73,201 People Missing In Mexico's Drug Cartel War

Illustrated photo (Ehimitalor Akhere / Unsplash)

JAKARTA - The war between drug cartels in Mexico has not subsided. Monday, July 13, the Mexican government recorded the addition of missing persons at 73,201.

This figure is the result of data revisions in January, which recorded 61 thousand people missing. Launching Reuters, this is due to the stretching of policy owners who try to fight drug cartels and often arrest their leaders. As a result, the cartel gang wars heats up due to the power vacuum.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, since he was elected in December 2018, immediately stated that one of his focuses is to end the war and tame the cartels.

Around 1,523 cases of missing victims were reported between 1964 and 2005. However, most of the missing occurred amid the epidemic of drug war violence that only started in late 2006.

Mexican Deputy Minister Alejandro Encinas said his country since 2006 has even excavated 3,978 Clandestine graves. There they found about 6,625 bodies.

The search was even more massive when Lopez Obrador was in power. Because, when he was in charge, nearly 30 percent of the graves of the missing have been found.

Although the number of missing people is increasing, the relevant authorities say the number has fallen sharply in the first six months of this year. The data shows that the number of missing people decreased by 36.6 percent compared to last year.

However, the decline does not mean less violence or less war. The decline was allegedly due to under-reporting of missing persons during the pandemic.

Meanwhile, due to the cartel gang wars that have occurred since 2006, according to official data there have been more than 287 thousand murders in Mexico. However, many of the cases were not related to organized crime.