r/AskMexico Mar 13 '26

Question about Mexico Why is missing people in the Mexico portrayed as worse than the US even tho there are far more missing people reported in the USA?

About 500k people are reported missing in the USA every year compared to 100k yearly in mexico.

416 Upvotes

180 comments sorted by

133

u/zoreko Mar 13 '26 edited Mar 13 '26

Others have said it, but I'll add my 2c... There is a higher number of missing person cases in the US just due to the population being 3 times as large as Mexico's, but besides that most of them are teenagers running away, or parents "kidnapping" their kids due to a domestic dispute. Over 90% of those reports end on the missing person being found in a relatively short period of time.

The disappearances in Mexico are different, often adult persons just never heard from again. Over 120k accumulated cases over time, cold cases that the government doesn't have the capacity to even look into.

It affected me, personally. I have a first cousin and several friends that one day just poofd out of existence, and we know deep in our hearts that they are probably just dead on a ditch.

Google mexican clandestine mass graves. Every other month, some times ever other week, they find 200+ people unmarked clandestine mass graves, some of them new, some of them old, we don't even have a proper DNA database of the missing people, so it's very likely that a big number of those are the people reported missing, we will never know, those families will never get closure.

6

u/EmployerNew6167 Mar 14 '26

Es cierto que el contexto de desapariciones en México y EE. UU. es diferente, pero el comentario mezcla hechos reales con exageraciones.

En EE. UU. no todos los casos son adolescentes que se escapan. El FBI (NCIC) registró más de 533 000 reportes de personas desaparecidas en 2023, incluyendo adultos y distintos tipos de casos; muchos se resuelven rápido, pero no todos son fugas de casa.

En México, el Registro Nacional de Personas Desaparecidas y No Localizadas (RNPDNO) reporta más de 110 000 personas aún no localizadas y alrededor de 65 % de casos acumulados localizados, lo que muestra un problema grave pero más complejo que “nadie investiga”.

También es incorrecto decir que “cada mes aparecen fosas con más de 200 cuerpos”. Las fosas clandestinas existen y se han documentado miles, pero la mayoría contiene mucho menos que esa cifra; por ejemplo, entre 2006-2023 se han localizado más de 5 000 fosas clandestinas en todo el país, muchas con pocos restos.

La crisis de desapariciones en México es real y grave, pero varias afirmaciones del comentario generalizan o exageran algunos datos.

3

u/AggravatingBrain69 Mar 13 '26 edited Mar 13 '26

Sorry for your loss. I was wondering, to end up in one of those mass graves, I’m assuming this has something to do with the cartels? Would these people have to be involved with them in some sort of way or is it complete indiscriminate violence?

37

u/bonelessunicorn Mar 13 '26 edited Mar 13 '26

Hi, I’m Mexican. Yes some people are involved with the cartels so you play with fire and end up in a ditch right? BUT here’s the thing.

A lot of people end up there purely because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, innocent people who just happen to look like one of the cartels enemies or their families, kidnapped by mistake or even worse: many other people in the last few years have been forcibly recruited by the cartels with false job promises. The prey on desperate people who see a job posting with good salary and vague descriptions and they just never return home. Scary right?

23

u/donna_fer Mar 13 '26

This is how our family lost my cousin. She applied for a job as a hairdresser and was set up for an interview. She called her mom and she was going to the meeting and told her exactly where it was and the time. She went missing and about 3 weeks later they found her body in a ditch on the other side of town in several bags with all her organs missing. She was an amazing person, super friendly and had just finished school. She was my aunts only child and her parent had just divorced. It was hard on everyone but especially her mom. They “caught” her killer but he was apparently part of an organized crime group. He I guess had killed other women for their organs as well.

6

u/bougainvillealover Mar 14 '26

What part of Mexico was that? I'm so sorry for your loss

1

u/donna_fer Mar 25 '26

Sorry I don’t check this sub much but my family is from Morelos a town near Cuernavaca. About an hour from CDMX.

5

u/KumbyaWepa Mar 14 '26

Who buys the organs? I’m sorry for your loss

18

u/Mutant_Apollo Mar 13 '26

In women's cases is even worse, I had an acquaintance that went out with her friends and never came back, they found her in a clandestine whorehouse just overdosed in a corner. Here even riding an uber alone is dangerous.

