Mothers raise their voices over Mexico’s disappearance crisis a month before World Cup

Mexico City (EFE).- Thousands of family members, activists, and collectives held the 14th National March for Dignity on Sunday, led by searching mothers. They demanded justice and government assistance in locating their loved ones on Mother’s Day, celebrated in Mexico on May 10, and just one month before the 2026 World Cup kicks off in Mexico.

Amidst the final preparations for the tournament, the protesters, led by the searching mothers (madres buscadoras), marched to draw attention to a crisis that now includes 133,601 missing and unlocated persons, according to data cited in their most recent annual report.

Hundreds of activists placed missing person flyers on the Angel of Independence monument, located on the central Reforma Avenue, a spot where Mexican fans traditionally celebrate their team’s victories. On Sunday, however, the location was used to inform Mexican society about this profound crisis.

«Mexico will shine in the World Cup, mothers among graves,» «On Mother’s Day our children are missing and the executioners remain free ‘organizing World Cups’,» and «The wound is what unites us» were some of the messages displayed on their signs. A large Mexican flag placed on the Independence monument was topped with the message: «133,000 missing.»

In early April, a report from the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED) suggested that the scale of disappearances in Mexico could constitute a crime against humanity, a possibility that Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum flatly rejected.

Cries for justice instead of goals

The demonstration in the Mexican capital began at the Monument to the Mother and concluded at the Angel of Independence, where a statement was read. They pointed out that the country has suffered from enforced disappearances for nearly six decades, with thousands of missing individuals and impunity as the norm.

«Since the first people disappeared in Mexico, 16 FIFA World Cups have passed. Today we speak to you with soccer terminology, hoping you might finally see and hear us. ‘We will score all the possible goals against impunity. We will keep playing all the necessary cups until the disappeared return home. We will not be defeated,'» the statement read. «…Hopefully, the hundreds of thousands of people who will shout for the national team’s goals will also shout for justice and truth for our disappeared.»

A World Cup with broken families

For Daniela Gonzalez, from the collective ‘Una luz en el camino’ (A Light on the Path) and who is searching for her son Axel Daniel, who disappeared on June 23, 2022, at the age of 16, the tournament will be «a World Cup full of broken families, of families that continue to fight and demand a real commitment, a real investigation to locate our children.»

«As families, we can say that every day we keep fighting, demanding that the government take responsibility for what is their job: to work, search for people, and return them to their homes,» she added.

Meanwhile, Tomasa Cedillo, from the collective ‘Renacer’ (Rebirth) and whose son disappeared two and a half years ago, stated that the hardest part of the search is having the government itself as the opponent. «The most difficult thing is being heard and having them take action, that something is done. That’s all I ask, to know where my son is, to know something about him.»

María del Carmen Ayala Vargas searches for her son Iván who went missing in the municipality of Coatepec, Veracruz, since August 2021. She described her search as «a calvary, a martyrdom, an ordeal, the most atrocious thing that can happen to a family.»

Serious humanitarian crisis

On Saturday night, collectives of searching mothers held a vigil for memory and justice at the Monument to the Mother, while family members placed missing person flyers around the Azteca Stadium, where the opening match between Mexico and South Africa will be played on June 11.

Just last April 23, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) announced it is preparing a specific report on the disappearance crisis in Mexico, a document that, they said, places the country under international observation due to the dimension of this issue.

According to the IACHR, the National Registry of Missing and Unlocated Persons reports 133,601 cases, with the State of Mexico (14,844), Jalisco (13,635), and Tamaulipas (13,614) as the states with the highest figures.

The IACHR considers the disappearance of individuals and the forensic emergency to «continue to be a grave humanitarian crisis» and warned about the rise in femicides, transfemicides, and murders of people in the LGTBIQ+ community, as well as the increase in cases of trafficking and violence against women. EFE

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