INAI orders SRE to document the release of Mexican kidnapped by Hamas

Mexico City. The Plenary Session of the National Institute for Transparency, Access to Information and Protection of Personal Data (INAI) ordered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) to provide a private individual with “all documents that account for the efforts” he made to free his fellow countryman Orión Hernández, who was deprived of his liberty in Israel by the armed group Hamas.

In a statement on Sunday, the INAI explained that the person requesting information complained to that body because the SRE provided him with incomplete information that did not correspond to what he requested. After the complaint, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent a list of various actions carried out, including various meetings between national authorities.

“The Foreign Ministry stated that the negotiations were carried out verbally and not in writing. However, in accordance with the principle of maximum publicity or maximum disclosure, it sent electronic links that allow access to the press releases published by the Foreign Ministry itself that are related to the release of the compatriot,” explained the reporting commissioner, Adrián Alcalá.

The INAI unanimously approved Alcalá’s project last Thursday, ordering the Mexican Foreign Ministry to modify the response it gave to a requester of information and, through “an exhaustive search,” provide him with all the information on the matter.

The project concluded that the request was forwarded to the General Directorate of Consular Protection and Strategic Planning and to the Mexican Embassy in Israel, areas that are competent and that stated that they did not have documents that accredit the actions carried out. However, the request was not forwarded to the Mexican Embassy in Saudi Arabia.

“The administrative units limited themselves to reporting that the procedures were carried out verbally and not in writing or even electronically, while in the substantiation of the complaint they mentioned that, contrary to what was said, there were various agreements between foreign authorities and that there were telephone calls, which allows us to infer that there must have been records of these meetings,” Alcalá Méndez stressed.

Orión Hernández was deprived of his liberty from October 7, 2023 to May 24, and was finally deprived of his life.