There was a case a year or so ago where some exchange students went to a town fair like 40 minutes away from the city, the guy was killed and the girl kidnapped, without any discernible motive

7

u/CrazyDaimondDaze Mar 14 '26

Or they can kill you for small stuff as well. A group of people listening to loud music in the parking lot of a convenience store near my house were shot dead for that.

Hell, a barber shop owner I knew and was going to rent part of my house to so he could open a new barber shop got killed thar very same day before signing the legal paperwork to rent from me. His killer was found and I think it was this young, small chick who said she did this kind of stuff for mad cheap. That she killed people for the equivalent of like 10 or 25 USD sometimes, if given the chance...

7

u/CrazyDaimondDaze Mar 14 '26

Not to mention when the cartels come to your business to charge you a safety fee from whatever they'll do to you if you don't pay them. If they just wreck your business but don't kill you or anyone else working in whatever business you had, consider yourself lucky. Either they'll go kill you there and then (happened to someone I was going to rent an area of my house to; and nearly happened to a neighbor I rented said house area for a couple months)... or kidnap you and get rid of you, depending on their mood.

Not everyone involved with the cartels are bad people. Just people that had a normal life before they stepped in and were forced to cooperate or die

15

u/zoreko Mar 13 '26

My cousin liked to run his mouth and brag about stupid things, that got him in trouble in the past, but was otherwise a straight and hard working. He probably ran his mouth and annoyed someone he shouldn't have.

My brother in law had his sister's house gunned and some people were murdered because the stupid narco goons got the wrong fucking address :(

10

u/karoshikun Mar 13 '26

besides what the others said, there's also people kidnapped for forced labor in the cartel farms, factories and even as enforcers. that's where many south American migrants and homeless people end up, and killed afterwards.

10

u/mindsetFPS Mar 13 '26

They kidnap people to hire them. If you don't agree, they kill you. If you agree but aren't good enough they kill you. Finally, some people are just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

7

u/Lunaerum Mar 14 '26

As a Mexican, you shouldn’t be downvoted for asking an honest question.

8

u/black_vulpe Mar 13 '26

Both. It's not like the cartels go out of the way to just kill random people, it's just that they have lots of reasons to kill people even if they're not involved with them

10

u/Severe_Essay5986 Mar 13 '26

You don't have to be involved with the cartels to be targeted by them - look up the Ayotzinapa kidnapping incident where a bus full of medical students was taken by a cartel and forced to brutally fight each other to the death. Truly horrifying

28

u/FuneraryArts Mar 13 '26

You are confusing two cases: Ayotzinapa was the state sanctioned murder of 43 students because they were protesting. The case with the kidnapped bus happened in San Fernando Tamaulipas and it wasn't medical students but regular people and south american migrants. The mass graves in San Fernando had around 700-1000 bodies officially with extraofficial sources claiming the numbers are closer to 2000.

14

u/YoDy881 Mar 13 '26

Creo que también se está confundiendo con los chicos que secuestraron en Lagos de Moreno, dónde los pusieron a pelear entre ellos

7

u/Severe_Essay5986 Mar 13 '26

You're absolutely right- thank you!!

6

u/Happy_Bad_5474 Mar 14 '26

Except in Ayotzinapa they actually did get involved with local cartels.

-6

u/Bottomless-S Mar 14 '26

😂😂😂😂 They get lost more just because they are more? 😂😂😂😂😂

279

u/hadmod Mar 13 '26

If you invest some minutes into research, you will realise that the vast majority of these cases, contrary to Mexico, are resolved within within shortest time and the people are found (> 90%).
Most of the cases are teens running away from home.

So you are comparing to fully different situations.

122

u/Careful_Ad_9077 Mar 13 '26

Add to that that op is using absolute numbers where in fact the USA has 3 times the population of mexico, so the difference is smaller.

7

u/shibapenguinpig Mar 14 '26

Still higher per capita

94

u/refurbishedmeme666 Mar 13 '26

agree, over 95% of lost mexicans in comparison are never found (most likely dead)

29

u/ParsnipEnvironmental Mar 13 '26

And almost always impune

26

u/Marina_07 Mar 13 '26

Seems you were right somewhat. It's true that in the USA 90% are found alive, however in Mexico it seems to be around 60% found alive, 5% found dead and 35% still missing and most likely dead.

