Mexico - 100,000 disappeared
Mexico reaches a harrowing milestone in a continuing human security crisis.
Last week, Mexico surpassed 100,000 disappearances, according to a government registry of missing persons that goes back to 1964. The vast majority of cases in the Registro Nacional de Personas desaparecidas o no localizadas are from the start of the country’s drug war to the present. 97 percent of recorded disappearances happened in or after 2006. The past three years have been the worst three years to date. Last year, 9,720 people were reported missing, compared to 8,852 in 2020 and 9,269 in 2019. In total, Jalisco has the most missing people (14, 951), followed by Tamaulipas (11,971), Estado de México (10,994), and Nuevo León (6,218).
As horrific as it is, that number is likely underreported. Watchdog groups and international organizations have warned that many disappearances go unreported altogether. As a result, Mexico passed this unfortunate milestone well before it was officially recorded.
Disappearances represent a twofold security and impunity crisis. As the United Nations Committee against Forced Disappearances wrote in an April report, forced disappearances happen at the hands of organized crime as well as government agents in federal, state, and municipal institutions. UN officials wrote that there is “almost absolute impunity” for disappearances, with only 2 to 6 percent of cases leading to prosecution. Perpetrators have been charged in only 35 cases of over 100,000.
The disappearance of 43 students from the Ayotzinapa teachers college in 2014 is undoubtedly the most high-profile and one of the most egregious instances of forced disappearance by state forces. Moreover, military officials concealed evidence and refused to cooperate with investigators covering the case. Investigative authorities themselves also tampered with and fabricated evidence, and they used inhumane interrogation tactics, including torture, to create a false narrative of the events.
Recently, other high-profile disappearance cases have earned substantial media attention. The April disappearance of 18 year-old Debhani Escobar in Monterrey sparked national outcry and large protests. Beyond the human tragedy associated with these cases, another common thread is the apparent apathy or incapacity to investigate on the part of state officials. Relatives and local community members overwhelmingly lead efforts to search for missing persons. This short documentary produced by the San Diego Union Tribune in 2020 does a good job capturing the personal hardship distraught family members and friends often take on to search for their loved ones.
The majority of missing persons are boys and men between 15 and 40 years-old, though the proportion of missing women and girls has grown in recent years. At the national level, women and girls represent 25 percent of all recorded disappearances, but in the past twelve months, women and girls represented 30 percent of all recorded disappearances. This is well above the proportion of women that are homicide victims. In the first three months of 2022, there were 11,903 homicides and 234 femicides, according to SESNSP data.
Several states exceed national gender distribution averages for disappearances. In Campeche, Chiapas, Tabasco and Yucatán, girls and women represent over 60 percent of the recorded disappearances. In Yucatán, the majority of missing persons are girls ages 10 to 19. At the national level, girls under 18 years of age represent 20 percent of all female disappearances in the country. In a recent article on the subject, Cecilia Farfán-Méndez calls out AMLO for cutting funds for social programs that could help protect women.
Meanwhile, President López Obrador has dismissed the notion that the country’s disappearance problem is getting worse. López Obrador argued that the increase in total disappearances during his term is the result of more diligent classification of cases. He also took the opportunity to criticize press coverage of the issue as well as his predecessors. He told reporters, “A partir de que llegamos se empezó a clasificar, que es también otra nota de toda la prensa conservadora, hipócrita, que cuando se desató la guerra, en el tiempo de Calderón, en vez de oponerse y repudiar esa decisión fatal, la aplaudieron.” Still, López Obrador is on track to preside over the most disappearances of any president in Mexico and does not appear to have any plan for policy changes that would reduce this form of violence moving forward.