UN: public servants and organized crime responsible for mass disappearances in Mexico

The UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances (OHCHR) said on Tuesday that public servants and members of organized crime are to blame for the recent increase in enforced disappearances across Mexico.

"Official figures show a notable increase in the disappearances of boys and girls from the age of 12, as well as adolescents and women, a trend that worsened in the context of the coronavirus pandemic," the committee warned in a report published after its visit to Mexico in 2021.

The UN later asked Mexican authorities to put an end to the "impunity that prevails in the country" and called for the promotion of a national policy to prevent such crimes.

"Organized crime has become a central perpetrator of disappearances in Mexico, with varying degrees of participation, acquiescence or omission of public servants," said OHCHR Chairwoman Carmen Rosa Villa Quintana.

She also noted that governments are responsible “when organizations receive some form of support from agents, or when there is a known pattern of disappearances of people and the State does not adopt the necessary measures to prevent them.”

According to official figures, as of November 2021 there were 95,121 missing persons registered in Mexico. As of Tuesday, the registry tallies 98,883 missing and unaccounted for persons.

Between 2006 and 2021 there was an exponential growth of disappearances in Mexico. In the last five years alone, there have been some 8,000 cases, the OHCHR noted.

As of November 2021, a mere two to six percent of disappearance cases in Mexico resulted in criminal proceedings and only 36 convictions had been handed down nationwide.