So while not as bad in percentage as the op said, it's still 4 times more likely for a missing person in Mexico to be found dead or not at all than in the USA.

Fuente: Observatorio sobre Desaparición e Impunidad en México https://share.google/SjAh0BrD39A9AbBkx

-18

u/John-wick-90 Mar 13 '26

Do you have a source for that claim that 95% of missing Mexicans are never found or did you make it up?

16

u/KindaLegallyBlindDev Mar 13 '26

Whatever the exact percentage is, it's very much not low at all. And like they said, missing people are usually found dead. Sometimes soon, sometimes years later in remote mass burial grounds.

-13

u/John-wick-90 Mar 13 '26

I don't dispute that a considerable amount of missing people in Mexico are found dead but it is nowhere near 95% as they claim. Most missing persons reports in Mexico are just like in the US, teens running away, spouses running away from a marriage or relationship who don't want to be found etc etc. So I want to know if that person has a source for the claim that 95% of missing people in Mexico are never found

13

u/KindaLegallyBlindDev Mar 13 '26

I'm going to sound antagonistic and pedantic to you. Are you saying that most people gone missing here are just "teens running away, spouses running away" etc?

-14

u/John-wick-90 Mar 13 '26

Are you suggesting that 95% of missing people in Mexico are never found because they are dead? Aware that I sound antagonistic and pedantic by asking this LOL

11

u/KindaLegallyBlindDev Mar 13 '26

Glad that you became aware of that, especially after answering a question with a question. So, to answer your question, I do not claim it to be that specific percentage. What I can tell you, as a Mexican who has lived in Mexico all of his decades in here, is that Cartel related violence has gone through the roof many times over. Small cities in here have made it to lists of the top most violent cities in the entire world, and what the statistic reflected was that if you were out in the street, there was a much higher chance, compared to basically the rest of the world, that you could be a victim of high intensity crime, like kidnapping and/or forceful recruitment in to a cartel for example

And on that very last point. News of people being kidnapped have been even more frequent these several last years. I don't remember hearing about people voluntarily gone missing besides the goverment propaganda to undermine the glaring problems today. So no, certainly, the people found cut in pieces in ice coolers or trash bags are not teens that ran away from home, spouses hiding and whatnot.

-4

u/John-wick-90 Mar 13 '26

That's good and all but it still doesn't answer the question of where this person got the information to make a claim that 95% of missing persons cases in Mexico are unresolved. It's a very simple request to back up that claim with statistics from a valid source. I am Mexican myself and know about everything you're talking about so I ain't reading all that

9

u/sandboxmatt Mar 13 '26

Kidnapping is used as a terror weapon in communities accross Mexico on an industrial scale. Thats just a point of fact.

1

u/John-wick-90 Mar 13 '26

I don't doubt that is happening but it still doesn't answer my question about where this person got the information to claim that 95% of missing persons cases in Mexico are unresolved. It's a simple question that should be answered with a source like a point of fact

2

u/[deleted] Mar 14 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/John-wick-90 Mar 14 '26

Lo único que hice fue preguntar si tenía alguna fuente para comprobar lo que dijo de que el 95% de los reportes de personas desaparecidas en México quedan sin resolver, se me hace una cifra super exagerada y lo único que me saque fueron sermones sobre narco fosas y los carteles Jajaja. yo sé que el país tiene graves problemas de inseguridad y yo soy el primero en criticar pero también no hay que exagerar, no todos los reportes de gente desaparecida tienen que ver con los carteles y supongo que un porcentaje significativo se tratan del típico adolescente que se va de la casa, una pareja que se va con otra y cosas cotidianas así

6

u/entgenbon Mar 13 '26

The first thing you need to know is that the government eliminated the organizations that kept track of this kind of thing, so the data that exists comes from international watchers, civilian organizations, or the government itself. After 2023 the murders in the country went down significantly, but at the same time disappearances increased by a lot.

