Thousands of walking for the 130,000 missing

Thousands of people organized demonstrations across Mexico to highlight the many forced disappearances of the country and demand more action from managers to approach them.

Parents and friends of the missing people, as well as human rights activists, walked in the streets of Mexico City, Guadalajara, Cordoba and other cities calling for justice and urged the government of President Claudia Sheinbaum to help their missing loved ones.

More than 130,000 people were missing in Mexico. Almost all disappearances have taken place since 2007, when the president of the time, Felipe Calderón, launched his “war against drugs”.

In many cases, those who have disappeared have been forcibly recruited in drug cartels – or murdered to resist.

While drug cartels and organized crime groups are the main authors, security forces are also charged for deaths and disappearances.

The broad spread of cities, states and municipalities in which demonstrations have been held illustrated to what extent the problem of forced disappearances affects the communities and families of Mexico.

From one end of the country to the other – from southern states like Oaxaca to the Nords like Sonora and Durango – activists and members of the disappeared family have proved by thousands of signs with the faces of their loved ones, to demand that the authorities do more to solve the problem.

In Mexico City, walking brought traffic to the capital to a stop, while the demonstration fell on the main artery.

Many affected families have trained research teams, known as “Buscadores”, who roam the campaign and deserts in northern Mexico, depending on the warnings, often the cartels themselves, as to the place in mass.

Buscadores are carrying out research and activism at a great personal risk. After the recent discovery in the state of Jalisco of an apparent Narco-Ranch by a research group, several of the buscadores involved have disappeared.

The Office of the State Attorney General concluded later that there was no evidence of a crematorium on the site.

The United Nations called it “a human tragedy of enormous proportions”.

Mexico is experiencing a level of disappearances which exceeds some of the worst tolls of Latin America.

About 40,000 disappeared in the 36 -year civil war in Guatemala, which ended in 1996. About 30,000 disappeared in Argentina during his military reign between 1976 and 1983.