In Mexico, Mother's Day is a sad reminder for the mothers of the disappeared

Last week, Mexican officials were able to find the bodies of three missing tourists from Australia and the US in less than a week. But many Mexican mothers have been searching for their children who have gone missing in Mexico for years — even decades — and can’t seem to get help from the authorities.

May 13, 2024
By Tibisay Zea

On Mother’s Day, hundreds of mothers searching for their missing children marched to the National Palace in Mexico City, Mexico as they do every year. Ana Enamorado was among them. She’s been looking for her only son, Oscar Antonio Lopez, since 2010. “Today is his birthday. He’s 34 years old,” she said.

Enamorado said her son left his home country of Honduras with the intention to reach the United States, but he got stuck in the Mexican state of Jalisco 14 years ago, and is nowhere to be found.His mother decided to leave everything in Honduras 12 years ago and move to Mexico to search for her son. She complains about the lack of effort by the authorities to help her figure out where her son is.

She said she was shocked to learn that the bodies of three international tourists were found so quickly just days before the march, in a case that made international headlines. “So, is it because they are foreigners that their cases are more urgent?” she questioned, “I don’t get it.”

Another mother, Rosa Silva, said that she has looked for her daughter, Victoria Lizabeth Posada Silva, in mental health hospitals, police offices and prostitution houses across the country. It’s not uncommon that women and girls who go missing become victims of sex trafficking.

Silva joined a collective of mothers from the central state of Mexico who are looking for their children in mass graves across the country. Carrying picks and shovels, they dig holes in sometimes remote places suggested by anonymous tips or social media messages.
More than 5,500 clandestine mass graves have been found in Mexico in the last two decades — many by families of the relatives who have disappeared.

More:
https://theworld.org/stories/2024/05/13/in-mexico-mothers-day-is-a-sad-reminder-for-the-mothers-of-the-disappeared