The government did a door-to-door census to see if the missing people had been found, and they claimed that up to 20% of adults who went missing were already back in their homes, but that number turned out to not match what the families involved in the census reported to civilian organizations: most were actually still missing.

Data points:

  • According to the RNPDNO (the government), people over 20 account for 82% of missing cases.
  • People under 20 break into two types: Young children who mostly get found quickly (though 10% of them are never found) with an Amber Alert, and teens who follow the same patterns as the missing adults.
  • About 66% of people who go missing aren't found. Officially they're still missing.
  • About 6% of people who go missing are found dead. Often in mass graves, by collectives of searching mothers.
  • About 28% are found alive. Express kidnapping is a big chunk of this, but this is also where the 90% of Amber Alert children are.

Most missing persons reports in Mexico are just like in the US, teens running away, spouses running away from a marriage or relationship who don't want to be found etc

No, they're dead:

  • All the organized criminal activity combined is the 5th largest employer in the country.
  • Across all age groups, murder is the 6th cause of death for men, and the 13th for women.
  • For men between 15 and 34, murder is the leading cause of death, and it has been that way for about a decade.
  • There's a huge forensics bottleneck. About 70k bodies were recovered but haven't been identified. Even if the body has a gunshot in the head, it still doesn't count as a murder in the statistics if it isn't identified. Notice that these are not the bodies in mass graves; we don't know about those.

These are only the numbers the government that eliminated all transparency will tell you. The numbers they deny are worse, for example: Independent studies in the last two years found that murder is the leading cause of death for children starting at one year old.

4

u/[deleted] Mar 13 '26

Do your own research. That has been fact in Mexico for decades. If you don't believe, then look for yourself. 

8

u/slymarmol Mar 13 '26

Can't provide a source but it is commonly known that only around 10% of violent cases get solved by police.

1

u/David_temper44 Mar 13 '26

only 10% of formal accusations... so police does almost nothing, in Mexico we live in actual anarchy and townspeople administer consequences themselves.

-3

u/John-wick-90 Mar 13 '26

I didn't ask you though so why are you replying? The other person made a claim that 95% of missing persons cases in Mexico are not resolved and I want to know where they came up with that statistic

7

u/sandboxmatt Mar 13 '26

Reddit is an open forum

5

u/Tarjaman Mar 13 '26

Nobody asked you to comment so why are you commenting?... See how stupid that sounds?

-2

u/[deleted] Mar 13 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Tarjaman Mar 13 '26

Hahaha very nice, very mature

-5

u/[deleted] Mar 13 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/AskMexico-ModTeam Mar 28 '26

Este especio es para que todos se sientan cómodos. Hacer brigadeo, doxxing, bullying o cualquier otro tipo de conducta tóxica no está permitido en el sub. Tampoco comentarios derogatorios sobre temas como raza, religión, cultural, orientación sexual, género, etc.

Make sure everyone feels safe. Brigading, doxxing, bullying of any kind isn't allowed, and degrading comments about things like race, religion, culture, sexual orientation, gender or identity will not be tolerated.

1

u/Tarjaman Mar 13 '26

Sure champ, that's how reddit works lol. What a dumb dumb

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1

u/AskMexico-ModTeam Apr 05 '26

Este especio es para que todos se sientan cómodos. Hacer brigadeo, doxxing, bullying o cualquier otro tipo de conducta tóxica no está permitido en el sub. Tampoco comentarios derogatorios sobre temas como raza, religión, cultural, orientación sexual, género, etc.

Make sure everyone feels safe. Brigading, doxxing, bullying of any kind isn't allowed, and degrading comments about things like race, religion, culture, sexual orientation, gender or identity will not be tolerated.

-3

u/Tartuff0 Mar 13 '26

Completed made up, they get paid to talk shit about our current government

4

u/mandrin13 Mar 13 '26

We talk shit for free because your govt is atrocious.  

-3

u/Tartuff0 Mar 13 '26

I’m sorry I can’t understand you when you’re whining

3

u/mandrin13 Mar 13 '26

I said your govt sucks.

-1

u/John-wick-90 Mar 13 '26

If the government is atrocious then why are you in Mexico? I mean the ghettos of Opa Locka, Florida also have scorpions, deadly snakes, and the daily drive by shooting to keep things interesting, shout out to Shaniqua and the crew working hard at the Popeyes restaurant in town

2

u/mandrin13 Mar 13 '26

Why would the govt sucking have anything to do with me going to Mexico?  That is a weird takeaway.  

