January 2020. For years, Mexican newspapers have carried chilling tales of mothers searching for their missing children and discovering hidden graves. Now, for the first time, the federal government has disclosed the number of clandestine sites where those who have been disappeared in Mexico’s raging narco-violence have turned up. Nearly 5,000 bodies have been discovered in more than 3,000 graves since late 2006, said Karla Quintana, the head of the government’s National Search Commission. That’s well above previous estimates by academics and journalists. Quinto Elemento Lab, a Mexican investigative journalism organization, published a report last November identifying 1,978 graves. Quintana said 3,024 informal graves contained 4,874 bodies — and thousands of bone fragments. At least 40,000 people have disappeared in Mexico since 2006. Officials believe the majority were victims of organized-crime groups. But in many cases, local or state authorities might have been complicit.
Jan 2020. The Disappeared in Mexico
