Mexico Admits That 27,000 Have Disappeared After Being Arrested By The Security Forces

A file photo dated Nov. 30, 2012, showing photographs of disappeared persons in Mexico during a protest by their family members in Mexico City. New York-based Human Rights Watch released a report Wednesday that documents 249 disappearances in Mexico since December 2006, when then-President Felipe Calderon launched a war on organized crime that "produced disastrous results." EFE/File

Mexico Admits 27,000 Missing; Human Rights Watch Protests Crisis Of ‘Disappeared’ -- McClatchy News

MEXICO CITY — Mexico said Wednesday that it had records of more than 27,000 cases of “disappeared people” that it would make public soon in an effort to clarify the circumstances under which they vanished.

Lia Limon, the country’s deputy interior secretary for human rights, acknowledged the cases hours after Human Rights Watch issued a scathing report that called Mexico the Western Hemisphere’s hot spot for “enforced disappearances,” in which police or the military arrest citizens who are never seen again.

The advocacy group said it had documented 149 cases throughout the country in which witnesses saw police or soldiers take someone into custody only to have the person vanish without a trace. But the group said the number of people who’d disappeared since 2006 was enormous, noting that a provisional list compiled by the attorney general’s office indicated that more than 25,000 people had gone missing during the administration of former President Felipe Calderon, who left office Dec. 1 and is now a visiting fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

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More News On Mexico's Disappear

Mexican forces involved in kidnappings, disappearances, report charges -- L.A. Times
Mexican authorities participated in civilian disappearances, report says -- Washington Post
Human rights report: Mexico disappearances during drug war ‘a crisis ignored’ -- Washington Post/AP
HRW: Mexico security forces colluded in disappearances -- BBC
Human Rights Watch documents 249 disappearances in Mexico -- La Prensasa.com
Mexico: Crisis of Enforced Disappearances -- Human Rights Watch