Mexican search authorities have found Cecilia Flores, leader of the Sonora search mothers, alive. The activist was reported missing after being last seen on Sunday, when she left to present her book in Coyoacán, south of Mexico City. Agents from the Attorney General’s Office have located her in a shelter in the city of Querétaro, in good condition and without signs of violence.
Flores, who woke up when the agents entered the home, was resting in one of the rooms after suffering a “metabolic decompensation due to prolonged fasting” and “mild dehydration,” according to what the Querétaro Civil Protection operational coordinator told the press. , Jesus Becerra. “Fortunately, she is in good health, we are going to take her to a medical center for an evaluation,” he added. The authorities have not given more details at the moment, but in light of the new events the hypothesis of a violent attack seems ruled out. Everything points to fainting due to lack of food and water.
Prior to her appearance, the Sonora Search Commission had demanded the tracking of the search mother after her last contact with relatives was on Sunday night from Querétaro. This is stated in the file that the authorities distributed to locate her. Her family published a message on the search engine’s X account: “We ask the authorities to do what is necessary to locate Ceci Flores. You know where her refuge is, so that a door does not prevent you from entering.”
Flores, one of the most active figures in the search for missing people in Mexico, presented his book on Sunday afternoon Seeking Mother. Chronicle of Despair. Around eight in the afternoon he published a video in a square in Coyoacán, on the occasion of Father’s Day: “Let’s not forget the missing fathers, the fathers who are searching, all those who deserve to see their children grow up happy, with their families, present, always present…” The activist finished her message: “Thank you for always being aware of the search mothers, may they have a very happy day.”
After that event, Flores headed to Querétaro, where he lives in a safe location, after years of receiving threats. “They have put a price on my head,” the activist has said on numerous occasions. Her daughter, Milagro Flores, recorded a video this Monday at noon in which she authorized the authorities to open the locks of the house where her mother lives “so they can enter and check if she is inside.” her”. In that same sense, activist Adrián Lebarón has written: “It is time for the authorities not to enter the home in Querétaro, they are waiting for the Attorney General’s Office to arrive, what if they are passing crucial seconds? Please, enter the home now.”
Flores, 51, began searching in 2015 for his son Alejandro Guadalupe, who was 21 years old when he was taken in Sonora. Four years later, they kidnapped Marco Antonio, 32, in Sinaloa, who has also not been heard from since then. Both were disappeared by organized crime. “Good or bad, they have the right to be found,” he has repeated in continuous interviews, “I want to see my children again, even if it is in a handful of bones.”
In April 2023, the authorities also activated the search for the activist, who was held incommunicado for 19 hours in the Sinaloa desert, after the car she was traveling in broke down. The alarm is not hasty. In Mexico, groups searching for missing people suffer constant attacks. At the beginning of the year, the Guanajuato search mother Lorenza Cano was kidnapped—in the same attack her son and husband were killed—she has not yet appeared. In 2023, crime took its toll on these women, who use their own resources to search for their daughters, husbands or brothers. There are more than 110,000 missing people in the country. It is the families who track them, especially the women.
In recent weeks, Flores had been in the public spotlight after he announced the discovery of an alleged clandestine crematorium in the south of Mexico City. The capital’s Prosecutor’s Office collected samples of ash and bone and concluded, without giving too many explanations, that they were of animal origin. That triggered a campaign against Flores, which was even accused of making a “montage” in Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s morning conference: “It corresponds to a political movement for the electoral season. “It sought to affect the city government.” Days later, the search engine insisted on other finds in that same area.
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