Amnesty International Asks Mexico Why It Lowered Missing-Persons Statistics Agence France-Presse
go to original May 29, 2014

Amnesty International wants Mexico's government to explain how it came up with a drastically lower number of people missing nationwide after the figure was slashed from 26,000 to 8,000.

The international rights group said Wednesday the statistic provided by Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong last week was "ambiguous" and that the government should release an official report detailing its methodology.

The number of disappearances soared in Mexico after then president Felipe Calderon launched a military offensive against drug cartels in 2006.

After President Enrique Pena Nieto took office in December 2012, the government said it had a database of 26,000 people who went missing between 2006-2012 but that it would likely revise it down.

Osorio Chong told the Senate last week that the figure was lowered to 8,000 because thousands were found alive. He said a number of them had been kidnapped but others had simply eloped, abandoned their homes or migrated to the United States.

Amnesty International said it was unclear whether the 18,000 people who are no longer considered missing had never actually disappeared or were found after official investigations.

Some 80,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence in Mexico since 2006, but the government says the number of homicides has dropped in the past year.

See the original at GlobalPost

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