The use and recruitment of minors by organized crime groups “is a very common practice and we are very worried,” the head of Child Protection of Unicef in Mexico, Rocío Aznar, told EFE this Wednesday, so she urges to look “in particular why adolescents are disappearing” in the North American country.

According to a report by the University of Guadalajara (UdeG), in Jalisco (western Mexico), state where Rancho Izaguirre is located, the alleged training camp of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), people between 15 and 19 years old occupy the first place in disappearances between January and April 2025, with 122 reports, the most likely cause being forced recruitment by organized crime.

In addition, “one of the main causes of death in adolescents in Mexico is homicide,” explains UNICEF’s Child Protection specialist, Juan Rodríguez, which could also have a “link” with criminal groups that recruit and use children and adolescents to fulfill roles ranging from messaging to sicariato.

Therefore, he explains, one of Unicef’s proposals is the criminalization of the crime of recruitment and use for “the protection of children,” but also because “it is in the line of organized crime prevention,” which has co-opted 30,000 minors, according to the Network for the Rights of the Child in Mexico (Redim).

“The (criminal) groups have taken advantage of the conditions or advantages of recruiting children. One, they are cheaper and, two, the imputable penalties are lower than those of an adult,” Rodríguez explains.

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To date, Unicef does not have specific figures on this affectation to childhood at the national level, since, in the no typification, it is difficult to “access the number of victims of recruitment and use.”

However, Aznar clarifies that, despite the lack of figures, this problem exists and “is one of the most serious violations of rights (…) These children and adolescents are exposed to the worst forms of violence, they see them, suffer them and, sometimes, they execute them.”

In that sense, he emphasizes, it is necessary that “the (Mexican) State reacts” and recognizes that “all recruitment and use of a person under the age of 18, who is still in the process of development, is forced.”

Also, because the one who is on trial is not the recruiter, but “the teenager who has committed a crime because they have used him, they have taken advantage of his vulnerability as a minor (…) The focus and responsibility is on the victim,” he says.
Adopt a national policy

In addition, Rodríguez insists, “boys and girls are not only recruited in order to commit a crime, they are also recruited to fulfill other roles, courier or cook. Those roles also expose them to levels of violence or risks that do not necessarily comply with operational activities such as the young hitman, the one who kidnaps.”

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That is why, Aznar adds, “we continue to urge the Mexican State to adopt a policy beyond a specific or conjunctural or temporary program,” which would be the first comprehensive national policy of prevention and attention to recruitment for a country where there are also more than 127,000 unlocated people since there was a record in the 1960s.

Mexican children and youth who face armed violence “deserve the opportunity to be able to heal, to rebuild their lives and if they have done damage to be able to repair it in a constructive way,” he concludes.

In response, President Claudia Sheinbaum has offered to develop “all the necessary schemes” to attend to youth in Jalisco, after the UdeG report warned about the forced recruitment of young people in that Mexican state.