Anguish, fear, despair, pain, uncertainty, sadness and disorientation. This is what the families who suffer the disappearance of a loved one feel day after day. “It is as if the earth has swallowed them up”, said the sister of Juan Antonio Gómez Alarcón, from Mijas, who disappeared in 2010, during the institutional ceremony held in Mijas on the occasion of 9M.

In collaboration with the QSD Global Foundation, the Town Hall organised an event in remembrance of the missing persons and in support of the families. Presiding the table was the sister of the missing mountaineer, Carmen Gómez Alarcón; the first deputy mayor, Juan Carlos Cuevas Dawson (Vox), the councillors of the government team Mario Bravo (PP) and Juan José Torres Trella (PP); and an officer of the Mijas Local Police. Gómez, stressed the importance of raising awareness of 9M. “If there was more social awareness, many cases could be avoided. Citizen collaboration can save lives”, she said.

Institutional statement 

During the event held in the plenary hall of the Town Hall, which was attended by family and friends of the five people currently known to be missing in Mijas, the manifesto of the Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEM) in Spain was read out by, Juan Carlos Cuevas Dawson, also councillor of the Mijas Local Police. “The 9M is a day of reflection and commitment to remember those who are missing and to accompany their families in their grief. Every year in Spain more than 24,000 missing persons reports are registered, according to the latest data from the National Centre for Missing Persons. Behind each one of them there are families who live with uncertainty and anguish and from Mijas we cannot remain indifferent to this reality”, said Cuevas.

Municipal commitment

“From the Town Hall we reaffirm our commitment together with all the local entities that make up the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces, to optimise all the municipal resources available and improve coordination with the rest of the administrations and security forces”, added Cuevas, who listed a series of courses of action to which the government team is committed in order to support the cause. 

A rapid and effective response to disappearances; attention and accompaniment to families and psychological, legal and social support to relatives of missing persons; mobilisation of the community and citizen involvement; promotion of awareness and collaboration through awareness campaigns and reinforcement of all mechanisms to prevent, act and support in case of disappearances are the main commitments of Mijas with cases of disappearances, detailed the first deputy mayor. Finally, Cuevas expressed that it is about “working day by day to look for those who are missing and accompany their families in their struggle. Because this cause is also our cause”, he added.  

Raising awareness

In statements to the media, Mario Bravo said that “there are two main issues here: one, to prevent disappearances, which seems complicated, and the second, to react, and as with any reaction, the sooner the better. The Town Hall has protocols and coordination with the different security forces in the area so that when someone disappears, the information flows”. 

For the PP councillor, “it is therefore important to control the population for administrative purposes and that is why we are making a great effort to remember the importance of being registered at the address where you usually live and, above all, we want to recover that feeling of participation, that feeling that used to be familiar because it was a large family and over time it has been transformed into a social belonging [...]. We need to improve personal relationships, so that no one has a reason to disappear. But if someone disappears, let’s miss them from the very first moment and let’s all agree on how to find them”.

For his part, the first deputy mayor said that “it is unimaginable the pain that the families may feel. With regard to the missing persons, more resources are needed for the state security forces and bodies. As councillor for the local police in Mijas, I am experiencing this on a daily basis. 4.000 more calls to the police in a year are many more calls. We are already close to 30,000 calls to the police just in Mijas, that shows that things are not going well”, said Cuevas, who also pointed out “the lack of material and human resources of the Guardia Civil”. “What is happening in Mijas is something that is happening all over the country and either we react or there will continue to be more disappearances”. 

On behalf of the Municipal Socialist Group, councillor Laura Moreno said: “As every year we are accompanying the families and also raising awareness of the 9M because for the families it is a very complicated process and it is necessary to keep an eye not only on this day but throughout the year, because I think they need support in the process of not mourning. It is a process that never ends and that only ends if the disappeared person appears in certain circumstances. So our most sincere support.”

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