Mexico faces a serious problem regarding disappearances. Currently, it is estimated that there are around 40 thousand unlocated people, who can be presumed dead, without this implying certainty.

This situation is a symptom of a serious security problem and is also the drama of the relatives who experience the absence of a loved one and the inability to access the truth of the events that led to the disappearance.

It is also a great challenge for the State, who, in addition to requiring resources to search for unlocated people, must be able to identify bodies that are found daily. To put the situation into perspective, in the first quarter of 2019 alone, the government located 81 sites where they found 222 clandestine graves and local governments do not have sufficient mechanisms to identify those who are presumed missing.

In addition, family members face constant victimization, initiate a search process, and resort to government agencies who do not always provide the required support.

The situation is not simple, hence the National Institute of Criminal Sciences in conjunction with the National Commission for the Search of Persons, held a forum with the aim of raising the challenges and mechanisms that must be addressed with respect to the crime of forced disappearance and disappearance committed by individuals.

This issue of the Mexican Journal of Criminal Sciences (RMCP) is the result of the above. In this publication some of the approaches presented by the experts are collected, who inform us of the progress of the Mexican State in the search for people; The situation of family members and, of course, the history of disappearances in our country, both in the period of the dirty war and in the so-called war against organized crime.

This issue will seek to answer questions such as what is this phenomenon due to? What relationships are there with organized crime and disappearance? What is the distinction between enforced disappearance and that committed by individuals?

Thus, María de Lourdes Velasco Domínguez analyzes two amparo judgments granted between 2015 and 2018 with the aim of noting changes in progress in favor of victims in the framework of judicial decisions. This from the recognition of the existence of the crime of forced disappearance.

For their part, Michel Retama Domínguez and María Soledad Rojas warn of the need to recognize the disappearance of people as a type of violence that generates serious effects on the life and health of family members who become victims of absence.

Javier Yankelevich influences the phenomenon through the creation of a communication and support network that the relatives of the victims build, problematizes the situation of the subject who lacks information about the whereabouts of a person and focuses his analysis on the phenomena and effects of families.

Thus, this issue provides an overview of a critical situation in Mexico. This, with the aim of posing problems about the phenomenon and looking for new ways to deal with it.