Families of the Disappeared Hold Guarded Optimism New Government Will Act Dudley Althaus - GlobalPost
go to original March 11, 2013

A man who has a missing relative holds a cross and a sign during a protest demanding information on the whereabouts of missing relatives, during the commemoration of the International Day of the Disappeared in Monterrey, Mexico. (Julio Cesar Aguilar/AFP/Getty Images)

SALTILLO, Mexico - Mexicans by the tens of thousands — precisely 26,121, by the government's latest tally — have vanished in the six years of criminal hyper-violence that have battered much of the country, especially communities like this one near the US border.

Mexican and international human rights and victims' advocacy groups blame security forces, often working with the gangsters, for many of the disappearances. They point to official inaction for the enduring pain suffered by the families of the missing.

But now under sustained pressure from those groups, President Enrique Peña Nieto's new administration and key state governments have promised to focus on finding the missing and prosecuting their tormentors.

Although victims’ advocates say they’re jaundiced by years of empty promises and useless investigations, some are allowing themselves a measure of optimism.

Read the whole story at GlobalPost

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