Mexico, Europe Brief News – The whereabouts of 100,012 people are still unknown in Mexico over the past 16 years. About 75 percent are men.
The figures were released by the country’s National Registry of Missing Persons, which has been tracking disappearances since 1964.
Disappearances have skyrocketed in the wake of mounting drug violence that has rocked the country for 16 years.
The Movement for Our Disappeared warned Monday that the figure was “certainly well below the number” of cases that are reported daily, calling for the government to “deal with this crisis in a comprehensive and immediate manner.”
Last April, the UN Committee against Enforced Disappearances warned that Mexico was facing an “alarming upward trend” in missing people cases.
Organized crime groups were mainly responsible for these disappearances, the UN body said, with “varying degrees of acquiescence or omission” on the part of public officials.
The lack of official help in investigating the cases has led families of the disappeared, especially mothers, to form groups that search for clandestine graves in the hope of finding their relatives.
The Mexican government has reported that around 37,000 unidentified bodies are being held in forensic services, though civil organizations warn the number could be much higher.
