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Draft:Missing persons in Mexico

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Disappearances and missing person cases in Mexico have remained a pressing social and political issue within the country since the 2000s.

Searches for missing people have been complicated by politics, corruption, and other beaureaucrwatic and societal factors. Societal demand to investigate disappearances has made missing people a pertinent issue in both national and local Mexican elections.[1][2][3] In particular, concerns that the Mexican government is undercounting the number of missing persons, or covering up disappearances, has drawn both national and international concern.[4][5][6][7][8][9] Furthermore, Mexican advocates have expressed concern that the government focuses more on investigating the disappearances of foreigners compared to Mexican citizens.

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20th century

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Mexico began keeping records on missing persons in 1962.[4]

21st century

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2010-2019

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In September 2014, 43 students from Ayotzinapa Rural Normal School were abducted and disappeared in Iguala in an event known as the Iguala mass kidnapping.[11][12]

The National Search Commission was established in 2018 to search for and locate disappeared and missing people.[13]

2018 also marked the election of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who has consistently clashed with missing persons activists on how to approach the problem of missing persons. In May 2024, he suggested that missing persons were suffering "a delirium of necrophilia" after they brought attention to a site in Mexico City thought to be a clandestine crematorium.[14]

2020-2024

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In 2021, over 100 people went missing on the 124-mile long stretch of road from the cities of Monterrey to Nuevo Laredo, earning it the nickname the "highway of death".[16]

In 2022, the official number of missing persons cases grew to over 100,000, the first time this had occured since record keeping began in 1962.[4]

In June 2023, the Mexican government announced a review of registered missing persons cases. Missing persons activists criticized the decision, fearing that without transparency the review would be used to artificially lower the number of missing persons. Activist outrage continued when the government released the results of the review, saying they could confirm only 12,377 missing persons cases out of an original 113,000 cases. The government explained that 16,681 of the cases had actually been solved, with the missing person having been found alive or dead, and that the remaining cases lacked enough information to mount a search.[13]

In March 2024, nearly 70 people were kidnapped across the La Noria region of Sinaloa; by 24 March, Mexican authorities announced having rescued 42 people.[17] By 23 April, the state of Nuevo Leon reported 42 people had been kidnapped in the previous month, seven of whom remained unaccounted for.[16] The kidnappings in both states were attributed to criminal groups.[17][16]

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Advocates

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A number of women have become advocates for the missing and disappeared in Mexico, referring to themselves as madres buscadoras or "searching mothers".[19] Mexican activists who have worked to investigate disappearances have faced multiple challenges, and some have been disappeared or killed themselves.[20][21][22]

Activists have employed various strategies to attempt to locate the remains of missing people, such as using drones to find disturbed ground that may indicate clandestine graves.[22]

In February 2022, advocates organized a march in honor of the country's missing and disappeared.[23] Advocates also mounted marches in Mexico City and other cities on 30 August 2023, the International Day of the Disappeared.[24]

References

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  1. ^ Zulver, Julia; Kloppe-Santamaría, Gema (2024-05-16). "In Mexico's Election, the Search for the Missing Should Be Front and Center". Americas Quarterly. Retrieved 2024-07-28.
  2. ^ Flores, Chantal. "In Mexico's election, candidates grapple with the search for the missing". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 2024-07-28.
  3. ^ Ferri, Pablo (2024-06-02). "In western Mexico, elections take place in the shadow of the drug war". EL PAÍS English. Retrieved 2024-07-28.
  4. ^ a b c "The official count of disappeared people in Mexico could be an underestimate, say UN and advocates". AP News. 2023-10-04. Retrieved 2024-07-28.
  5. ^ "Mexico focuses on looking for people falsely listed as missing, ignores thousands of disappeared". AP News. 2023-12-07. Retrieved 2024-07-28.
  6. ^ Axios. 2024-01-18 https://www.axios.com/2024/01/18/mexico-missing-lopez-obrador-amlo. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  7. ^ https://www.courthousenews.com/families-of-mexicos-disappeared-denounce-presidents-cuts-to-missing-persons-list/. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  8. ^ "Official leading search for thousands of missing people in Mexico resigns". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 2024-07-28.
  9. ^ The Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/08/26/mexico-missing-disappeared-lopez-obrador/. {{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  10. ^ "Is the Mexican government hiding how many people have gone missing?". Los Angeles Times. 2024-02-15. Retrieved 2024-07-28.
  11. ^ Guillermoprieto, Alma (2024-03-04). "Forty-three Mexican Students Went Missing. What Really Happened to Them?". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 2024-07-28.
  12. ^ "Mexico's missing students: Families to search 'until the last beat of my heart'". Associated Press. 2023-12-07. Retrieved 2024-07-28.
  13. ^ a b Graham, Thomas (2023-12-21). "'Disappearing the disappeared': outcry after Mexico reduces number of missing". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-07-28.
  14. ^ "Mexico's president accuses press and volunteer searchers for missing people of 'necrophilia'". AP News. 2024-05-09. Retrieved 2024-07-28.
  15. ^ Human Rights Watch (2023-12-15), Mexico: Events of 2023, retrieved 2024-07-28
  16. ^ a b c Guillén, Beatriz (2024-04-23). "Wave of mass kidnappings puts Mexican state of Nuevo León on alert". EL PAÍS English. Retrieved 2024-07-28.
  17. ^ a b "42 people rescued in northwest Mexico after mass kidnappings by criminal groups". NBC News. Associated Press. 2024-03-24. Retrieved 2024-10-26.
  18. ^ "AMLO is trying to bury the tragedy of Mexico's missing people". The Economist. 2024-03-21. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 2024-07-28.
  19. ^ NPR https://www.npr.org/2024/06/06/nx-s1-4977451/will-mexicos-president-elect-help-relatives-looking-for-missing-loved-ones. {{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  20. ^ "Mexican activist who searched for disappeared brother now missing after attack". The Guardian. Associated Press. 2024-01-17. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-07-28.
  21. ^ Lopez, Oscar (2023-08-22). "He spent years searching for Mexico's disappeared – then he vanished". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-07-28.
  22. ^ a b Osorio, Jose Luis (2024-01-26). "In Mexico, mothers of the missing turn to drones to look for unmarked graves". Reuters.
  23. ^ "Beyond its luxury resorts and world-class surf, a war is being waged in Baja California". ABC News. 2024-05-03. Retrieved 2024-07-28.
  24. ^ "Mexican mothers mark day of the disappeared with protest and demands for the government to do more". AP News. 2023-08-30. Retrieved 2024-07-28.

Further reading

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