The faces of Mexico’s disappeared now line the streets of Guadalajara, the country’s second-largest city.
Thousands of fliers bearing messages like “We miss you,” “Have you seen her?” and “We’re looking for you” cover buildings, monuments, lamp posts, parking meters, tree pots and bus stops.
Workers weave through them in the bustling city center. Men play basketball on courts framed by the posters, while a steady stream of cars passes by daily.
These fliers have become part of life in Jalisco, the state at the heart of Mexico’s forced disappearance crisis. The region, already reeling from an outbreak of violence Sunday after the killing of cartel kingpin “El Mencho,” records one of the nation’s highest counts of missing people, with 12,500 documented cases.
Now, families who post the fliers to search for loved ones say they face mounting pressure from authorities to erase these reminders ahead of the FIFA World Cup, which Guadalajara will host in June. While clashes between cartels and Mexican forces have slowed search efforts, local lawmakers are advancing proposals that could make it easier to remove the posters entirely.
“They don’t want people coming to the World Cup, people coming from abroad, to see the fliers,” said Carmen Lopez, a woman looking for her brother and nephew, who went missing in two separate incidents. “It’s not in their interest, because they would get their hands dirty. It makes the government look bad in front of the entire world.”
Mexico has nearly 131,000 missing people, enough to fill a small city. Forcibly disappearing people has long been a tactic used by cartels to consolidate control through terror while concealing homicide numbers.
For many, the forced disappearance crisis is emblematic of the lack of justice and deep corruption that continue to permeate Mexico, especially in states like Jalisco.
Families like Lopez’s often take matters into their own hands, organizing searches for bodies and hanging fliers to continue their efforts and put pressure on local authorities.
“Little by little it kills a part of your soul. They don’t only disappear your loved one, but also you as a father, or as a mother along with them,” said Hector Flores, a leader of one of Jalisco’s many search groups, Luz de Esperanza, or Light of Hope.
Flores started hanging fliers in Guadalajara after his 19-year-old son was forcibly disappeared by agents from the Jalisco state prosecutor’s office. The 2021 disappearance was later recognized by a Mexican court, prompting Flores to form a collective of 500 families investigating the disappearances of relatives.
His group goes into the streets of Jalisco’s capital and hangs anywhere from 2,000 to 5,000 fliers every weekend. The signs show the smiling faces of everyone from teenage girls to middle-aged men and provide identifying details like tattoos as well as the date and location of their disappearance.
Search collectives are almost constantly hanging signs because the posters are regularly taken down.
“This is an act of searching in real time, with the hope that people who see these ID cards can provide us with information that will help us locate our families,” Flores said. “It’s also an act of visibility.”
Families now worry they will face more hurdles in the wake of cartel violence this week, which has raised security concerns ahead of the summer’s World Cup.
In December, lawmakers proposed modifications to a bill originally intended to protect the fliers from removal. Local politicians attempted to modify the legislation in a way families fear would prohibit public spaces from being used to hang the posters.
Carmen Lopez, Flores and other relatives say the local government is trying to whitewash the issue of the missing ahead of the global sporting event. They say it follows years of efforts by authorities to downplay the depth of Mexico’s disappearance crisis.
“We’re aware that the city doesn’t look beautiful because of the search IDs, but they’re not trash,” said Lopez, who wore a shirt with the faces of her two missing family members. “But what are we supposed to do? We’re doing everything in our power to find them.”
The modification was pushed by state legislator Norma Lopez, a member of President Claudia Sheinbaum’s Morena party, and several other lawmakers.
The state lawmaker, in an interview with The Associated Press (AP) on Thursday, denied the accusation and said it was a “bad interpretation” of the proposal by search groups and that she wanted to defend families searching for their lost loved ones. She said one of her own relatives also disappeared.
She said if passed, the law would allow posters to be removed from spaces like public universities, the state legislature, the Supreme Court, museums, churches and more without penalty. She said they are already allowed in other places.
“My proposal is not a basis for banning them,” she said. “We are all concerned about what is happening in Jalisco. The disappearances also pain me.”
Mexican authorities have faced scrutiny over Guadalajara’s ability to host World Cup matches.
Sheinbaum vowed this week there is “no risk” for visitors, but on Thursday the Diving World Cup, set to be held in a Guadalajara suburb in March, was canceled over security concerns. Earlier in the week, the Portuguese soccer federation said it was “closely monitoring the delicate situation” ahead of a friendly match against Mexico’s national team in Mexico City.
Meanwhile, some search groups in Jalisco say they have had to suspend investigations into potential clandestine grave sites because Mexico’s federal government temporarily withheld security forces that provide protection to teams due to the violence.
Mexico’s National Search Commission for the Disappeared did not respond to a request for comment.
Flores’ group and others have reported that they have already had to cancel search operations at grave sites around Guadalajara, leaving many feeling justice is even further out of reach.
The tally of missing continues to grow by the hour. Residents in the city passing by signs on their daily commutes rarely take notice.
“Now, it’s just normal,” said Jacinto Gonzalez, 47, strolling by hundreds of signs plastered on a wall Wednesday.
After a few minutes of chatting, he added casually that his sister-in-law went missing six years ago.
DAILYSABAH
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