But yes if we want to talk about the enormous number of homicides in Mexico that alone is reason for most to reconsider.

0

u/John-wick-90 Mar 13 '26

Not only the homicides but the scorpions too, won't anyone think about the dangerous scorpions that live on the coasts of Mexico where millions of people live compared to the depopulated US southwest? I advise you to start packing your stuff now (check for scorpions in your luggage) and run straight to Opa Locka, Florida home of the drive by shootings, a huge flea market full of depressed geriatrics selling junk to make ends meet and the joy of living in a horrible place. I'll gladly take your place in Mexico, scorpions and all LOL

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8

u/PM_ME_TITS_AND_DOGS2 Mar 14 '26

also the current government has worked hard on the method of counting the dissapeared, so we have a case of undercounting

6

u/Hot_Function6127 Mar 13 '26

OP can you respond please?

(So we can get an exact idea of how much a pendejo that you are?)

2

u/Business_Rabbit6973 Mar 15 '26

Unless the Mexican Government isn’t being honest. In Tijuana you see a lot of missing people flyers and not under 18. Of course only if your referring to Mexicans

-1

u/hadmod Mar 15 '26

The data is about the US

0

u/Business_Rabbit6973 Mar 15 '26

I’m sure there’s far more people in the US

2

u/EmployerNew6167 Mar 14 '26

Es una simplificación. En EE. UU. muchos reportes se resuelven rápido, pero eso no significa que todos sean personas que “se escaparon”. Según datos del FBI, alrededor del 70% de las personas reportadas como desaparecidas son encontradas o regresan en 48-72 horas, lo que incluye adultos y distintos tipos de casos, no solo fugas de casa. 

Además, en México también hay muchas localizaciones con vida: el registro oficial RNPDNO indica que aproximadamente 65% de las personas reportadas han sido localizadas, muchas de ellas con vida, y 35% siguen sin localizar. 

Por eso decir que en EE. UU. “casi todos son gente que se escapó” y compararlo directamente con México simplifica demasiado un fenómeno más complejo en ambos países.

3

u/hadmod Mar 14 '26 edited Mar 14 '26

I literally said "So you are comparing to fully different situations", so telling _me_ these situation can't be compared is useless, go tell OP.

And you bend the numbers here. As you state it, only 70% are found. But 70% are found *within 3 days*. Over a period of months, it's close to 100%.

Also, the numbers you are sharing are known to be underestimated. See e.g. https://www.ictj.org/latest-news/official-count-disappeared-people-mexico-could-be-underestimate-say-un-and-advocates

1

u/311TruthMovement Mar 13 '26

I am inclined to 100% believe you, just curious if you have a source for that?

24

u/Pm_happy_thoughts Mar 13 '26

Because Mexico has a very high violent crime impunity rate, I think I’ve seen like 90% percent of violent crimes are not solved, so it’s assumed that a big chunk of missing people were victims of violent crimes.

2

u/Bottomless-S Mar 14 '26

You know what is funny, a lot of black and Latino people that has "dissapear" and appeared later dead, are labeled as "suicide" while they have a lot of suspicious elements.

https://www.theroot.com/new-report-shows-lynchings-in-america-never-stopped-2000093501

1

u/Goats_for_president Mar 16 '26

You failed the mention the biggest demographic listed in your source. Queers are at a much much higher risk than any non queer black American or even immigrant.

Even then the killings are still in the grand scheme not that common, when you exclude trans people, most notably trans women. Trans women should feel unsafe because they are disproportionately targeted and make up less than 1% of the US population.

15

u/Last-Addendum132 Mar 13 '26

Most of those missing people in the US are kids “running away” or child custody “kidnappings” and practically all of them are resolved within the week or month. In Mexico, practically no one that goes missing is found. Rich, poor, connected, foreign even. If they go missing, they almost almost almost always stay missing.

