Many family members in Mexico never know where their missing relatives are.
Image: Reuters
The “Missing Persons Movement” has made serious charges against the authorities. Of the 52,000 unidentified bodies, approximately 60% were buried in mass graves. The rest are in forensic facilities.
A generationIn Mexico, activists say that more than 50,000 victims of violent crime are unidentified and lie in mass graves or forensic facilities. The “Missing Persons Movement” issued a warning based on this figure in a report released on Thursday, saying that there is a crisis in forensic services. Insufficient staff, inadequate training, low salaries and fixed-term contracts are the causes of problems in identifying many victims of violence.
Of the 52,000 unidentified bodies, approximately 60% were buried in mass graves. The rest are in forensic facilities or places that the government does not want or cannot name. In light of these numbers, the government agreed to establish a new mechanism to identify dead bodies.
The deadly war on drugs
Since the government deployed its army to combat drug trafficking in 2006, more than 300,000 people have been murdered in Mexico. According to the authorities, most murders can be traced to gang violence. According to state data, approximately 82,500 people are missing across the country.
