Now Aguilar and the "missing persons" collective she founded
will be armed in their search with new technology - drones
mounted with thermosensitive cameras that can show distortions
in the soil which could point to an unmarked grave.
Chemical detectors inserted in the ground can then highlight
biological changes in the soil that could also be an indicator
of human remains - such as unusually high nitrogen and humidity
levels - and help narrow down potential search areas.
Over the years, mothers like Aguilar seeking their missing
children have carried out painstaking, methodological, manual
searches across vast potential burial areas in Mexico - often to
little avail, or at a threat to their own lives.
There are over 100,000 people missing in Mexico, largely a
result of drug cartel violence. Many are murdered and buried in
clandestine - sometimes mass - graves. But authorities have
little clue as to where those burial sites are and lack the
resources to keep searching.
The drones are giving hope to families that they will be able to
finally lay their loved ones to rest.
"This (technology) ensures we don't waste time and energy
searching hectares and hectares, but instead go straight to
areas where there's a high possibility of finding remains," said
Victor Hugo Avila Barrientos, the commissioner for missing
people in the western Mexican state of Jalisco.
"This will also help minimize the threat to families and
authorities," he added, noting a recent event where a trap was
set for those searching for bodies.
Teams from the University of Oxford are supporting authorities
and non-governmental organizations in Jalisco with drone
training and resources, having already successfully located some
clandestine graves in the country.
Tunuari Chavez, who leads analysis for the Jalisco search
commission, says he is excited about a more science-based
approach to finding missing persons.
"This is about using nature to get the clues," he said.
For Aguilar, whose son has been missing since 2011, she hopes
the technology may finally put her long bid to find the truth
about what happened to him to rest.
"This definitely gives us more hope," she said, during a
training session on how to use the drones.
"We're going to keep searching."
(Reporting by Jose Luis Osorio, Writing by Isabel Woodford;
Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)
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