Over 100,000 people have been missing in Mexico for many years

Mexico’s national registry of missing people, which has tracked disappearances since 1964, said that as of May 16, about 100,012 people had disappeared, with about 75% of them men.

The number of people going missing in Mexico has skyrocketed due to widespread drug-related violence in the country over the past 16 years.

A human rights group called The Movement for Our Disappeared warned on May 16 that the number was certainly lower than the actual number, and called on the Mexican government to address the crisis comprehensively.

In April 2021, the United Nations Commission on Forced Disappearance (CED) warned that Mexico was facing an alarming increase in disappearances. According to CED, criminal organizations are the main culprits behind these disappearances, with the complicity at many levels of a section of officials. In addition, missing person investigations lack formal support.

The Mexican government says about 37,000 unidentified bodies are being kept in morgues, while civic groups say the number could be much higher.

Mexican authorities are consolidating their database of missing people with genetic samples, although many bodies have been buried unidentified due to overcrowded morgues.

Mexico has also recorded more than 340,000 deaths, mainly caused by criminal organizations since 2006, when the government at the time launched a campaign to crack down on organized crime gangs in the country.