The state government is negligent in its duty to look for and locate missing persons, relatives of the disappeared and ONGs often say. Jalisco authorities, on the other hand, vigorously defend their efforts to investigate cases and maintain they are determined to tackle this societal trauma.
The gulf in viewpoints was made abundantly clear on Wednesday, August 30, International Day of the Victims of Forced Disappearances, when families and friends of the missing marched in Guadalajara to be greeted by barriers and riot police at the downtown Government Palace. No one received them.
Meanwhile, Governor Enrique Alfaro and other dignitaries joined forces to open the new facilities of the Jalisco Missing Persons Search Commission, while insisting that locating missing persons is one of the state government’s highest priorities. Not a single family member of a missing person was present at the inauguration.
Around 250 people, most of them holding banners and photographs of their missing relatives, marched from the Niños Heroes Glorieta (also known as the Monument to the Disappeared) to the city center. Talking to reporters along the route, many made the same comment: Authorities seem disinterested and incapable of providing any answers.
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