Short answer. Yes. Article 229 lists judicial declaration of abandonment in a case filed for that purpose as one of the specific events that terminates parental authority. Leaving and not returning is not enough on its own — a court needs to actually make that declaration for the authority to be considered terminated on that ground.
What the law says
Upon judicial declaration of abandonment of the child in a case filed for the purpose
Family Code, Article 229 — Revivable Termination of Parental Authority. Read the full provision →
What the law says
Unless subsequently revived by a final judgment, parental authority also terminates
Family Code, Article 229 — Revivable Termination of Parental Authority. Read the full provision →
Abandonment as a ground requires a judicial declaration
Article 229 lists several specific events that terminate parental authority, and abandonment is one of them, but only in a particular form. Unless subsequently revived by a final judgment, parental authority also terminates upon judicial declaration of abandonment of the child in a case filed for the purpose. The key phrase is judicial declaration ... in a case filed for the purpose — this is not a status that arises automatically just because a parent left and did not return, but a formal outcome a court reaches in a proceeding brought specifically to establish it.
Why the fact of leaving is not itself enough
A parent's physical absence, even one that has lasted years without contact, is a fact you may believe amounts to abandonment, but Article 229 treats the legal conclusion of terminated authority as something that has to be judicially established, not simply inferred by the remaining parent. Until that declaration is obtained, the departed parent's authority has not been terminated on this specific ground, whatever the practical reality of the situation looks like day to day.
Other listed grounds work the same way
The structure of Article 229 applies the same logic across its other listed grounds — adoption, appointment of a general guardian, a final judgment divesting a party of parental authority, and judicial declaration of absence or incapacity. None of these events is self-executing; each requires a specific legal action or judgment to actually take effect, which is consistent with treating abandonment the same way rather than as an informal conclusion anyone can declare on their own.
What this means for you practically
If you want the other parent's authority to be formally recognized as terminated on the basis of abandonment, Article 229 indicates that filing a case for that specific purpose and obtaining the judicial declaration is the step that actually accomplishes it — simply asserting abandonment because the other parent left and never returned does not, by itself, end their parental authority under this article. This page does not set out the specific procedure for filing that case, since Article 229 does not itself contain those details.