Thousands of people have held protests across Mexico to highlight the country's many enforced disappearances and demand more action by officials to tackle them.
Relatives and friends of missing people, as well as human rights activists, marched through the streets of Mexico City, Guadalajara, Córdoba and other cities calling for justice and urged the government of President Claudia Sheinbaum to help find their missing loved ones.
More than 130,000 people have been reported as missing in Mexico. Almost all the disappearances have occurred since 2007, when then-President Felipe Calderón launched his 'war on drugs'.
In many cases, those disappeared have been forcibly recruited into the drug cartels – or murdered for resisting.
While drug cartels and organised crime groups are the main perpetrators, security forces are also blamed for deaths and disappearances.
The widespread demonstrations across cities and communities showcased the extent of the crisis, affecting families from southern Oaxaca to northern states like Sonora and Durango. Protesters displayed photographs of their disappeared loved ones, demanding that authorities take immediate action.
In Mexico City, the march brought traffic to a standstill as protesters moved down major avenues. Many families have organized search teams, called 'buscadores', who risk their safety scouring rural areas for mass graves based on tips, including those reportedly coming from the cartels.
The United Nations has termed the situation a 'human tragedy of enormous proportions', highlighting that Mexico’s number of disappearances is among the highest in Latin America, surpassing the figures recorded during the civil conflicts in Guatemala and Argentina.
