Lost in legal obscurity

Besides the absence of the disappeared in Jalisco, the victims also suffer from a legal uncertainty that suffocates their daily lives and affects above all the present and future of their children.

On February 23, 2021, the Law on the Special Statement of Absence of Persons of the State of Jalisco, which aims to fill the legal loopholes faced by the relatives of those in this situation, went into effect.

However, different disappearance groups warn that the law is not enforced as strictly as expected, and that there are also situations that are unpredictable and harm above all minors.

According to the law, a Special Statement of Absence can be requested from 30 calendar days from the date of the notice, complaint or notice of loss, and the court of first instance will have three working days to accept or reject it.

The court must publish three edicts in the official state gazette and a state-run newspaper to report on the procedure, and if there is no objection, it will decide on the Special Disclosure Statement 15 calendar days after the last edict. should not exceed six months after the acceptance of the objection.

This means that if the request is made 30 days after it is lost and you have to wait three working days for its acceptance (it can be five calendar days for Saturday and Sunday), the statement is added after seven months and five days for its registration in the civil registry and the Official State Gazette.

Since the missing cannot be reported as dead, the Special Declaration of Absence introduces measures to protect workers’ rights and social security for up to five years; suspension of financial and commercial obligations until found; Disposal of assets by relatives six months after the declaration date and, in case of open request, until the marriage ends.

However, different groups argue that although the fatality period is six months, this does not happen in practice and that the children of the disappeared are the most affected.

Many of these organizations, through the Morena faction in the local Congress, are seeking a series of amendments to the aforementioned law to fix the problem. For example, the rights of minors who are not registered or registered as single by their mother are restricted.

In other cases, guardians are uncles or grandparents who, in the absence of this declaration, would not be able to follow the relevant procedure preventing minors from attending school.

In the reform initiative, missing persons groups are demanding shortening of the deadlines, securing victim status for judges and easier access to legal guardianship so that the personality rights of missing children are not affected.

Their problems have increased exponentially as they have not been able to prove the legal status of the families of the disappeared until now, which is why Infonavit is pushing for loans and there are women reporting threats to take their homes.

The problem in Jalisco is even greater because of people who are unable to show their relatives’ status on the National Register of Missing or Missing Persons.

Although there are those who have lost loved ones for a year and a half or two, the state government does not report these files to the federal government. Perhaps that is why there are 13,000 casualties for government officials, while for groups the figure is already over 16,000.

(I invite you to read, listen and see. www.paraleloveinte.com).

carlos martinez macias

martinezmcarlos@hotmail.com

Missing groups demand that the deadlines be reduced so that the children of the missing are not affected.