“Where are they?” ask relatives of missing people across the country

In Mexico City, on Paseo de la Reforma, the question “Where are they?” was written at the foot of the Angel of Independence, using clothes belonging to victims of forced disappearance, on which were written slogans such as: “Son, listen, your mother is fighting”; “Until we find you” and “They took them alive, we want them alive.”

In addition to cultural and protest activities, relatives of victims of disappearance issued a statement in which they asked the president-elect, Claudia Sheinbaum, to speak out about the problem that affects the entire country.

A few meters from this activity, in the Ahuehuete roundabout, renamed by civil society organizations as Missing Persons RoundaboutA religious celebration was organized and photographs of missing persons were posted.

In Guadalajara, Jalisco, mothers of missing persons marched down Chapultepec Avenue to the city center, where they raised their voices against the authorities and demanded that investigations be expedited to find the whereabouts of their relatives. During the march, the chant “Join us, join us, your son could be us” could be heard.

In Puebla, mothers of missing persons gathered at the state Attorney General’s Office, where they demanded that there be results in the respective investigation files and then marched along Blvd. 5 de Mayo, Juan de Palafox Avenue and Mendoza until they reached the Zócalo of the state capital.

Similar activities were replicated in cities such as: Oaxaca, Pachuca, among others.

The civil organization Data Cívica published the compendium “Those we are missing. Data to find them”, which highlights that from 2006 to 2023, the number of registered disappearances of men increased 49 times and that of women 47 times.

”Although there have been disappearances in previous periods, since 2006, with the beginning of the so-called War on Drugs, the number of missing persons has increased alarmingly, as has the number of clandestine graves throughout the country,” said Data Cívica.

According to the National Registry of Missing and Unlocated Persons (RNPDNO), as of July 22, 2024, 324,464 missing persons had been registered since 1952.

“Of these people, 192,451 were found alive, 16,119 dead and 115,894 remain unaccounted for, although family groups and civil society organizations maintain that this figure is much higher,” the organization reported.

Data Cívica pointed out that the state where the most missing persons have been registered between 2006 and 2024 is Tamaulipas: during that period, 560 disappearances were recorded for every 100,000 people living in the state.

Tamaulipas is followed by Colima, Sinaloa, Aguascalientes and Zacatecas as the five entities with the most missing persons relative to their respective populations in that period.