Mexico reported to the United Nations (UN) that during 2026 more than 16,000 missing persons have been located, a figure presented on October 16 at the organization's headquarters in New York. The Undersecretary for Human Rights, Population and Migration of the Secretariat of the Interior (Segob), Arturo Medina Padilla, described the figure as part of the National Search Strategy and called it a national priority.

At the same forum, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) contributed another figure: since January 2023 the identity of more than 24,000 deceased persons has been restored, through the matching of fingerprints from forensic services with records from the National Electoral Institute (INE), reported its deputy director, Catharina Boehme, according to El Universal and Excélsior.

The meeting, titled Progress on the search for persons, human identification and investigation of disappearances in Mexico, brought together diplomatic delegations and civil society organizations. The issue touches thousands of Mexican families, inside and outside the country, who are still searching for a relative.

During the presentation, several actions underway were announced:

  • A National Command Center operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week, along with the installation of state command posts. - The incorporation of 300 professionals into the National Search Commission. - A group of national and international specialists reviewing the methodologies of the National Registry of Missing and Unlocated Persons (RNPDNO). - The 2025 legal reforms, which require opening an investigation file and searching immediately upon each report.

Representing the Attorney General's Office (FGR), the head of the Specialized Prosecutor's Office for Human Rights, Mariana Díaz Figueroa, stated that the Standardized Investigation Protocol is being updated with the participation of families and collectives, and that the National Forensic Data Bank is being consolidated. For its part, James Turpin of the UN-OHCHR acknowledged the reforms and raised the need to translate the regulatory framework into effective results for victims.

The review of the RNPDNO by the group of national and international specialists will mark the next step of the strategy. UNFPA also offered to expand its technical assistance in genetics to all entities of the country.

This article was written with the assistance of artificial intelligence from verified sources and reviewed by a human editor before publication.