Mexico Recalculates Number of People Still Missing Since 2006 at 8,000 Mark Stevenson - The Associated Press
go to original May 24, 2014

Members of the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity (MPJD), relatives of Mexico’s drug war victims, gather at the Estela de Luz monument in Mexico City to mark the movement’s three year anniversary last month. (Clayton Conn/FSRN)

MEXICO CITY — Mexico has recalculated the number of people who have gone missing since the start of the country's drug war in 2006, now saying a total of 8,000 are unaccounted for.

It is unclear how many of the missing were kidnapped or killed by drug gangs, which frequently bury their victims in clandestine graves. While President Enrique Pena Nieto has said drug violence has declined, the number of new missing persons reports during the first two years of his administration has remained steadily high.

Interior Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong said Thursday a total of about 28,000 missing-persons reports had been filed between 2006 and 2012, under the previous administration of president Felipe Calderon.

Osorio Chong said about 14,700 of the missing from the previous administration have been found alive and about 750 confirmed dead. Many who had filed missing persons reports didn't update them when their relative reappeared, he said.

... About another 3,000 people were reported missing in 2013 and early 2014, under President Enrique Pena Nieto's administration, boosting the outstanding total to 16,000. About 8,000 people have been found alive and about 400 confirmed dead since then, yielding the current running total of about 8,000.

Osorio Chong's initial report was unclear about whether the 8,000 were in addition to the 13,000 still missing from the previous administration. But his department later said the 8,000 figure was the current tally for both administrations.

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