Collectives of mothers searching for their disappeared children, activists, human rights defenders and the general public demonstrated this Wednesday, May 10, in Mexico City for the more than 110,000 disappeared in the country.
The disappearances are contextualized in the violence that plagues the country and that had as a turning point the start of the so-called "War against Drug Trafficking" that began in the six-year term of Felipe Calderón which, in addition to the disappearances, has left people murdered and displaced communities. .
«I gave birth to my son to life and he gave birth to me to fight. Carlos, wherever you are, I love you, son. I keep fighting," Lourdes Mejía, mother of Carlos Sinuhé Cuevas Mejía, a student at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the UNAM, assassinated on October 11, 2011.
In addition to denouncing that the government authorities do not carry out their work and even hinder the investigations, Mrs. Lourdes Mejía denounced that other groups such as the United Nations Organization only attend the activities carried out by the search mothers without really supporting or committing to them. nothing.
"Why are they asking for my phone number?! So that they kill another family member?!” Lorena Gutiérrez yelled at the UN personnel who were at the Angel of Independence rally.
The members of the UN, with their blue vests, looked tensely at the people who gathered around them summoned by the fury of Lorena Gutiérrez, whose claims could be heard several meters away, while the rally continued to develop.
Gutiérrez denounces that her daughter Fátima Quintana was the victim of a femicide on February 5, 2015. However, due to the fight she undertook against the culprits, she received serious death threats that forced her and her family to move to Monterrey.
In 2020, her son Daniel died due to the negligence of the state health authorities who denied him medical attention for not having any kind of social security, precisely because he was a displaced family.
"I am a public person, they could find me if they wanted, but coincidentally after we give our data to organizations, they persecute us," Lorena denounced.
Coming from states as far away as Chihuahua or Tamaulipas, but also from states close to Mexico City such as Morelos or the State of Mexico, dozens of mothers reported the disappearance of their sons and daughters.
"May 10 is not a party, it is a struggle and a protest," some of those attending the mobilization shouted.
At least since 2016, groups of seeking mothers have decided to take to the streets on May 10 to remind the government and society that not all mothers, nor all children, can celebrate the day, but are in the midst of collective pain. which implies not knowing where their children are.
In some cases, especially those that are many years old, the mothers no longer look for their sons and daughters alive, but have resigned themselves to finding the remains of their relatives.
This is the case of Mary Velázquez, mother of Pamela Gallardo, who was disappeared in 2017 in the vicinity of Ajusco. Due to this, on the 23rd and 24th, Velázquez and different organizations and activists will carry out a citizen search to find Pamela and other disappearance victims.
Before the authorities, who in the best of cases are incapable and in the worst, are omissive and accomplices, the families have to assume the investigation and search tasks without receiving a single peso, denounced the searching mother.
“We have the investigation open, but these authorities ask us as a family to continue bringing evidence of the investigation. We have to provide the evidence, the investigation, where we want the investigation to go”, stressed Mary Velázquez.
That of Velázquez is not the only search at the door, during the coming weeks others will be carried out in the State of Mexico and in Morelos.
But, in spite of everything, this May 10 his bet is not on pain, because his trench continues to be the courage to denounce injustices and point the finger directly at the guilty.
The mothers, givers of life, now seem like seekers of death, knowing that they will undoubtedly find the remains of people in the missions they organize.
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