Mexican Mother Visits Japan to Describe Reality of Drug War

August 30, 2018

Tokyo- A Mexican mother of a man entangled in the Latin American country's bloody drug war and kidnapped in 2013 has visited Japan to describe the situation in her country.

During her visit through Sept. 6, Lucia Diaz, 63, is scheduled to give speeches in Tokyo and the western cities of Kyoto and Osaka.

Diaz told Jiji Press in Tokyo on Saturday that she hopes her missing son will return home alive. She leads a group of families in similar situations in the eastern state of Veracruz.

According to her, the son was running an event company with six workers in the Gulf of Mexico coastal city of Veracruz when he was abducted at the age of 29.

The initial investigation by a special police squad found that one of the company staff had been involved in the selling of his mobile phone. No one was arrested over the abduction, however, and the son was not returned even after she paid the ransom demanded.

Diaz was working as an English interpreter, but her life drastically changed after her son's disappearance. After the special squad stepped aside, local police were slow to respond to her request to conduct a search for the missing son.

At that time, she met relatives of others who had gone missing under similar circumstances to her son, and launched the group, called Colectivo Solecito de Veracruz.

Initially comprising only eight members, it grew to 40 members in two months, attracting attention including through online networks.

The group then faced a need to raise funds for its activities. Some members had lost their families' main income earners and could not afford to pay bus fares to attend group meetings, according to Diaz.

In addition to soliciting donations, the group started to run food and other shops at festival venues and parks as well as on beaches.

The group currently operates three used clothing shops while providing advice on cases of drug war-related missing people. It currently has 250 members.

When Diaz and her colleagues were preparing to hold a demonstration in central Veracruz in May 2016, they were approached by a man in a car, who handed them a map showing a cross mark. Diaz said that although she could not see the man's face clearly, she instinctively understood that the map showed the location of a secret burial ground.

Diaz and others tried to persuade the police to allow them to survey the site on a hill outside the city, stressing that they were not seeking those responsible but just wanted to find their loved ones.

The police finally gave permission for the survey two months later. The remains of nearly 300 people have been recovered until now, and more are believed to be still buried.

Only 15 sets of remains have been identified so far. Although DNA examinations in Mexico are left to the authorities, Diaz expressed hopes for Japanese support for identification work.

Only five of the identified victims have been recognized by police as missing people. In Mexico, some 70 pct of families with missing members are said to be too scared to make reports to police, due to apparent links between police and crime syndicates, according to Diaz. Jiji Press