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Mexican search collectives hold day of events to spotlight disappearances: ‘We ask for empathy, nothing more’ Image: Karla Guerrero/ EL UNIVERSAL
🇲🇽 Mexico /Crime & Justice

Mexican search collectives hold day of events to spotlight disappearances: ‘We ask for empathy, nothing more’

From El Universal · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Ongoing story
  • Search collectives and families held the “Let’s Make Them Visible 2026” event in Mexico City on the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances.
  • Activities included an ecumenical mass, posting missing-person flyers, exhibitions, forums, workshops, documentaries and performances.
  • Relatives criticized authorities for insufficient progress and demanded memory, truth and justice for more than 135,000 missing people.

Families searching for missing relatives turned a Mexico City landmark into a public record of the country’s disappearance crisis. At the Glorieta de las y los Desaparecidos on Paseo de la Reforma, search collectives began a 12-hour program called “Let’s Make Them Visible 2026.”

Disappearances are increasing every day, and not only in Mexico City, but throughout the country.

— Victoria RosalesRosales described the scale of the crisis while searching for her daughter.

The day opened with an ecumenical mass for more than 135,000 disappeared people. Later, participants posted missing-person search files across the roundabout. The program also included photography exhibitions, discussion tables, forums, workshops, documentary screenings, and music and dance performances.

Victoria Rosales, who has searched for her daughter Nadia Rosales since her disappearance in Puebla in 2017, said disappearances are increasing across Mexico, not only in Mexico City. She criticized the authorities’ response and said there had been little progress because the problem was still not being acknowledged.

The president puts up so many objections to accepting that there are disappearances. There has been very little progress because the problem is still not being acknowledged.

— Victoria RosalesShe criticized the authorities’ response to the crisis.

Rosales called for closer cooperation between institutions, searching families, and specialists. “They must work more with searching families, because we are the ones who truly know about our missing relatives, and with experts in disappearances who can help us find our loved ones,” she said.

They must work more with searching families, because we are the ones who truly know about our missing relatives, and with experts in disappearances who can help us find our loved ones.

— Victoria RosalesShe called for cooperation between authorities, families and specialists.

Gabriela, who is searching for her son Alejandro Trujillo, who disappeared in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, in 2024, said she attended because public spaces are needed to keep the missing visible. “We demand memory, truth and justice,” she said.

We demand memory, truth and justice.

— GabrielaGabriela explained why she attended the public event while searching for her missing son.
About this summary

Originally published by El Universal in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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