The “human tragedy” of more than 100,000 missing people rocked Mexico again on Wednesday, when authorities announced the murder of a 44-year-old activist who had been searching for her son, who has been missing since 2019.

A member of a collective of women searching for their missing children, Rosario Rodriguez was abducted by gunmen after attending a prayer service for her child in the western state of Sinaloa on Tuesday evening, according to the NGO Adónde van los Desaparecidos (“Where do the missing go?”) .

According to the same source, the body of a 44-year-old woman was found a few hours later near a bridge in the community of La Cruz de Elote.

“I am deeply saddened by the killing of Rosario Rodriguez Barras, a tireless fighter like so many other women from Sinaloa who are looking for their loved ones,” Governor Ruben Rocha responded on Twitter.

Her son Fernando Ramirez went missing in October 2019. It is unknown if he was kidnapped by government officials or organized crime.

“The disclosure of her murder is a priority,” as she was “a woman and a member of a highly vulnerable group, such as those involved in the search for the missing,” the local prosecutor’s office stressed.

Many crimes (murders of women, kidnappings, murders of journalists…) go unpunished in Mexico. The day before yesterday, relatives of the missing people marched through various cities to denounce the ineffectiveness of the authorities in finding the missing.

More than 100,000 people have gone missing in Mexico, a “human tragedy of immense proportions,” the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said in May.

This phenomenon in Mexico dates back to 1964, when the “dirty war” of the state against various guerrilla organizations began in the 1960s and 1970s, but it increased dramatically in the 2000s, when the violence of drug gangs intensified.

Collectives estimate that the number of missing people is even higher, as many families do not report disappearances to prosecutors out of fear or distrust of the authorities.

Source: RES