The Two Disappearances of Fernando Hernández de la Cruz

Fernando Hernandez de la Cruz disappeared twice in Mexico. The first was when an armed commando kidnapped him in 2022, in Tampico. The second, when his family went to look for him and did not find him in the census of missing persons that has just been presented by the National Search Commission (CNB). "My greatest wish is that they don't disappear him again," says Patricia de la Cruz, his mother. She, along with other relatives, denounce that their children and siblings do not appear in the new registry presented by the Mexican government. There are more than 113,000 missing people in the country, according to collectives and organizations. Now the authorities have published a clean census in which only about 100,000 are accounted for. "Where are the ones who are missing?" asks Mrs. De La Cruz and other searching mothers. Since 2022, Fernando's mother has had more questions than answers.

President López Obrador came to power after the 2018 elections by committing himself to the families of the disappeared, one of Mexico's biggest problems. However, the latest measure taken by the Executive, which defends that there are duplicate records and errors in the previous database, has caused discomfort among victims and led to the resignation of Karla Quintana, former Search Commissioner. After the war of numbers, a cascade of layoffs has been unleashed in several areas of the agency. The incorporation of new personnel, questioned for not being trained, has only increased the tension between the families and the Government.

In June 2023, López Obrador announced that a new count of the disappeared would be made. In December, Teresa Guadalupe Reyes, the new head of the Search Commission, explained at the president's morning conference that there are around 92,000 missing persons in the country and that the government has located 16,681, data that was rejected by the organizations, who accuse the current administration of making up the numbers for the next elections. Fernando Hernández's mother denounces that no authority ever contacted her. "The president says they went to the houses and that's a lie. There was no census and they didn't talk to the families on the phone, they certainly didn't come to this house," the woman says angrily.

In a recent meeting with Reyes, the official listened on a case-by-case basis to dozens of people who took the floor and had to acknowledge that the 16,000 people that the federal government announced were located are still not with their families. Reyes explained that there is "a procedure that must be followed to formalize the location" and that it is not yet complete.

Search file for Fernando Hernández de la Cruz, disappeared in Tamaulipas.colectivo 10 de marzo

The mothers decided to demonstrate this week in front of the doors of the National Search Commission. They wanted an audience with the new commissioner, to get their grievances across. To find answers to all those questions that pile up in the files. Dozens of women from different groups from all over the country gathered with photographs of their children and siblings. There was also the portrait of Fernando, and of the disappeared in Veracruz, Jalisco, Tamaulipas, Guanajuato... De la Cruz says she is "sad, frustrated, angry." He says that a year ago he went to the doors of the National Palace with a letter in his own handwriting addressed to the president, but they did not receive it. "If they took one of his sons, the president would move heaven and sea and earth to find him, right? I'm telling you that two days wouldn't go by without finding him, why doesn't the same thing happen for the people?"

Most families not only have to search for their disappeared with their own means, now they also have to fight against bureaucracy and a system that violates them. "What happens if they find my son and he's not on the registry?" asks Alejandrina Pinales, another mother affected by the cuts. "Most likely, they will throw him into the pit," he replies with anguish. Pinales has been searching for her son Juan Alejandro Polanco Pinales since 2020, when he disappeared in Matamoros, Tamaulipas.

This new situation is forcing many of these families to seek legal protection to prevent their children from disappearing from the census. "It's like living a hell within hell," sums up Delia Quiroa, of the March 10 Collective in Tamaulipas. So far, 74 mothers from this group have had to file a judicial injunction so that their children are not erased, among them is Patricia de la Cruz. However, the cases could be more. 125 women from the March 10 Collective report that they cannot find the names of their children. Quiroa says that in total there are already at least 922 cases of people eliminated from the census in the country and they do not rule out that there are many more. "They are forcing the mothers to get involved in another legal battle that can take up to two more years, just so that they are not removed from the list," claims the activist, who is also looking for her brother Roberto.

About 70 people attended the meeting with Teresa Guadalupe Reyes. De la Cruz and other mothers stayed outside and followed the meeting through social media. "The meeting was disappointing," he says. "The new commissioner doesn't know anything about the search for people. We are not interested in who occupies the position, what interests us is that they know how to move people to look for our disappeared," says Fernando's mother.

Search file for Juan Alejandro Polanco Pinales, disappeared in Tamaulipas.colectivo 10 de marzo

The commissioner's meeting with the family members was very tense. From the beginning they let him know that they disapprove of his appointment and criticize his lack of experience. "You're occupying a chair that we don't want you to occupy," a woman on a bus is heard saying. The commissioner, with a tense gesture, endures the downpour. "We demand that the field personnel that we know and who go out to split their heads with us (...) be rehired. We're not going to wait another four years for the staff to be retrained," says another attendee.

Despite the bureaucracy and empty words, Patricia de la Cruz continues to hope to find her son Fernando despite the fact that every day he wakes up with more questions than answers: "Why are so many people disappearing? Why doesn't the government do anything? Why don't they listen to mothers? Why are they doing this to us?"

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