31 years disappeared – still no justice!

Written by Sheila Royce, Regional Team Coordinator for Central America

Lt Miguel Orlando Muñoz Guzmán, aged 25, was last seen alive on 8 May 1993. Dedicated to his army career, he had announced that he would be leaving Ciudad Juárez for Mexico City, having been accepted into the Escuela Superior de Guerra for advanced leadership training. He was looking forward to his new challenge. When his family didn’t hear from him for a few days they contacted the army, only to be told that Lt Guzmán had deserted and travelled to the United States. The army presented a letter to that effect, allegedly signed by the young lieutenant. However, the letter has been proven to be fake, and the signature forged.

There are so many questions. Why would the army feel the need to make up a story and forge a letter? What was it hiding? What had Lt Guzmán witnessed, that made him a target? Apparently, he had been investigating drug trafficking in the area. Had he come across evidence linking Mexican army officers with drug cartels? Why was his briefcase stolen? Why has vital evidence been lost? Why, after so much time, has there still never been a proper investigation into his disappearance?

30 August marks the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearance. The victims, of course, include the families of those who have been disappeared. The women who continue to search, despite the abuse and threats they face. Women like María Guadalupe Guzmán Romo, the mother of Lt. Guzmán, who, with her family, was the first to report the corruption and human rights violation and has now been searching for truth and justice for over 31 years.

In this time the family has explored every conceivable avenue to discover the truth about what happened. They brought the case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). Back in 2006, the Commission recommended that the Mexican state conduct a complete, impartial and effective investigation to determine the whereabouts of Lt. Guzmán and, if it were determined that he was a victim of forced disappearance, to sanction all those responsible. It also recommended that adequate compensation be provided to his relatives. To date, the Mexican state has failed to comply with any of these recommendations.

In June 2019 the Attorney General's Office of Chihuahua declined its jurisdiction to investigate the lieutenant's disappearance in favour of the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic (FGR), having concluded that it was a case of enforced disappearance, and that elements of the Mexican Army were involved. It found that the army was hiding the truth. However, the FGR never established an investigation protocol for enforced disappearance. Its actions were limited to locating Lt. Guzmán, with no investigation into what had happened, or who was responsible. If there is no investigation, then there will be no evidence of wrongdoing, or enforced disappearance. It would seem there is no political will to investigate military personnel.

The family’s efforts have been blocked at every turn. If that were not bad enough, they have been persecuted, monitored and threatened by elements of the army, to prevent the truth of the facts from being established. In May 2024, on the 31^st anniversary of Lt Guzmán’s disappearance, his mother published a heartbreaking letter addressed to the outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. In it she reminded him of the promises of support he had given her when campaigning for the presidency. Support that never materialised, just like the promised transformation of the country, in her view. “I have only seen that disappearances continue, human rights violations and impunity and corruption prevail. I see a Mexico bathed in blood…”, says María Guadalupe Guzmán Romo.

The facts bear this out. As of 8 August 2024, the National Register of Missing and Disappeared Persons reported up to 116,386 disappeared and missing persons. With the numbers ever rising, this is not just a historical problem. 88% of all missing persons reports have been made since 2006. The UN Committee on Enforced Disappearance visited Mexico at the end of 2021. They were there just 11 days, but in that time 112 new disappearances were added to the register.

So it is left to the families, in their grief, to fight for justice for their loved ones, enduring attacks and threats in the process. 31 years is a painfully long time to wait for a proper investigation into your son’s disappearance, but María never gives up hope: “I will not stop fighting, nor will I ever give up, because a mother never gives up demanding justice for the enforced disappearance of a child.”