25 October 2012
Dr. Alejandro Poiré Romero
Secretary of State of Mexico
On May 31, members of United Forces for our Disappeared in Mexico (FUNDEM), and other civil society organizations met with you and with various authorities to discuss the Federal Government’s approach to the issue of the forced disappearance. At that meeting, we reached an agreement on several issues:
The creation of an inter-institutional group to follow up each case of forced disappearance. The members of this group are the State Ministry (SEGOB), General Attorney Office and PROVICTIMA. The members will have weekly meetings.
- The creation of a ‘task force’ for the search of missing persons.
- The acceptance of seven demands from FUNDEM by SEGOB. SEGOB proposed the creation of a weekly schedule to follow up the developments of these demands through a technical working group.
- Commitment to a meeting a month later to review the developments of the inter-institutional group, the task force and to follow up on these agreements.
- Discussion of the issues addressed in the public hearing held during the 144 ° session of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the inclusion of disappeared immigrants into the agenda.
Almost five months after that meeting, there is no progress on these agreements beyond some isolated activities such as the visit of officials of SEGOB and PGR to the State of Coahuila and various meetings with government officials. The latter has taken place without significant results. We have tried to contact you for a follow-up meeting, but we have not received any response. We are aware of the changes in the presidential administration. For this reason, it is urgent and necessary that these agreements are not left without any reporting and follow-up of their implementation. We request that you grant us a meeting as soon as possible that includes officials from the other ministries and agencies involved in our previous meetings. We also request the presence of members of the transition team of the elected president Enrique Peña Nieto to give continue working on solving the cases of forced disappearances.
Sincerely
Fuerzas Unidas por Nuestros Desaparecidos en México.
