A group of around 20 individuals from search collectives symbolically closed the Senate building’s entrance.
“Closed for lack of commitment to families of missing persons. We are still missing +127,00”, read the red sticker that protesters attached to the black gate at Gate 3.”
The dissatisfied participants marched from the Glorieta de los Desaparecidos, near La Palma on Paseo de la Reforma and Niza intersection, to the senatorial building located just two kilometers away.
Positioned on Calle Madrid, between Insurgentes and París, relatives of victims of disappearances were encircled by security personnel from the Senate who placed barriers.
One of the protesters, claiming urgency due to a scheduled meeting at the Secretariat of Governance five blocks away, was caught on the barrier while attempting to jump over and was briefly stopped by female security staff.
Once released, she took the microphone and began chanting slogans.
Jorge Berástegui explained that the collectives demonstrated to “expose that what the government is doing is merely simulation, they don’t care about the problem, and I believe the attacks on the UN show this.”
Gerardo Fernández Noroña, president of the Senate’s Directorate Board, stated that Margarita Valdez (Morena), chairperson of the Senate’s Government Commission, approached the protesters “and sent her away quickly from the compañero’s ranch (López Obrador) called La Chingada.”
On April 8th, the Senate expressed disagreement with statements made by Olivier De Frouville, President of the UN Committee against Forced Disappearances, who stated that forced disappearances in Mexico have a “systematic and generalized” nature.
Fernández Noroña argued that the Mexican state is not involved in these activities and claimed that De Frouville violated procedure by making unsubstantiated, reckless accusations.
