Mexicans protest against forced disappearance of over 130,000 people

Mexico on streets to demand justice for the victims of forced disappearance since 2007

Mexicans protest against forced disappearance of over 130,000 people
Mexicans protest against forced disappearance of over 130,000 people

Thousands of people have held protests across Mexico to highlight the country's many enforced disappearances and demand more action by officials to tackle them.

According to BBC, relatives and friends of missing people, as well as human rights activists, marched through the streets of Mexico City, Guadalajara, Córdoba and other cities calling for justice and urged the government of President Claudia Sheinbaum to help find their missing loved ones.

More than 130,000 people have been reported as missing in Mexico. Almost all the disappearances have occurred since 2007, when then-President Felipe Calderón launched his "war on drugs".

In many cases, those disappeared have been forcibly recruited into the drug cartels – or murdered for resisting.

While drug cartels and organised crime groups are the main perpetrators, security forces are also blamed for deaths and disappearances.

The wide spread of cities, states and municipalities where demonstrations were held illustrated the extent to which the problem of forced disappearances affects communities and families across Mexico.

From one end of the country to the other, from southern states like Oaxaca to northern ones like Sonora and Durango, activists and family members of disappeared people turned out in their thousands carrying placards with their relatives' faces on them, to demand the authorities do more to address the issue.

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