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Search for Missing Persons Resumes in Tláhuac Amid Cartel Reports
🇲🇽 Mexico /Crime & Justice

Search for Missing Persons Resumes in Tláhuac Amid Cartel Reports

From El Universal · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

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  • Authorities and search groups resumed efforts to find missing persons in Tláhuac, Mexico City, following reports of gunfire and cartel activity.
  • The search focuses on an area where over a thousand bone fragments were previously found and four individuals identified.
  • Families, including Rosa Isela searching for her son since 2018, express pain over the long wait to access the site.

Search efforts for missing persons have resumed in Tláhuac, Mexico City, three months after an initial operation uncovered over a thousand bone fragments and identified four individuals. The renewed search, involving families, volunteers, and various government agencies, targets an area on the border with Chalco, State of Mexico, where recent reports indicated gunfire, shouts, and the presence of the Tláhuac Cartel.

Personnel from the Mexico City Prosecutor's Office, Public Security Secretariat, National Guard, and the local Missing Persons Commission are participating. The operation is concentrated in a protected natural area between the Chalco Canal and the El Tempiluli neighborhood. Juan José Aguirre Hernández, director of Long-Term Search Areas for the Missing Persons Commission, explained that the site was previously occupied by irregularly built houses, making it a potential hiding place after demolitions.

We have information from investigations that there was a lot of movement in this area.

— Juan José Aguirre HernándezDirector of Long-Term Search Areas for the Missing Persons Commission, explaining the rationale for the renewed search.

"We have information from investigations that there was a lot of movement in this area," Aguirre Hernández stated, adding that the current operation aims to gain certainty and clear the area. Rosa Isela, whose son Luis Ángel López Guzmán disappeared in 2018, expressed her anguish over the years-long wait to search the site, which her son's phone geolocation indicated as his last known location. "It is very painful that we have to wait four or five years to enter a place that is of great interest due to its geolocation," she said.

The search is scheduled to continue until Friday. Following the initial day's work, which involved clearing vegetation and initial exploration, families of the disappeared urged for more material and human resources for future operations. The area's difficult terrain and past irregular construction present significant challenges for investigators and grieving families alike.

It is very painful that we have to wait four or five years to enter a place that is of great interest due to its geolocation.

— Rosa IselaMother searching for her son, expressing frustration over the delay in accessing the search site.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by El Universal in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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