Draft:Colectivo Madres Buscadoras de Sonora
| Formation | 2019 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Ceci Patricia Flores Armenta |
| Location |
|
The Colectivo Madres Buscadoras de Sonora (Searching Mothers Collective of Sonora) is a Mexican non-profit organization dedicated to finding lost people in the state of Sonora, and occasionally in other states.[1] The organization was formed in 2019, in response to increasing rates of murders, femicides, and disappearances.
It is formed primarily of mothers with missing children, who seek to recover the remains of their relatives. The women carry out the field search for bodies and human remains, as well as the identification of those buried in mass graves. The organization has around 700 women members and has conducted searches across Sonora, including the locations of Caborca, Cajeme, Guaymas, Hermosillo,[2][3][4] Huatabampo, Magdalena, Nogales, and Puerto Peñasco.[5]
As of July 2024, the group has reported recovering 2,700 bodies and reuniting 2,400 living people with their families.[6]
History
[edit]The group was created following the disappearance of Ceci Patricia Flores Armenta's two sons: one in 2015 in Los Mochis, Sinaloa, and the other in 2019 in Bahía de Kino, Sonora.[7] Flores Armenta felt the local authorities did not thoroughly investigate her case, and decided to found Madres Buscadoras to respond to other cases.[8]
In May 2019, Madres buscadoras de Sonora was founded.[4] Two other organizations with similar goals were founded that year: Buscadoras por la paz and Guerreras buscadoras. The three groups have worked together on searches and training.[citation needed]
In 2019, Madres Buscadoras recovered 52 sets of remains near Puerto Peñasco.[5] By January 2020, the group had 200 members and had located and identified 79 sets of remains.[9] In 2022, the group located 25 sets of remains in the Sonoran Desert between Hermosillo and Bahía Kino.[5] In September 2023, the group was shot at while performing a search in Guaymas.[5] In 2024, the group reported finding a clandestine crematorium on the outskirts of Mexico City.[10]
The group has carried out searches around the United States–Mexico border, in collaboration with the U.S.-based organization Armadillos Binacional.[9]
Search protocols
[edit]The members of the group travel throughout Sonora in search of human remains that will allow them to identify their missing children, guided by reports issued by the government. On any given search, the first three days are dedicated to exploration and the next four are dedicated to active search. The group defines a positive search as any search when a clandestine grave, body or bone is found.[citation needed]
The group's first searches began informally, without a specific procedure or methodology. The searchers were later trained by trackers from Sinaloa and Tamaulipas, who then trained other women in turn. From the first expeditions in the field, they found bodies, remains of charred bones, and pieces of clothing.[citation needed] The group "are not forensic experts and don’t claim to be", but have learned how to identify evidence as the scenes, such as differentiating human and animal bones, "[recognizing] the smell of decomposing human bodies," and knowing which fragments of bone are most likely to house usable DNA. After finding physical remains, they call upon government forensic experts, who can test the remains for DNA.[5][6]
There are two action protocols carried out by the group: the search for life and the search for bodies. The first refers to the process of identifying a homeless person who presents some of the characteristics of a missing person. The photograph of the person in question is shared on social networks and their family is searched for. In the second, the group goes directly to the mountains or other rural areas, looking for anomalies or disturbances in the ground.[citation needed]
If the search is positive, the type of clothing the bodies are wearing is determined, and checked against official reports to see if they have any official identification. The corresponding authorities are then contacted.[citation needed]
The group uses their Facebook page, which had 700,000 followers by 2023, to share information on missing persons and updates on their searches, at times live streaming their work.[5]
Threats
[edit]The threats to the members of the collectives are constant, both through telephone calls and on their Facebook pages, and occasionally in the search field itself.[11] Members have reported that those who provide information to the organizations have also faced retribution, including arson attacks on their homes.[7]
On November 2, 2019, the group, Ceci Patricia Flores and an agent of the Ministerial Criminal Investigation Agency were threatened with death by an armed commando while they were carrying out searches on land in the municipality of Puerto Peñasco. Those threatened immediately left and have not returned to work in that municipality.[12]
On July 15, 2021, a member of the Madres Buscadoras de Sonora collective, Aranza Ramos, was killed in Guaymas, Sonora, by drug traffickers from the state of Sonora. She had joined the group with the intention of looking for her husband, Brayan Omar Celaya.[13]
In May 2024, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador derided the group and others like it, saying their members suffered "a delirium of necrophilia".[14]
References
[edit]- ^ Hermosillo, Sofía Calvillo. "Líder de madres buscadoras en Sonora pide a cárteles permitir búsqueda de desaparecidos". El Sol de México (in Spanish). Retrieved 2022-03-11.
- ^ Migoya, Clara. "Searching Mothers of Sonora find 16 clandestine graves near Sonoran capital of Hermosillo". The Arizona Republic. Retrieved 2024-12-02.
- ^ "Mexico's Searching Mothers find 30 clandestine graves in Sonora". EFE Noticias. 2024-01-15. Retrieved 2024-12-02.
- ^ a b Rocha, Jorge Antonio (2024-01-17). "Searching Mothers find 30 clandestine graves in Mexico's Sonoran desert". Aztec Reports. Retrieved 2024-12-02.
- ^ a b c d e f Bregel, Emily (2023-11-16). "In Sonora, 'searching mothers' comb the desert for disappeared loved ones". Arizona Daily Star. Retrieved 2024-12-02.
- ^ a b Nares, Paulina (2024-07-13). "Ceci Flores, la voz de un colectivo de madres que a pico y pala buscan a sus hijos en un país con más de 100 mil desaparecidos". CNN (in Spanish). Retrieved 2025-03-05.
- ^ a b Quiroz, Lilly (2024-06-06). "About 100,000 people are missing in Mexico. These mothers are trying to find them". NPR. Retrieved 2024-06-06.
- ^ "Cecilia empezó su lucha cuando desaparecieron a su primer hijo". Uniradio Informa (in Spanish). 2020-03-04. Retrieved 2022-03-11.
- ^ a b Díaz, Paola (2020-01-28). "[OPINIÓN] Ni vivos ni muertos: El viaje de las madres buscadoras de Sonora". Centro de Estudios de Conflicto y Cohesion Social (in Spanish). Retrieved 2024-06-08.
- ^ "Mexican volunteer searchers say they've found a clandestine crematorium in Mexico City". The Independent. 2024-05-01.
- ^ Elizalde, Mercedes Zúñiga. "Mujeres buscadoras en Sonora Transformaciones subjetivas frente a la violencia". argumentos.xoc.uam.m.
- ^ "Comando armado amenaza a Madres Buscadoras en Puerto Peñasco". UniRadio Informa. 3 November 2019. Retrieved 28 June 2022.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
:0was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Mexico's president accuses press and volunteer searchers for missing people of 'necrophilia'". AP News. 2024-05-09. Retrieved 2024-06-07.