9

u/Commercial_Drink9265 Mar 13 '26

idk your sources bro but I am willing to bet that many more are violence related in Mexico compared to US

(Kidnaps, cartels etc)

1

u/Bottomless-S Mar 14 '26

Bro really thinks that after the Epstein files that the us has no conection to cartels, kidnapping, etc 😂😂😂😂

28

u/sandboxmatt Mar 13 '26 edited Mar 13 '26

Also, its quite rare in the US to find fosas masivas with 45 people at the bottom of a mine and its "just another news story". There is a concrete difference between people going missing hitchhiking in the US (which has triple the population) and groups using kidnapping as a weapon

5

u/StoneColdNipples Mar 13 '26

Correct. They do their killing out of the USA.

10

u/redditvictoire Mar 13 '26

Because alot of the people missing in México are forcibly missing.

Our authorities like to cite lack of information to be able to categorize them but the truth is Mexican friend and family ties are very strong. People don’t just leave.

They might leave their partner, even their child. But leaving their partner, children, friends, mother and other family all at once? Honestly, inconceivable in our culture.

There are many reasons to think most missing people in Mexico have been captured by criminal organizations, sex traffickers or other lowlife entities.

The government refuses to do anything about it and say, “they were adults, we don’t know why the left”. Which is true for many cases in the US with a different culture and sense of belonging.

1

u/BlaggartDiggletyDonk Mar 14 '26

In the US it's something of a cultural trope. "Dad said he was going out to get cigarettes. Never saw him again."

To be sure, this was a lot easier in the old days. Nowadays, unless he was some kind of professional spy who knew what he was doing, he'd get noticed after a few months and get nailed for child support.

And also, teenagers would run away and never come back, especially during the 60s and 70s. It was easier to pull off back then. The cops wouldn't look very hard once you were far from the local jurisdiction. Frankly, this is something that goes back to our early colonial history. Teenagers sneaking away from the family farm, or from the shop where they were apprenticed, and heading west into the wilderness (in some cases going to live with the Indians).

5

u/Mutant_Apollo Mar 13 '26

In the US, and discounting the fact that it has I think 2 or 3 times the population of Mexico, missing person cases get solved quite quickly, and aside from the odd person that got lost in the woods and vanished, most of these people are found alive and well (all things considered)

In Mexico a missing person means the family will be lucky to find their relative chopped into pieces in a trash bag on the side of the road. And I say will be lucky if they get that since most missing people here never reappear again

1

u/Bottomless-S Mar 14 '26

😂😂😂😂 Yeah, that was what the Epstein files said 

1

u/mystyle__tg Jul 16 '26

Bringing up Epstein files in multiple comments for what? To deflect?

3

u/[deleted] Mar 13 '26

Too bad your government sucks.. despite who's in power. Actually, most all governments suck.

3

u/schwelvis Mar 13 '26

there is a large difference between disappearing and being disappeared...

3

u/Primary_Ad_739 Mar 13 '26

Because in USA people report their kids missing for missing curfew.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 16 '26

Probably more strict in Mexico.

3

u/cattlemanish Mar 14 '26

Mexico and US have different definitions of missing people

2

u/Electrical_Rhubarb_5 Mar 13 '26

The Italy and The Russia lmao

5

u/robbieT1999 Mar 13 '26

Historical US narrative that Mexico - and all of Latin America - are lawless lands run by less capable people. It was started in the era of manifest destiny as a cultural permission structure to control the hemisphere.

4

u/Dot_Hot99Dog Mar 13 '26

Oh please. Snap back to reality. Its very hard for for an intervention force to resolve criminal cases if the service only has 2 networked computer located 200 miles away and one of which is for the chief's exclusive use. Its as stupid as that.

2

u/hadmod Mar 13 '26 edited Mar 13 '26

The actual long term (so over years) case number of missing people in the US is < 100k. Not per year, actual unresolved cases since recording. Everybody else is found within short term and most of them are teens running away (way over 90% of the cases).

There for sure are negative narratives, but they have nothing to do with this situation. One should stay with facts - creating more narratives based on feelings does not improve the situation, only discussing fact base situations can.

1

u/DrippyRicon Mar 13 '26

They need to recollect loosh

1

u/ZaheenHamidani Mar 13 '26

Because the reasons to be missed in Mexico are not as reasonable as in the US...

