Mexico National Search Commission Ex-Head Roberto Cabrera Sentenced to 3 Years for DNA Mishandling

A former head of the National Search Commission in Mexico was sentenced Thursday to three years in prison after being found guilty of DNA mishandling.

According to Washington Post, Roberto Cabrera was found guilty of sharing confidential genetic information from thousands of recovered human remains with a private company.

A judge said Cabrera helped the company that "merchandised the suffering of families" searching for their loved ones. Cabrera was the strategy coordinator in the national public security system when he started sharing the genetic material in 2017.

He became the public face of the government's effort to find and identify the missing the next year as the first commissioner in charge of the search for the disappeared.

Karla Quintana, a Harvard-educated human-rights lawyer who took the same role in 2019, filed a criminal complaint against Cabrera after learning that he had turned over genetic material from at least 45,000 people to the biotech company AND Mexico.

DNA Mishandling Scandal in Mexico

Lawyers noted that much of the material came from remains the government was trying to identify. However, some DNA may have belonged to relatives of the disappeared who had undergone testing.

The National Search Commission had already acquired DNA from missing person cases in several states through contracts with local authorities and tests sought by family members.

Officials had found that AND had drafted a possible $3.5 million contract with Roberto Cabrera in which the firm would compare relatives' DNA to the genetic material in a government database to help them identify missing loved ones.

The contract was never signed, but prosecutors said AND had started contacting families of the missing and offered to perform the service free.

Quintana noted that the company seemed to see a business opportunity in the DNA collecting and matching and sent sales representatives to events held by the families.

She said the main victims of these events are the families of the disappeared people, adding that the company "was playing with the profound pain" of family members.

Mexico National Search Commission

In April, the agency revealed that there are 20,148 missing or unlocated women. Most of the missing were between the ages of 15 and 19. Half of the missing 20,148 come from the state of Nuevo Leon.

Amnesty International Mexico's director, Edith Olivares Ferreto, noted in an Infobae report that Mexico is a country where they have around 100,000 missing persons.

She said the fifth part of the missing person were women, adding that she thinks it was important to remember that many of those who were reported missing were later victims of femicide.

Olivares Ferreto noted that Mexican families "live with a fear that anything will happen to women." The Search Commission also outlined that during Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's administration, a total of 7,901 disappearances were recorded.

In 2018, there were 1,687 unlocated women, while in 2019, 1,890 missing women were recorded. In 2020, there were 2,250 missing and 2,795 in 2021. It was an increase of 65 percent.

So far, the registry noted that there were 1,688 women and 2,594 men missing in 2022. A United Nations investigation noted that corrupt state officials and organized crime factions are to blame for the increasing number of disappearances in Mexico, The Guardian reported.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

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