Mexican government prioritizes the search for missing persons with two law reforms

The Mexican government will make changes to two laws in order to better connect Mexico through a shared system that allows the exchange of information in real time between authorities, institutions and individuals. 

This was stated by the legal advisor to the Mexican presidency, Ernestina Godoy, who, during the morning press conference of President Claudia Sheinbaum on March 22, stressed that the main objective of these reforms is to increase efficiency in the search for people through technology and inter-institutional coordination.

The two laws that are proposed to be reformed are the General Population Law and the General Law on Forced Disappearance of Persons Committed by Individuals and the National System for the Search for Persons. 

The main actions for these changes to the law are:

• Creation of the Single Identity Platform,
• Incorporation of the CURP as an official identity mechanism with photograph and fingerprints,
• Creation of the National Database of Investigation Files for missing and unlocated persons,
• Establish the obligation for local prosecutors’ offices and local courts to feed and update the National Forensic Data Bank managed by the FGR.
• The highest priority of these measures is to be able to find matches between all information systems at the national level for the search and location of missing persons.

Related: Mexico Develops Digital Database to Identify Missing Persons