Post date: Feb 26, 2013 11:41:30 PM
Mexico's Secretariat of the Interior says 26,121 people were were reported missing during the administration of former president Felipe Calderon.
MEXICO CITY, MEXICO (FEBRUARY 26, 2013)(REUTERS) - A Mexican government official on Tuesday (February 26) said that a list compiled by the administration of former president Felipe Calderon includes the names of over 26,000 people who were reported missing during the six years of Calderon's presidency.
Lia Limon, the Under-Secretary of Human Rights of the Secretariat of the Interior, said that the database lists a total of 26,121 people who disappeared between December 1, 2006 and November 20, 2012."Today, we are making public a database compiled by the last administration which is dated from November 2012, and includes 26,121 people who cannot be located, of which 20,915 are related to previous inquiries, detailed facts or investigative folders, and 5,206 still need data to be validated," she said.
Last week, Human Rights Watch released a report accusing members of Mexico's security forces of having participated in dozens of forced disappearances during a gruesome war with drug cartels between 2006 and 2012.
The 176-page HRW report documents 249 disappearances, 149 of which HRW believes were allegedly committed by members of Mexico's security forces.
Limon said that the list does not specify what led to individual disappearances.
"It must be said that this database doesn't speculate as to the reasons the people cannot be located. Many of those named could be missing for various reasons, not necessarily related to criminal acts. The database was compiled using criminal complaints about missing people, independent of the circumstances that led to them missing," she said.
Limon also called on other organizations and individuals to come together to help clarify the status of the missing.
"We call on all people who have worked to build databases on people that cannot be located to come together to help in this effort, so that we can consolidate a useful instrument that gives certainty. It's important to note that the respect of human rights is, and will be, a fundamental task of the government led by Enrique Pena Nieto," she said.
In January, the Mexican government introduced a law to trace victims of the drug war and compensate the families of those deemed innocent.
The law, however, only deals with victims whose deaths have been confirmed, and does not include provisions for those who have never been found.