Paper short abstract:

This presentation examines the issue of enforced disappearances in three contexts: Chilean (during the time of general A. Pinochet's junta and now), Colombian (as a result of civil war) and Mexican (as a effect of illegal migration to the USA and organized crime in this state).

Paper long abstract:

The Inter-American Convention on the Forced Disappearance of Persons, adopted in 1994, said,

that enforced disappearance is "a grave and abominable offence against the inherent dignity of the human beings". According to official figures, 1,200 people were victims of enforced disappearances during military rule in Chile. The bodies of the overwhelming majority of them have not been found

to this day despite the efforts of their families, specialists in forensic medicine and some politicians. The current strikes in Chile also result in forced disappearances of protesters. In 2009,

the representatives of the Colombian justice system revealed that 28,000 people became forced disappeared during the country, civil, war. The long inability to reach agreement between the parties to the conflict hampered the search for their remains, but since 2016 this situation has been improving. It is difficult to estimate the exact number of forced disappeared in Mexico, both migrants from Central and South America, trying to reach the US, and local victims of gang wars, violence and kidnapping. Cautious government data from 2019 indicated 40,000 such people. This very general outline

of the problem indicates that the issue of forced disappearances in Latin America has a long tradition and is gaining strength. Its victims are both external migrants, searching for a new, better, life perspective in other country, and people internally dispersed throughout the country, fearing for their lives because of political instability, violence or human rights violations, made by the representatives of government, in their states.