Mexico Coronavirus Update: Pandemic Brings The Search For Thousands Missing To A Sudden Halt

For years, thousands of Mexican parents and spouses have been relentlessly hunting, search for their loved ones who have gone missing. They joined the search “brigade” of grieving relatives, wanting to know what happened to their lost son or sister. But the coronavirus pandemic, having killed more than 5,000 people in Mexico has brought an end to the search of Desaparecidos.

To date, more than 62,000 people have vanished in Mexico, without a trace to be found, since 2006 witnessed its “war on drugs.” But while earlier families had the hope of finding their loved ones by continuing their quests, the pandemic has robbed them of this one last ray of light.

“The searches are stopped right now. I’m not sure when they’re going to start again because of the virus,” said José Barajas, a U.S. citizen. His father was abducted from his ranch in April 2019 by gunmen and since then he had been looking for his father. It is also suspected that cartel members operating near the U.S. border seized and killed him.

During one of the searches this, activists found eight or nine bodies buried in shallow graves as well as a bag full of human bones. It meant progress, answers for some families who had been looking for them forever. But then came the pandemic and everything came to a standstill -- government institutions offering logistical support or protection to the search teams were ordered to suspend or reduce their activities.

While wholeheartedly supporting the lockdown, the families of the disappeared victims don’t want the days they lost not searching to mean that any clue or source about their loved ones’ whereabouts disappeared with it. They have urged Mexico’s government to continue conducting some searches, making it part of all the other official activities that are being carried out during the lockdown.

“Just as we don’t want any more people to disappear, we also value everyone’s wellbeing,” reads an open letter written by the group Movimiento por Nuestros Desaparecidos en México, a nationwide coalition of the families of lost victims, to the Mexican government. “For the families of the disappeared, compulsory social isolation means lost days in trying to ensure our loved ones can come home.”

“But it’s clear to us that now is the time to put lives first. If we aren’t healthy, we won’t be of any use searching for the more than 61,000 people we have lost. Sadly the disappearances have not stopped [because of the pandemic],” the group added.