Mexico Develops Digital Database to Identify Missing Persons

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum emphasized the need for a comprehensive digital database of information to help identify missing persons.

The information in the missing persons registry is drawn from various sources, including investigative files from prosecutors’ offices. Unfortunately, when the information does not come directly from these sources, it often arrives incomplete, making the search difficult.

“There is not a singular fingerprint database in Mexico,” the president stated during her morning press conference on March 21, emphasizing that the best way to identify people is through fingerprints.

She specified that the creation of a national database with fingerprints would help the Forensic Medical Service (SEMEFO) carry out its work and would help families find closure in the search for missing persons.

The effort to digitize the civil registry is a task that began during the previous presidency, during which the National Population Registry (RENAPO) made an effort to consolidate data from each of the country’s states.

This is the first step toward creating national databases that provide evidence of the life or death of residents throughout the country.

The president also spoke of possible cooperation between prosecutors’ offices and the National Electoral Institute (INE) to obtain information on the whereabouts of missing persons. Around the world, experts have conflicting opinions about what information each government should or should not have about its citizens. Some argue that recording biometric data such as fingerprints violates the right to privacy and anonymity of its citizens.

Those in favor point to the need for vital information about the population to combat crime, locate people, and combat bureaucracy.

What President Claudia Sheinbaum is proposing is not to add or collect additional biometric data from citizens, but rather to create a centralized database that draws on all the information the government already has.

This would speed up prosecutors’ access to vital information in the search for missing persons or in the recognition of their deaths.