Cancun Collective Secures Standardized Rewards for Missing Persons Cases

Cancún, Quintana Roo — The collective Verdad, Memoria y Justicia has persuaded the State Prosecutor’s Office to standardize at 250,000 pesos the reward offered for information leading to the location of missing loved ones.

In an interview, collective president Romana Rivera said the measure was requested to prevent discrimination caused by varying reward amounts on search notices.

“As a collective, we asked for the reward to be standardized,” Rivera said. “Some alerts offered 100,000 pesos, others 200,000, 500,000, and some even reached 1 million or 1.5 million pesos. I believe that harms society, harms victims, and revictimizes them.”

“We asked that there be no distinction between victims — that being part of a collective should not mean a higher reward while others get less,” she added. “So the amount was standardized at 250,000 pesos, which is what is currently being published in batches.”

Rivera noted that the latest rewards have already begun to be published with the new figure. She recalled that the agreement was reached in March during a meeting with prosecutor Raciel López Salazar, but the change has only now started to be applied.

“Those that already came out with a higher amount will stay as they are, but those that were at 100,000 pesos were improved to 250,000,” she said.

The activist stressed that the goal is for this reward policy to remain in place regardless of who leads the prosecutor’s office.

“We don’t want it to depend on one prosecutor’s criteria, only for someone else to come and modify it or remove it. For us, it represents hope,” she said.

Rivera added that the measure should also build greater public confidence in coming forward with useful information.

“We want to generate trust in society that by providing information that helps locate someone, not only does it restore our peace, but it also returns security to the community,” she said. “There is no greater gift for us than bringing someone home, no matter the circumstances.”