As the count of disappeared already surpasses 133,000, in a show of the Mexican state’s indifference, current President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo mocked, questioned, and criminalized these families’ struggle, at press conferences accusing some of these collectives of receiving funding and answering to the interests of opposition political parties.
While there is no exact figure, organizations like Amnesty International cite more than 200 collectives across the country. In this context, alleging that the movement has been co-opted functions less as fact and more as a vile tactic of delegitimization. President Sheinbaum Pardo seeks to mask a painful reality with the supposed joy that comes from soccer as a capitalist spectacle.
The sheer scope of the violence behind the disappearance crisis can be seen in the range of its victims — among them civilians disappeared by the military alongside members of the armed forces themselves; people presumably linked to the criminal economy, and many more who simply refused to pay extortion fees. “Collateral damage,” a former president once called it. All are searched for equally; no disappearance is justified, and no one deserves to disappear.
