76.33 percent of complaints from December 2018 to June 30, 2021. 

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