A photographer working for the New York Times has brought/ attention to Mexico's missing people through a new series of photographs.
Since 1964 100,000 Mexicans have vanished, mostly without a trace, causing misery to millions of affected families.
Fred Ramos has spoken to the families of some of the missing and revealed photographs of found clothing believed to belong to some of the missing individuals.
The majority of the missing are believed to have been in some way related to the drugs-trade in a country that now has over 30,000 murders per year.
Noemy Padilla Aldáz, spoke to Ramos. She has been searching for her son for 2 years after he vanished after a nightshift at a restaurant. She said:
"It’s a horrible uncertainty I don't wish on anyone. If I knew he was dead, then I would know that he's not suffering. But we don't know, and it's like torture, that not knowing."
Across Mexico, posters and stickers cover walls with the images of the missing alongside contact details appealing for information. Most are never found. Many are believed abducted by drug cartels, murdered, and their bodies disposed of in a manner that means they will never be located.
Among high-profile killings and disappearances in recent years were the 43 university students from the town of Ayotzinapa who were murdered on a field trip. The true nature of their killings has never been revealed, though many suspect local politicians working with drug gangs had a hand in the massacre.
Until 2019, the Mexican state had suggested that only 40,000 people were missing. This was until experts and researchers began digging deeper, which revealed well over 100,000 disappeared since 1964. The fact that the Mexican state could not even compile a true tally of the missing shows just what an uphill battle the families must climb.
One of those researchers is Karla Quintana Osuna, a Harvard-trained lawyer who has worked with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. She said:
"The challenge is abysmal, it's titanic. As long as there is no justice, a clear message is being sent that this can continue to happen."
[h/t: The New York Times]
COMMENTS