Lists, Maps, and Bones: The Untold Journeys of Citizen-led Forensics in Mexico

ABSTRACT

The independent collection of forensic data by families, the development of search strategies from personal experience, and community-led investigations challenge the lack of state responses to Mexico’s humanitarian crisis involving thousands of missing and disappeared persons. Searching for those absent is often a family affair. Women – mainly, mothers – have been at the forefront of this battle; through their actions, they have questioned the expertise of Mexican official forensic actors. In so doing, these mothers have opened novel possibilities for the development of alternative modes of forensic knowledge. This paper brings forth, embodied & localized citizen-led practices of scientific inquiry and care, that resist the politics of closure and objectivity. Ethnography and documentary research are used to unearth the origins of these practices in the mainstream forensic discourse, which has relegated this knowledge to the realm of anecdotes and desperation.

KEYWORDS:

• Mexico
• disappearance
• search
• forensic science
• citizen-led

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. The disappeared is a neologism that describes the condition of being absent, of being forcibly taken away. The term was first used by General Jorge Rafael Videla, president of Argentina, during the period known as the Dirty War (Pigna, 2008). In the case of Mexico, “to disappear” might not only be the consequence of an absence arranged by the state, but is also likely to be part of a deliberate action from private entities (i.e. organized crime groups). In this article, I use the term “missing” and “disappeared” to talk about unexpected, involuntary absences that occur in violent or insecure spaces. Academic literature regarding circumstances in which individuals go missing involuntarily, under suspicious circumstances, as an effect of war, violence, or natural disasters, demonstrates that those with the power of placing the definition of “missing” are not only family members or immediate social networks but other actors such as international agencies (e.g. International Committee on the Red Cross, ICRC; or the International Commission on Missing Persons, ICMP), or government authorities. (Edkins, 2001, 2011; Parr & Stevenson, 2012; Parr & Fyfe, 2013). In contrast, academic literature on “disappearances” reflects on the particular technique of government that works through eliminating political opponents.

2. Parr et al.’s research on the missing in the UK shows that “the majority (54%) of adults returned or were located within 48 hours, and 24% were missing between 48 hours and 7 days, with only a minority outstanding for several weeks” (Parr, 2015, p. 201).

3. Forensic science services include postmortem examinations and determining the cause of death, forensic anthropology, forensic odontology, fingerprints, and DNA analysis. In some instances, these services include forensic psychiatry, and entomology.

4. Like ostriches that bury their head in the sand. This is a common Mexican expression used when people refuse to acknowledge advice or are in denial about a situation, hoping that by denying its existence, it will go away.

5. The Equipo Argentino de Antropologia Forense (EAAF) is known internationally for its work in the recovery and identification of human remains. The EAAF have provided forensic technical assistance to the Mexican government since the early 2000s in high-profile cases such as the murdered women at Campo Algodonero or the investigations surrounding the enforced disappearance of Rosendo Radilla Pacheco, a social leader, and former municipal president of Atoyac de Alvarez, Guerrero in the 1970s. More recently the EAAF, signed an agreement with the General Attorney’s Office in September 2013 to create a “Forensic Commission”. This Commission aimed at identifying the bodies of migrants found in mass graves during 2010–2011 in the community of San Fernando, Tamaulipas, as well as those found in 2012 in Cadereyta, Nuevo Leon – a state in the northern part of Mexico where a clandestine mass grave was discovered, containing approximately 49 bodies.

6. In March 2002, the mothers of three of the eight victims at Campo Algodonero along with the nongovernmental organization Network of Human Dignity and No Violence, (Red de Dignidad Humana y no Violencia) filed a petition to the IACHR to investigate the case. This petition accused the Mexican government of dereliction of duty and due diligence regarding the criminal investigations and identifications made in relation to these three specific cases.

7. Laura’s collarbone was kept at the family house for years. However, the transaction between her family and the EAAF, a crucial element for her identification, did not take center stage. This information was “buried” on a footnote at one of EAAF’s expert witness reports to the IACHR.

8. According to data from April 2018, more than 9,327 women have been reported as missing or disappeared with the State of Mexico, Tamaulipas and Puebla recording the highest rates of disappearances in the country. See for instance: https://seguridad.nexos.com.mx/?p=162. Accessed: 13 August 2019.

9. A large number of missing, disappeared and dead women in Ciudad Juarez were maquiladora workers.

10. For more information visit: http://cienciaforenseciudadana.org.

11. If it is not us, then who? If not now, when?” Is a famous phrase adopted by Letty, who uses it frequently when talking about citizens’ practices of search (Informal talk with Letty, September 2016).

12. See, for example Ian Hacking’s analysis on the use of statistics to make up populations (1986, 1990), or for the history of fingerprints (Cole, 2013) both practices born from colonial contexts. For a critical approach to border security see (Amoore, 2011; Amoore & De Goede, 2008a, 2008b). For an historical approach on the use of forensics as identifying and classifying techniques see Galton and Bertillon uses of anthropometry.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a doctoral scholarship from the National Council of Science and Technology of Mexico, (CONACyT); and by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) in the UK. Research Grant ES/M00063X/1 ‘Citizen Led Forensics: DNA & data-banking as technologies of disruption-a novel way to learn and intervene in the search for the disappeared in Mexico’ and a Research Fellowship ES/S011307/1 ‘Forensic Citizens: The Politics of Searching for Disappeared Persons’. The author would like to thank the families in Mexico who generously shared their time and experience for the purpose of this project.