Mexico will have its own Innsbruck for body identification: Alejandro Encinas

To address the forensic crisis in Mexico due to high levels of violence, the Ministry of the Interior (Segob), through the National Institute of Genomic Medicine and the University of Innsbruck, in Austria, seeks to train staff in the analysis of complex samples and studies on identification of bodies can be carried out in the country.

This was highlighted by Alejandro Encinas Rodríguez, deputy secretary for human rights of Segob, during the morning press conference of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador from the National Palace, where he said that the objective of signing the agreement is for Mexico to have its “Innsbruck”.

The federal official indicated that this agreement with the University of Innsbruck and its forensic institute is the first to be signed with another institution outside Austria. He explained that thanks to this agreement, the first studies on the identification of complex samples in Mexico will begin these days.

According to a report presented by the National Search Commission (CNB) and the National Movement for Our Disappeared, there are about 52,000 unidentified bodies in the country in forensic services and mass graves.

“There is no national genetic database, information is not shared, there is no contrast, there are no capacities and wills, that is the main problem, lack of will and forensic information remains fragmented, there is a lack of state political will to be able to deal with this crisis,” Encinas said.

The Mexican government has invested around 3.4 billion pesos for the identification and preservation of bodies.

It should be recalled that the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic (FGR) sent 16 human remains to Austria to determine by genetic analysis whether they correspond to any of the 43 students of the “Isidro Burgos” Rural Normal School, better known as Ayotzinapa, in the state of Guerrero, who disappeared in September 2014, a case that caused international commotion

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