Disappearing Again: Violence Against Women Searchers in Mexico

October 19, 2026 - 12:00 pm

Skylight Room
The Graduate Center, CUNY

Mexico has more than 130,000 disappearances, recorded from 1952—the period known as the Dirty War—to the present day. Amid official disinterest, women have been at the forefront of searching for disappeared relatives, establishing more than 234 search collectives throughout Mexico to find missing relatives. These efforts are highly dangerous, with collective members suffering pressure, threats, and even death.

 

This event will present the key findings of Amnesty International Mexico’s report Disappearing Again, which documents the violence, risks, and impacts faced by women searching for their disappeared loved ones in Mexico. The discussion will also feature the direct experience of a woman searcher and explore what authorities, civil society, academia, and the international community can do to support women searchers, protect their rights, and help ensure that they can search safely and with dignity.

 

Edith Olivares Ferreto (Ph.D., Ibero-American University) is the Executive Director of Amnesty International Mexico, a position she has held since 2021. She has more than 20 years of experience in applied research, analysis, and public policy advising on gender equality, the right to a life free from violence, and human rights. She joined Amnesty International in 2018 as a consultant managing the “Vivan las Mujeres” project, and later served as Advocacy Coordinator and then Head of the Human Rights Unit. She has worked as a consultant for international organizations and for federal, state, and municipal institutions, including UN Women, the United Nations Development Programme, Mexico’s National Institute for Women, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as state and municipal women’s agencies. 

 

Bibiana Mendoza Negrete is a buscadora, one of the women searching for disappeared relatives in Mexico, and a member of the Colectivo Hasta Encontrarte in Guanajuato. She is searching for her brother, Manuel Ojeda Negrete, who disappeared on January 8, 2018. Since beginning her search, she has faced threats, harassment, and stigmatization. Through collective organizing, she has led search efforts, mobilization, and advocacy to demand answers from authorities and strengthen institutional mechanisms for search and protection. Despite the risks, she continues to search for her brother and to defend the right of families to search for their loved ones. Her experience reflects both the violence that women searchers face in Mexico and the strength of collective organizing to demand truth, justice, and the conditions to search without fear.

 

Enrique Desmond Arias is the Director of the Bildner Center for Western Hemisphere Studies and a Professor at the Graduate Center, CUNY. He is the Austin W. Marxe Professor of Western Hemisphere Affairs at Baruch College. Arias is the author of several influential books, including Criminal Enterprises and Governance in Latin America and Drugs and Democracy in Rio de Janeiro. His research has been published in major journals like Comparative Politics and Political Geography, and has been supported by organizations such as the National Science Foundation. He has also served as a consultant for the United Nations and the Ford Foundation. 

 

 

Moderator: Ted A. Henken, Baruch College / The Graduate Center, CUNY

TO REGISTER send email to bildner@gc.cuny.edu