Mass protests sweep Mexico over 130,000 missing persons

Thousands of people have marched across Mexico to demand justice for the country’s more than 130,000 missing persons, urging President Claudia Sheinbaum’s government to take stronger action.

Relatives of the disappeared, alongside human rights activists, held demonstrations in Mexico City, Guadalajara, Córdoba, Oaxaca, Sonora, Durango and other cities, highlighting the nationwide scale of the crisis. Families carried placards with the faces of missing loved ones, demanding answers, Caliber.Az writes, citing British media.

Disappearances have surged since 2007, when then-President Felipe Calderón launched his "war on drugs." Most victims are believed to have been forcibly recruited by cartels or murdered for resisting, though security forces are also blamed.

In the absence of state action, many families have formed search brigades, known as buscadores, scouring deserts and countrysides for mass graves, often at great personal risk. Several searchers in Jalisco were themselves recently disappeared after uncovering a suspected narco site.

The United Nations has described the situation as "a human tragedy of enormous proportions," noting that Mexico’s toll surpasses the disappearances recorded in Argentina’s military dictatorship and Guatemala’s civil war.

By Khagan Isayev