Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent discussions his Department has had with the Mexican Government on the disappearance of people in that country.

Our sympathies are with family of Claudia Uruchurtu who disappeared in Mexico on 26th March 2021. Our Ambassador and Embassy to Mexico City have been in regular contact with her family and have raised her disappearance and the related legal process with senior representatives of the Federal Government as well as with the outgoing and incoming governments of the State of Oaxaca. In December, after sentencing, I [Minister Rutley] spoke with Minister Moreno Toscano, the Under-Secretary of External Relations. We discussed the human rights situation in Mexico, including the worryingly high levels of disappearances and Claudia Uruchurtu's particular case. We continue to lobby at high levels and have pressed on the importance of due legal process being followed in future proceedings.