Mexican diocese introduces postboxes for information on ‘disappeared’

Families and experts alike argue that the number of missing people in Mexico is underreported, although President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration has claimed that the real figure is lower than official estimates suggest.

A diocese in southern Mexico launched a new programme to receive confidential information about missing persons to support families searching for the “disappeared”.

With nearly 135,000 people missing nationwide – and 2,400 new cases reported in just the past two months – the government has continually failed to provide answers to the thousands of families still searching for their disappeared relatives.

Earlier this year in the southern state of Chiapas, the Social Pastoral Ministry of the Archdiocese of Tuxtla launched a programme designed to receive information about missing persons in a safe and confidential manner, known as Buzones de Paz (“Peace Postboxes”).

In May, the first postbox was installed at a parish in central Tuxtla Gutiérrez, and another parish received one on 14 June. According to Fr Gilberto Hernández, who heads the ministry, the goal is to place a postbox in each of the archdiocese’s 24 parishes.

“Especially in the outskirts of the city, where more cases are expected, the programme may play an important role,” he told The Tablet.

Hernández explained that there had been a similar initiative in several parishes in Mexico City. In Tuxtla Gutiérrez, the programme was established in collaboration with a group of mothers searching for their disappeared children – women who have organised themselves to gather information and look for them collectively.

“We decided together how the key aspects of the programme would work. They’re convinced that the official channels for reporting information about missing persons are not trustworthy,” Hernández said.

People with any information concerning a missing person can anonymously leave a message in one of the programme’s postboxes. The mothers’ collective holds one copy of the key, while the Social Pastoral Ministry holds the other. Each postbox is scheduled to be opened once a month.

Families and experts alike argue that the number of missing people in Mexico is underreported, although President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration has recently argued otherwise, claiming that the real figure is lower than official estimates suggest.

Chiapas is not among the states with the highest numbers of disappearances, but the problem remains significant. 

At the end of May, the mothers’ collective received a tip about a clandestine burial site in the community of San Francisco Pujiltic, in the municipality of Venustiano Carranza. The human remains that were found had been charred and likely belonged to multiple victims.

The information was not received through the Church’s programme, but the archdiocese believes that the initiative has helped bring greater visibility to the issue of missing persons.

“Many people tell us that a relative has gone missing, but they’re afraid to report it because they fear retaliation from the drug cartels,” Hernández said.

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