Mexico City: A massive wave of anger and grief swept through Mexico as thousands of people marched across major cities demanding a full investigation into the disappearance of nearly 1.5 lakh people who have gone missing under suspicious circumstances. Families of victims, human rights activists, and civil society groups joined hands in what has now become one of the largest demonstrations against state inaction on forced disappearances.
The marches, held in Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Cordoba, brought traffic to a standstill as protesters carried placards with the faces of their missing relatives. The demand was directed at President Claudia Sheinbaum, urging her government to uncover the fate of their loved ones and to confront the growing influence of organized crime networks that many believe are behind the mass vanishings.
Disappearances in Mexico sharply escalated after then-President Felipe Calderón declared a war on drug cartels in 2007. Since then, countless victims are suspected to have been abducted by gangs, forcibly recruited into criminal groups, or killed in violent clashes. With Mexico home to some of the world’s most powerful cartels, the country has also become the epicenter of one of Latin America’s worst human rights crises.
From the southern state of Oaxaca to the northern regions of Sonora and Durango, families poured into the capital, united by loss and determination. Many joined the “buscadores”, volunteer search brigades that scour forests, deserts, and rural lands in search of clandestine graves. Fears run high that thousands of missing persons may be buried in mass graves across the country. In Jalisco, however, a search team was reportedly intercepted by drug gangs, underscoring the danger that families face in their desperate search.
Authorities claim no mass graves have been located in the Jalisco region, but activists dispute the official narrative. Meanwhile, international bodies have raised alarms: the United Nations has described Mexico’s crisis of disappearances as the largest and most tragic in Latin America’s modern history.
For comparison, Latin America has endured other dark chapters of forced disappearances an estimated 40,000 people vanished during Guatemala’s civil war (1960–1996), while Argentina’s military dictatorship (1976–1983) is believed to have “disappeared” around 30,000 people. Yet, Mexico’s current toll dwarfs both, leaving families caught in an endless cycle of mourning, searching, and demanding answers.