The Missing Persons Phenomena of Mexico

 According to Mexico’s National Search Commission, headed by Karla Quintana Osuna, a Harvard-trained lawyer, almost 100,000 people have been reported disappeared or missing in Mexico since 1964. In a society where 30,000 murders occur per year, death feels pervasive and nearly common. Disappearance is almost worse because there is no consolation, and the names and faces of missing loved ones are plastered everywhere. Clothing and human remains are rarely found, and when they are, they are incredibly difficult to identify because of the weathering and time that has passed. According to the attorney general of Chihuahua, Cesar Peniche Espejel, improved forensic technology and search equipment have assisted in helping to find bodies. Still, until authorities can fully take down organized crime groups, Espejel says these efforts “will remain a drop in a bloody tide that add thousands to the list every year” (Lopez 2021). 

Mothers searching for their lost children. Photo courtesy of Fred Ramos. 

In 2014, forty-three students from a rural teachers’ college from the town of Ayotzinapa disappeared. An investigation was opened under the president at the time, Enrique Pena Nieto, but the blame was placed on a local drug cartel and the municipal police. This explanation, however, has been widely condemned by international scholars, including the United Nations, who argue the process had been impaired by “torture and cover-ups.” Not only does this speak to a prevalence of organized crime throughout Mexico, but also that the government is involved in said violence. 

Town squares plastered with the names and faces of missing loved ones. Photo courtesy of Fred Ramos.

However, under current President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, authorities are attempting to help families find answers. President Obrador reopened the investigation pertaining to the forty-three missing students and has given his full support to the Mexican National Search Commission. When Quintana first started her work with the MNSC,  only around 40,000 missing persons were accounted for because state prosecutors were not reporting correctly. She was able to conclude that this number is, in fact, lacking by around 60,000. In a society where a fraction of the crimes are solved, the task of finding justice for those missing seems hopeless. “As long as there is no justice, a clear message is being sent that this can continue to happen,” Ms. Quintana states (Lopez 2021). Between September 2020 and the end of July 2021, only ten months, 6,453 people have been reported missing or disappeared. Families are left to search for their loved ones in the hope that they may still be alive and may be reunited or find some sense of peace and closure in this horrible circumstance. 

Clothing remains of a missing person. Photo courtesy of Fred Ramos. 

Lopez, Oscar. 2021. “In Mexico, Nearly 100,000 People Are Missing.” The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/10/03/world/americas/mexico-missing-people.html (October 5, 2021).