Search

Buscadora collectives in Mexico have developed unique and transformative forensic practices to search for their disappeared loved ones. We examine the work of three collectives, each working in distinct political, ecological, and historical contexts to better understand emergent forms of local citizen-led forensic practice. Attending to spaces, that exist alongside but exceed contemporary forensic practice, we critically reexamine the practice of forensics in the context of the humanitarian and forensic 'crisis' in Mexico. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with forensic scientists and buscadora collectives between 2015-2022, we develop three case studies that analyze the collectives' work in three registers: the (inter)relational, the geo-logic, and the more-than-human. We argue for the emergence of a deep forensics based on collective practices that privilege fragile, multi-valent forms of knowledge production, attend to slow violence, and move beyond an exclusively human-centered episteme. These alternative practices have the potential to displace the crisis time of contemporary state-led forensics and better document the entangled contexts of 'stratigraphic violence' in contemporary Mexico allowing for an emergent more-than-human justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • The Forensic Science Undergraduate Program is unprecedented in Mexico's higher education landscape. • It provides interdisciplinary, competence-based instruction in facilities built expressly with that purpose. • Innovative teaching and assessment approaches have been implemented to prepare students. • Graduates are already joining agencies dedicated to investigating crime and administering justice. • COVID-19 forced the program to adapt teaching to online, distance learning. In 2013, the Forensic Science Undergraduate Program (FSUP) at the National Autonomous University of Mexico was created in response to an alarming criminal situation in Mexico, as well as to the radical reform of its criminal justice system. Its mission is to educate and train ethical, critical, and humanistic forensic scientists capable of conducting inquiries that meet scientific quality standards and assist the justice system in firmly linking legal rulings to the available evidence. At the time, it was the first such program in the country, and the contributions that interdisciplinary forensic scientists could make to criminal investigations were largely unknown among forensic and legal practitioners. During its existence, providing an interdisciplinary, competence-based education to students has been one of the main challenges. To overcome it, teaching and assessment approaches—centered on the achievement of specifically forensic competencies as learning outcomes and the integration of forensic disciplines towards the resolution of simulated cases—have been devised to help develop the professional skill set expected of graduates. The COVID-19 pandemic led to adapting these approaches to distance or hybrid modes of learning, increasing their versatility and enriching the pedagogic repertoire of the FSUP. Currently, the main impact of the program lies in the successful incorporation of some of its graduates to agencies belonging to or related to the criminal justice system, such as the National Prosecutor's Office, the Commission for Truth and Justice for the Ayotzinapa Case, and the National Commission for the Search of Missing and Disappeared Persons, among others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1970s, Latin America became a global laboratory for military interventions, the cultivation of terror, and ideological and economic transformation. In response, family groups and young scientists forged a new activist forensics focused on human rights, victim-centered justice, and state accountability, inaugurating new forms of forensic practice. We examine how this new form of forensic practice centered in forensic genetics has led to a critical engagement with Indigeneity both within and outside the lab. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork with human rights activists and forensic scientists in Argentina, Guatemala and Mexico, this paper examines the relationship between forensic genetics, Indigenous organizing, and human rights practice. We offer the concept of 'genetic syncretism' to attend to spaces where multiple and competing beliefs about genetics, justice, and Indigenous identity are worked out through (1) coming together in care, (2) incorporation, and (3) ritual. Helping to unpack the uneasy and incomplete alliance of Indigenous interests and forensic genetic practice in Latin American, genetic syncretism offers a theoretical lens that is attentive to how differentials of power embedded in colonial logics and scientific practice are brokered through the coming together of seemingly incompatible beliefs and practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Pima County (Arizona) Office of the Medical Examiner has seen a dramatic rise over the past 6 years in the number of deaths related to the illegal crossing of our international border with Mexico. This rise in deaths is undoubtedly related to an increase in the number of foreign nationals who cross into the various Arizona jurisdictions that utilize the Pima County Medical Examiner to investigate their unnatural deaths. Because of the utterly dangerous nature of trekking across the Sonoran Desert, especially in the summer months, many of these unfortunate migrants succumb to the effects of heat-related illness and perish along the journey. The combined effects of a dry, hot environment and the remoteness of some of the trekking corridors can quickly render a deceased person unidentifiable by visual means. Thus, our office is faced with not only an increase in the number of deaths requiring medico-legal investigation but also an increase in the number of decedents needing additional specialized examinations in an effort to effect identification. This paper attempts to outline the problems and the methods utilized by our office over the past 6 years in the identification process of undocumented border crossers. It is hoped that this paper, as well as the others presented at this symposium, will allow for the sharing of information amongst all medical investigators who assist in the identification of these migrants. The identification of these individuals takes on added importance when one considers the possible nationalities, and perhaps motivation for entering into the US, of those that remain unidentified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports that several people who attempted to cross Arizona from Mexico between 2001-2007, died in mysterious circumstances. Medical examination of the dead bodies by forensic scientists revealed that the deaths were caused as a result of harsh conditions that included, scarcity of water and food, and high temperature in the region. It is mentioned that an autopsy of the dead and dry corpses were conducted by medical scientists to uncover the reason of the high death rate in the region. According to medical experts over 1000 immigrants have died while crossing Arizona from Mexico during 2001-2007.