National Search Commission

Mexican commission for finding missing persons

The National Search Commission (CNB) is a Mexican commission which was established in 2018[1] for the purpose of finding the more than 100,000 missing people in Mexico, who have been victims of extrajudicial killings, torture and enforced disappearances.[2] Often, the victim's body is burned in an attempt to ("enforce disappearance") destroy all evidence.[1][3]

## History

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The commission was established in 2018 and the commissioner at the helm was Karla Quintana from February 2019 until her resignation in August 2023.[4] The commission has a budget of $22 million and a staff of 89 as of December 2020.[2]

Over 1000 clandestine mass graves have been found in Mexico and families are often tasked with having to investigate missing persons without much help from the Mexican Police.[5][6] The National Search Commission has worked with forensic teams and in 2022, were searching through thousands of human remains in Nuevo Laredo, at a place authorities call a cartel 'extermination' site.[1]

According to the Human Rights Watch, Mexico has had a history of extrajudicial killings, torture, and "enforced disappearances",[7][8] which began during the Mexican Dirty War when an estimated 1,200 people disappeared.[9] The disappearances were carried out by Mexico's government forces.[10]

This has continued throughout the Mexican drug war, with drug cartels and organized crime groups perpetrating the crimes, sometimes with help from the police. The War on drugs is a global campaign,[11] led by the U.S. federal government, of drug prohibition, military aid, and military intervention, with the aim of reducing the illegal drug trade in the United States.[12]

The commission's main responsibility is accounting for and finding Mexico's missing people. The number of missing people ranged from 79,000 in 2020,[2] to 92,000 in 2021.[13] On February 28, 2022, the Associated Press stated the official number was 98,356[1] and other sources estimated there were nearly 100,000 missing.[14] By May, 2022, the number was officially at more than 100,000.[3]

In April 2022, the Commission stated there are more than 20,000 missing women and that half of those women are from Nuevo León. a state in the Northeast region of Mexico.[15]

## Duties of the CNB

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The functions of the National Search Commission include creating a record of the missing, and working with teams to find the missing.

## See also

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* Human Rights
* 2014 Iguala mass kidnapping
* 2012 Nuevo Laredo massacres

## References

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1. ^ a b c d "At cartel extermination site; Mexico nears 100k missing". AP NEWS. February 28, 2022. Retrieved March 3, 2022.
2. ^ a b c "Searching for the missing: challenges for Mexico's search commissioner". Mexico News Daily. December 3, 2020. Retrieved March 3, 2022.
3. ^ a b "Mexico's official list of missing people passes 100,000, with few cases ever solved". NPR.org. May 18, 2022. Retrieved May 19, 2022.
4. ^ "Official leading search for thousands of missing people in Mexico resigns". Al Jazeera. August 24, 2023. Retrieved August 31, 2023.
5. ^ "45 bodies found in clandestine grave sites in Mexico". NBC News. May 12, 2019. Retrieved March 3, 2022.
6. ^ "World Report 2019: Rights Trends in Mexico". Human Rights Watch. December 20, 2018. Retrieved March 3, 2022.
7. ^ Diaz, Lizbeth (March 28, 2022). "Mexican armed forces knew about attack on 43 students, report says". Reuters. Retrieved March 30, 2022.
8. ^ "World Report 2019: Rights Trends in Mexico". Human Rights Watch. December 20, 2018. Retrieved March 3, 2022.
9. ^ Reuters Editorial (2008-07-08). "Mexico looks for 'dirty war' graves on army base". Reuters. Retrieved 2016-10-29. `{{cite web}}`: `|author=` has generic name (help)
10. ^ Ribando Seelke, Clare; Martin, Rachel L. (October 21, 2020). "Human Rights Challenges in Mexico: Addressing Enforced Disappearances" (PDF). FAS Project on Government Secrecy. Congressional Research Service. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
11. ^ War on Drugs. The Global Commission on Drug Policy. 2011. p. 24\. Archived from the original on January 9, 2016. Retrieved September 18, 2017.
12. ^ Baum, Writer Dan. "Legalize All Drugs? The 'Risks Are Tremendous' Without Defining The Problem". NPR.org. Archived from the original on January 15, 2018. Retrieved April 3, 2018.
13. ^ "Collaborating with organized crime in the search for disappeared persons? Formalizing a humanitarian alternative for Mexico". International Review of the Red Cross. December 1, 2021. Retrieved March 3, 2022.
14. ^ "Cartel 'extermination' site shows Mexico's insufficient pace to find 100,000 missing". NBC News. March 1, 2022. Retrieved March 3, 2022.
15. ^ "National Search Commission reported that half of the missing persons in Mexico are from Nuevo León". infobae. April 24, 2022. Retrieved August 15, 2022.

## External links

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* University of Minnesota - Human rights program