February 27, 2013 -- Updated 1455 GMT (2255 HKT)
More than 26,000 people have gone missing in Mexico over the past six
years as violence surged and the government cracked down on drug
cartels. FULL STORY
February 27, 2013 -- Updated 1300 GMT (2100 HKT)
Ana Maria Maldonado stands by a banner for her missing son during a protestlast November in Mexico City.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Mexico's interior minister says 26,121 people disappeared from 2006-2012
- It's unclear how many of the disappearances are connected with organized crime
- Official: Locating people "is a priority for this government"
Mexico's Interior
Ministry announced the staggering statistic on Tuesday but noted that
authorities don't have data about how many of the disappearances are
connected with organized crime.
The 26,121 disappearances
occurred during former President Felipe Calderon's six-year
administration, which ended on December 1 when Enrique Pena Nieto
assumed the presidency.
Pena Nieto's government
has formed a special working group to focus on finding the missing, said
Lia Limon, deputy secretary of legal matters and human rights for
Mexico's Interior Ministry.
Locating people "is a priority for this government," Limon told reporters.
The release of the government statistics Tuesday comes several days after a report from Human Rights Watch said Mexican security forces were connected with the disappearances of at least 149 people during Calderon's tenure.
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"President Pena Nieto has
inherited one of worst crises of disappearances in the history of Latin
America," Jose Miguel Vivanco, the organization's Americas director,
said in a statement.
In the northern Mexican
state of Coahuila alone, officials reported nearly 2,000 disappearances
between 2006 and 2012, Human Rights Watch said.
Rights groups and
activists have long said that forced disappearances are among the most
troubling problems Mexico faces and have cautioned that reliable
statistics are hard to come by because many such cases are unreported.
Limon said Tuesday that
the data federal authorities have don't specify what caused the
disappearances. She said the list could include people who have
emigrated out of the country or fled because of family conflicts, in
addition to people who were kidnapped.
Authorities will need
several weeks to release data about the number of disappearances since
Pena Nieto took office, she said, due to "inconsistencies" in the data.
Critics have accused Mexico's government of not doing enough to find the missing and punish those responsible.
In many instances,
families frustrated with a sluggish response from authorities have
searched themselves for missing loved ones.
In October 2011,
Calderon said the "very high" number of missing people was a growing
concern. He listed them among the victims of violence that he described
as "open wounds" in Mexican society.
"We don't know the size
of the problem," the president said during a speech inaugurating a new
prosecutor's office aimed at helping victims.
Human Rights Watch said last week that it sees a ray of hope in the new administration.
"The Pena Nieto
government has been very open so far about acknowledging the scale of
the problem and the work that remains for them," said Nik Steinberg, a
Mexico researcher for the organization. "The real question will be: are
they ready to investigate and prosecute these cases?"
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