Witness searches at the center of the lawsuit
Valenzuela alleges that federal officials failed to oversee the search and carry out prosecutors' orders, including repeated instructions to find and interview Edgar Valenciana del Río and Gustavo Barrios Ramos. The two witnesses could provide information about the night her son disappeared.
The Federal Public Prosecutor's Office issued those instructions in connection with investigative files at two branches of the Attorney General's Office (FGR): the Special Prosecutor's Office for Kidnapping Offenses and the Special Prosecutor's Office for Enforced Disappearances. According to the lawsuit, neither file contains a record showing that the orders were executed or comprehensive reports documenting efforts to locate the witnesses.
The lawsuit names SSPC Secretary Omar Hamid García Harfuch and other authorities within the agency: the Undersecretary of Intelligence and Police Investigation, the head of the Unit for Investigation of High-Impact Crimes and Strategic Operations, and the General Directorate of Ministerial and Judicial Orders.
The family's legal team also sought help on October 21, 2026, from five bodies: the Military Intelligence Center under Defense, the SSPC's National Intelligence Center, the Secretariat of the Navy's Naval Intelligence Unit, the National Guard's General Directorate of Intelligence, and the FGR's Cyber Investigations Unit. None had responded by the time the lawsuit was filed.
Judge admits the case but denies interim request
A federal judge admitted the amparo and directed the prosecutors' offices to report whether their databases were connected to the national system. The judge denied the plaintiffs' request for a provisional suspension.
Following that denial, Valenzuela filed a complaint, known as a queja, before a Collegiate Tribunal and sought intervention from the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation.
Disappearance and federal investigation
Galván Valenzuela was 21 and originally from Durango. In the early hours of October 5, 2025, he was at the Terraza Valentino restaurant-bar in Mazatlán's Zona Dorada with two cousins. He told them he was going to the bathroom and never returned.
The FGR took over the investigation from the Sinaloa state prosecutor's office. According to El País México, federal inquiries point to involvement by Los Chapitos, also known as La Chapiza, a faction of the Sinaloa Cartel.
The family's lawyer, Carlos Escobedo Suárez, said one person has been bound over to trial, a procedural status known as vinculado a proceso, on a charge of disappearance committed by private individuals. According to Escobedo Suárez, federal authorities identified that person as part of the Los Chapitos structure. The complementary investigation period expires in January 2027.
Terraza Valentino was co-owned by Ricardo "Pity" Velarde Cárdenas, who was Sinaloa's economy secretary in Governor Rubén Rocha Moya's administration when Galván Valenzuela disappeared. Rocha Moya removed him on October 23, 2025, amid pressure from Valenzuela and organizations representing families of disappeared people, El País México reported.
El País also reported that the last satellite location of Galván Valenzuela's cellphone was very close to a house in Lomas de Mazatlán that Velarde Cárdenas had registered with the tax authority as his fiscal domicile.
In its reporting on disappearances at Mazatlán venues, El País counted at least 17 victims of kidnapping or disappearance at bars and restaurants between June 2025 and August 2026. Ten of those cases occurred at three establishments belonging to Grupo Eleva, a business conglomerate in which Velarde Cárdenas is a partner.
Mothers plan legislative proposal
Valenzuela and other mothers searching for disappeared relatives have announced plans to submit a reform initiative to the Senate of the Republic covering laws on organized crime, enforced disappearance and adolescent criminal justice.
They say the proposal would close gaps that prevent the prosecution of people with a high probability of involvement and allow them to withhold information on the grounds of protection against self-incrimination.
