‘Disappearing the disappeared’: critics denounce Mexico’s census of ‘war on drugs’ victims

Activists say the review of 113,000 missing people in Mexico is a ploy to reduce the number ahead of the presidential election

When the Mexican government announced it would review the official register of “disappeared” people, it was presented as an effort to eliminate false entries. But with little transparency over how it was being done, activists suspected a ploy to reduce the number ahead of the 2024 election.

The government has now announced it was able to confirm just 12,377 of the more than 113,000 cases of disappeared people.