Updated 08:05 AM EST, Mon, Dec 23, 2024

Mexico Disappearances on the Rise? Alarming Numbers Revealed; Relatives Told to 'Accept the Facts'

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There are about 25,000 people who have gone missing in Mexico since 2006, but according to relatives of the missing persons, the government is not doing anything about it.

In a report by the Los Angeles Times, it is not clear how many of the missing persons are victims of foul play, but many of them are feared dead, nonetheless.

One of the most high-profile cases happened just last year, when 43 students from a rural school in Guerrero were hauled off by the police.

They were believed to have been working with a drug gang.

The act of taking the said children caused national and international outrage from citizens and various human rights groups.

Fox News Latino also reported that of the over 25,000 disappearances in Mexico, more than half of them happened during the administration of President Enrique Pena Nieto which started only in December 2012.

Families of victims don't trust the government, and they stopped holding on to hope that things will ever improve.

Mario Vergara, whose brother Tomas disappeared in July 2012, said, "They don't know what they're doing. It's like asking a shoe-shiner to perform heart surgery. If these are the people looking for our missing family members, they're never going to find them."

LA Times shared the story of Guadalupe Reyes, who lost her daughter, Mariana last year .

Reyes said that the authorities haven't been kind, telling the outlet that when she reported her daughter missing a day after she was only supposed to go to a photocopy shop no more than 10 minutes away, the authorities merely suggested that the 18-year-old may only have run off with her boyfriend.

Reyes said, "The authorities show very little humanity [toward us]. The first thing the police do is question those who go missing, their honorability."

In January, Guadalupe and her husband, Bernardo, were told by the prosecutor's office that Mariana's remains were found in a canal a short walk away from the Reyes's home, along with dozens of human body parts that were dredged by authorities in October 2014, only a month after their child went missing.

However, when they asked to see their daughter's remains, they were told that the investigation was "too delicate" and "complicated", and that they should just "accept the facts."

Darwin Franco, a local journalist investigating the disappearances in Jalisco (whose official count for missing individuals reached 2,160) said that the disappearances are a result of corruption and impunity.

Al Jazeera reported that the emergence of the Jalisco New Generation cartel also adds to the number, considering that the group is among Mexico's most powerful criminal enterprises.

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