Photo: PBI-Mexico accompaniment of march in Puebla, August 30, 2025.
On August 30, PBI-Mexico posted on social media:
“Today marks the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, a day to honor the memory of the victims and highlight the tireless struggle of thousands of families seeking truth, justice, and guarantees of non-repetition.
At this time, PBI Mexico is supporting the mobilizations in Puebla and Morelos, where groups and organizations are demanding recognition of this serious problem and public policies that listen to the voices of the victims.
In our role as international accompaniment, we express solidarity and reiterate the importance of recognizing and protecting these families and groups as human rights defenders.”
Morelos
This same day, the Morelos Post tweeted: “THEY MARCH FOR THE DISAPPEARED OF MORELOS. To demand the location of their relatives, people are marching this Saturday morning to the main square in the center of Cuernavaca, in commemoration of the International Day of Victims of Forced Disappearance.”
Multimagen also tweeted: “On International Day Against Forced Disappearance, collectives of searching mothers march. According to the National Registry of Missing Persons, as of July 25, 2025, there were 1,662 missing persons in Morelos, 315 not located, 4,518 located alive, and 449 deceased.”
Puebla
And Gremio 51 tweeted: “Members of the Colectivo Voz de los Desaparecidos (@VozdelosDesapa) gather at Casa Aguayo to begin a peaceful march toward the Zócalo of #Puebla, to commemorate the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearance.”
Enforced disappearances in Mexico
This past March, Al Jazeera reported: “Countrywide, the official tally of victims of enforced disappearance and missing people reached 125,802 on March 26, although this figure is without doubt a grave underestimate given the frequent reluctance of family members of the missing to denounce such crimes for fear of reprisal.”
They further comment: “Cases of enforced disappearance in Mexico began to soar – along with homicides – in 2006, the year that then-Mexican President Felipe Calderon launched the so-called ‘war on drugs’ with the encouragement and backing of his charitable gringo counterpart George W Bush.”
Disappeared journalists
This week, Reporters without Borders (RSF) further posted: “On 29 August — one day before the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances — Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and the Mexican NGO Propuesta Cívica submitted two complaints against the Mexican state to the UN Human Rights Committee in Geneva concerning missing journalists. The complaints denounce the enforced disappearance of two news professionals and highlight the systemic failures in the country’s investigative system that foster impunity for crimes against journalists in a country plagued by widespread violence against the press. In Mexico, at least 28 journalists have gone missing, most of them for nearly two decades, with no information about their fate or whereabouts.”
We continue to follow this.
