Mexican government figures show the number of people officially missing has risen to more than 100,000, with families urged to find victims of organized crime-related violence.

The Home Office’s National Register of Missing Persons has been maintained since 1964 and updated periodically, and records show that the number of missing persons has increased from about 73,000 to over 100,000 in the past two years, most of them men. Human rights groups and the families of the missing have expressed “concern and called on the government to urgently conduct more effective searches and investigations.”

The number of disappearances has skyrocketed since 2007 after former President Felipe Calderon sent an army into the streets to fight drug smugglers, sparking a wave of violence that the current administration is still fighting. In 2021, the number of disappearances has almost quadrupled compared to 2020.”