New data shows the number of people who have disappeared in Mexico reached nearly 112,000 in 2023 -- and that number continues to climb.
According to an October 2023 analysis by the U.N. Committee on Enforced Disappearances, Mexico's National Register of Disappeared and Forcibly Disappeared Persons had reported 111,540 individuals as disappeared since records began in 1962.
The analysis suggested that the number of missing people might be even greater, noting systemic issues with the register, inadequate investigations and consequential low convictions.
Then-President Andrés Manuel López Obrador took issue with the report and ordered a review of the register to remove so-called false entries, duplicate names and cases of people who are discovered to be dead or alive.
In December, the government dramatically cut the list and declared that just 12,377 people in the register were definitely missing. "Families and advocates objected to this new count and led them to say the president was making them relive the trauma," NPR reported.
In March, the Mexico government revised the figure once again and acknowledged that 99,729 people were missing, saying thousands of others had been found, daily newspaper El País reported.
According to the current count on Mexico's database, 114,748 people are listed as "missing and unlocated."
As for why so many people seem to go missing in Mexico, the major problem is organized crime, according to a report by the Los Angeles Times. "In 2006, the government declared war on the drug cartels, setting off a wave of violence that has not let up," the report noted, adding that there is a "culture of impunity in a nation where police, the military and prosecutors often act in cahoots with organized crime."
Disappearances frequently occur with the direct and indirect involvement of government agents, according to the University of Minnesota Human Rights Program.
"The context of impunity in Mexico has contributed to the crisis of disappearances. Lack of information about disappearances is used to justify the lack of accountability, a breeding ground for unimpeded violence," the program said. "A close look at these cases, however, demonstrates that government officials seldom investigate disappearances in the timely and effective manner as required by law, or to make even a minimal effort to search for the whereabouts of the disappeared."
When law enforcement won't investigate and perpetrators go free, families of the disappeared often take on the burden on going out on their own and searching for justice and their missing loved one.
"Despite the efforts by some branches of the Mexican government to search and investigate, the crisis of disappearances is ongoing," the university noted.
The U.S. has issued multiple travel advisories for Mexico, noting that violent crime – such as homicide, kidnapping, carjacking, and robbery – is widespread and common, and that the U.S. government has limited ability to provide emergency services to U.S. citizens in Mexico.