The collective Family Members Walking for Justice denounced that at 9am on 6 July 2025, in the city of Morelia, Michoacan, a green suitcase was stolen that contained items of the exhibit entitled “Walking the disappeared body”, a work produced by artist and collective member Fabiola Rayas. The suitcase was taken from a searching mother when she was returning from the exhibit organized by “Casa Michoacan” in the city of Chicago, Illinois in the United States.

The items stolen have a huge symbolic and emotional value for the Family Members Walking for Justice collective, since it is not simply objects but memories, testimonies of love and the legacy of ten years of collective struggle. The suitcaise contained: 20 embroidered faces of disappeared persons, 70 banners with embroidered names, 2 banners with messages of demands and hope and 20 photographs printed on fabric.

The exhibit, “Walking the disappeared body” began in 2015 with a performance art project by artivist Fabiola Rayas along with members of the “Family Members Walking for Justice” collective. The project traveled around the country with the idea of collecting the lists of disappeared persons compiled by families and independent collectives, succeeding in collecting information from more than 70 collectives in the country. In the last 15 years, the project has included 15 exhibits, 20 workshops, and more; it has traveled to different states and schools, and this year they were invited to go to Chicago, where it was exhibited in May and June at Casa Michoacán.

Firstly, the National Network of Women Human Rights Defenders in Mexico and IM-Defensoras make a public call to the persons responsible for the theft, appealing to your humanity and empathy, to return the items stolen from the Family Members Walking for Justice collective, who have turned the search for truth and justice into a vocation for life and dignity.

We also call on the community: if anyone has information about the whereabouts of the stolen items, please contact the Family Members Walking for Justice collective. Any collaboration is valuable to recover these items of great emotional and symbolic significance.

To the Morelia Municipality, other Michoacán government agencies and the Protection Mechanism: we demand immediate attention to the events and that they take the necessary measures to recover the exhibit.

We call on the national and international community to express solidarity with the Family Members Walking for Justice collective, and to join and make public the demand for the return of the stolen items.