Mexico's Missing Persons Problem

The number of people reported missing in Mexico officially surpassed 100,000 yesterday, according to data from the country's National Registry of Missing Persons, though local civil organizations warn the real number is likely much higher.

🇲🇽 By the numbers:

• Over the past two years, Mexico has recorded over 27,000 disappearances, including 400+ foreign nationals; overall, ~75% of the people who have gone missing were men and one-quarter were under the age of 18, with just 35 recorded disappearances resulting in a conviction of the perpetrator.
• The Mexican government has reported that around 37,000 unidentified bodies are being held in forensic services, and many other corpses have been buried without being identified due to overflowing morgues.
• Mexico has also registered over 340,000 deaths – mostly attributed to organized crime groups – since 2006, when it launched a major anti-drug military offensive.

🤔 What’s going on?... The UN warned last month that Mexico was facing an "alarming upward trend" in cases of missing persons; it largely attributed the spike to organized crime groups “with varying degrees of participation, acquiescence or omission by public servants.”