Mother searching for missing son reports assault by police investigator in Mexico City

Jacqueline Palmeros, a prominent "mother searcher" and founder of the "Una Luz en el Camino" collective, has accused a female investigator from the capital's Attorney General's Office (FGJ) of assault. The incident allegedly occurred on August 11 while Palmeros was participating in a search for missing persons in the Tláhuac borough of Mexico City.

Palmeros stated that during the search in an area known as La Brecha, she attempted to instruct the police investigator on using search tools. According to Palmeros, the officer responded with continuous mockery, followed by hostile and aggressive behavior. She recounted the officer saying that searchers were accustomed to being treated with impunity. Palmeros further alleged that the investigator then resorted to physical aggression, and even attempted to draw her service weapon while being restrained by colleagues.

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Far from receiving the offer with professionalism, the agent responded with continuous mockery. Subsequently, she addressed me in a hostile and aggressive manner and even dared to tell me that this happened because we were accustomed to no one telling us or doing anything to us.

Following the alleged assault, Palmeros has called for the immediate dismissal of the investigator and for criminal charges to be filed against her. Searches in the Tláhuac area had resumed on August 11, following the discovery of skeletal remains in April near the border with Chalco, State of Mexico. The incident highlights the difficult and often fraught work undertaken by families and collectives searching for disappeared loved ones in Mexico.

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And she added 'immediately after, showing excessive aggressiveness, she started hitting me and immediately after, when her own colleagues had her subdued, she tried to draw her service weapon.