87,000 MEXICANS STILL MISSING. Mexico’s National Search Commission reports that in the past 16 years, 87555 people have disappeared in Mexico. That amounts to an average of 16 per day. Most think that drug cartels killed them and then burned them or dumped them into shallow graves. Often the cartels bury them in the same “killing fields”, as many bodies have been found in the same location.
But others also suspect police and other authorities were involved. That makes tracing the killers dangerous. Those investigating may also “disappear” or face threats without recourse to the law.
So the National Search Commission has learned to avoid seeking perpetrators or collecting evidence. Instead, they focus on finding graves and identifying remains.
Case of 43 disappeared students now solved
The most notorious kidnapping—of 43 Rural Teachers College students riding buses—occurred in 2014. They were going to Mexico City to protest at the anniversary of the 1968 student massacre at Tlatelolco.
Newly released texts between a deputy police chief and a cartel leader have brought the incident to light. They show that the students mistakenly flagged down buses carrying cartel heroin to the US border. The police arrested 38 students and handed them over to the Guerreros Unidos cartel. The cartel’s then-local leader, Gildardo Lopez Astudillo, said he “had beds to terrorize” those students in. Apparently, that meant the cartel would torture and then bury them in secret grave sites.
We still don’t know what happened to five of those students. But most people don’t realize they represent only a small fraction of those missing throughout Mexico. Without closure, friends and family of the missing fear they may be suffering torture or other kinds of duress.
ETG articles related to 87,000 Mexicans still missing:
Mexico Pre-Election Violence Killed 91 Politicians
Pirates of the Caribbean and Gulf Return
Migrants Crossing Texas Border Open Way for Covid, Drugs
Drug Cartel Uses Firepower to Attack Mexico
BPN articles related to 87,000 Mexicans still missing:
Legalizing Marijuana Can Impoverish Belize Further
‘Hugs Not Guns’ Result in Record Mexico Murder Rate
Related sources for 87,000 Mexicans still missing:
Nearly 100,000 people in Mexico have disappeared
We Finally Know How 43 Students on a Bus Vanished Into Thin Air
Mexican cartels ramping up efforts to use civilians to smuggle illegal drugs
Keyphrase: 87,000 Mexicans still missing
