This article by Fernando Camacho and Andrea Becerril originally appeared in the October 10, 2025 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.
Mexico City. The 2026 Federal Expenditure Budget (PPEF) requires a “reengineering” to address the most urgent needs in areas such as the search for missing persons, the fight against corruption, transparency, and the social reintegration of those who have been deprived of their liberty.
This was the warning issued by participants in an open parliamentary forum organized today by the Chamber of Deputies’ Budget Committee, who warned that funding cuts to various organizations, as part of an austerity policy, could weaken the mechanisms responsible for serving the most vulnerable sectors of society.
During the working meeting, Emanuel Jiménez García, of the National Citizen Council of the National Search System (SNB), warned that one of the areas most lacking in the field of missing persons is forensic personnel, as there are only about 15,000 experts nationwide, which is insufficient to study the more than 72,000 unidentified bodies that remain in morgues.
Chamber of Deputies Budget Committee
Furthermore, the specialist warned, currently “there are no public policies to conduct life searches,” and the personnel in charge of the investigations are working without sufficient materials or instruments.
For this reason, Jiménez emphasized the importance of ensuring that the 2026 PPEF does not reduce subsidies to the National Search Commission (CNB), since the funds for local commissions depend on it, and that resources be guaranteed to ensure standardized search and investigation protocols.
Similarly, Virginia Garay, president of the civil association Guerreras en Busca de Nuestros Tesoros (Warriors in Search of Our Treasures), warned that the number of unidentified bodies in forensic rooms increased by 5.3 percent from 2023 to 2024. Despite this, the CNB is expected to receive only 1.214 million pesos in funding next year, compared to 23.493 billion pesos for the National Guard.
Likewise, subsidy funds for local commissions searching for missing persons would be reduced by 0.7 percent, resulting in an insufficient amount to locate each of the victims.
Anaid García Tobón, an expert in government and public affairs, warned that the necessary resources for combating corruption are not being guaranteed either, as five of the six government institutions dedicated to this issue have been cut, while the only increase would come from the merger between the Judicial Administration Body and the agency that investigates crimes within it.
The Secretariat of Anti-Corruption and Good Government itself is expected to suffer a 2.1 percent budget cut in 2026, which “compromises its ability to carry out investigations into public servants” allegedly involved in irregularities.
A similar phenomenon is occurring with the new government policy on transparency and access to information, through the Transparency for the People agency, which will only receive 25 million pesos to carry out its work, compared to the annual average of 1 billion pesos received by the now-defunct National Institute of Transparency, Access to Information and Protection of Personal Data (INAI). This represents a 98 percent drop in resources allocated to this area.
Another example is the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for Combating Corruption, which will only receive 1.10 percent of the Attorney General’s Office’s funding. To date, it has only 194 members and suffered a 3.2 percent cut, which compromises its capacity to act.
“It is essential that we demystify the idea that austerity equals fighting corruption. Budget savings, by themselves, do not reduce corruption and, on the contrary, weaken the institutions designed to eradicate it,” he emphasized.
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