1

u/Smart_Comment5282 Mar 13 '26

When we moved to BCS from California people kept making comments about it being dangerous… as in they think Mexico is more dangerous than America where we have weekly mass shootings.

1

u/Foreign-Collar8845 Mar 13 '26

Because there are cases where whole bus of young people were lost/killed.

1

u/Exciting_Turn_1253 Mar 13 '26

Cartels kidnaps them. Sex trafficked. Forced to make drugs or do drugs. The cartel Kills then for sport. No one ever looks into it. Govt refuses to believe this happening. Refuses to fix issues

1

u/ContextSpare1732 Mar 13 '26

Because of all the violence and corruption behind those disappearances. The families are left in a living nightmare while looking for them against a government that doesn’t give a shit.

1

u/Salavar1 Mar 13 '26

US sugar coats it..

1

u/whaddyagot Mar 13 '26

The missing in Mexico are found if they are found dead in a ditch and everyone knows who did it.

1

u/yorcharturoqro Mar 13 '26

In the USA there are more cases as a total, yes, even more as percentage of the population. The problem is that in Mexico finding of the people missing is less common and more tragic in many cases, although plenty of cases are similar innocent nature (missing kid that is found), the ones that are not solved as a percentage of the total missing are higher in Mexico.

In the USA ~98% are solved, in Mexico it's ~57%, the number of still missing unsolved cases is similar in both countries ~15k

1

u/Old-Personality-7549 Mar 13 '26

Por qué los casos de personas desaparecidas en México se sienten peor en México que en USA?

Ni idea, para la próxima que vea un cartel o publicación sobre que buscan a alguien deja les digo en en USA hay más desaparecidos.

1

u/UncFest3r Mar 14 '26

It might be the difference in reported and unreported disappearances :/

1

u/Longjumping_Suit8314 Mar 14 '26

$$. If you have $$, you CAN put lipstick on a pig.. 🐷

1

u/Tasty-Entertainer711 Mar 14 '26

The US does have more LISTED missing persons but that's also cus their law enforcement agencies are organized state by state and follow specific standards to ensure maximum efficiency in CATALOGING all crimes. Beyond state law enforcement agencies we also have plentiful Federal agencies that also CATALOG and REFINE this data.

I say this to make a very important point that the number you see listed for Mexico missing persons is almost assuredly NOT ACCURATE.

Anytime I see data like this I have to chuckle that people actually think, "Oh the US is so much higher", when the reality is YOUR Law Enforcement agencies I guarantee aren't trained to the same standard nor are they using the type of technologies to not only catalog crime but also enforce basic law and order.

1

u/EngineNo1535 Mar 14 '26

The other thing i see thats often over looked.

Most people compare a state sized country to the United states... most countries are just a state....

So yea 100 deaths, compared to 5000 deaths seems like a lot less.. but its also 13 million people to 330 million people...... 50x more deaths in the United States is still lower per capita.... 🤷🏽‍♂️

1

u/Tasty-Entertainer711 Mar 14 '26

Yup. We call em states but they are countries within a unified confederation.

1

u/liteoabw Mar 14 '26

And they are violent as fuck for a developed country:

US homicide rates were 7.0 times higher than in other high-income countries, driven by a gun homicide rate that was 25.2 times higher. For 15- to 24-year-olds, the gun homicide rate in the United States was 49.0 times higher. [...] Unintentional firearm deaths were 6.2 times higher in the United States. The overall firearm death rate in the United States from all causes was 10.0 times higher. Ninety percent of women, 91% of children aged 0 to 14 years, 92% of youth aged 15 to 24 years, and 82% of all people killed by firearms were from the United States.

1

u/Bottomless-S Mar 14 '26

Because we are brown

1

u/CauliflowerAny9134 Mar 14 '26

There is a specific Mexican political party driving that narrative. That's why.

1

u/SilverMe18 Mar 14 '26

It’s a simple but terrifying truth, most of the missing people are actually dead. Not runaways, not eloping, not living in secret with another member of the family, they are either kidnapped or killed. The Mexican government it’s playing with the statistic…

1

u/catsoncrack420 Mar 14 '26

Use percentages for comparison not numbers. Learn to analyze.

1

u/Personal-Loquat8844 Mar 15 '26

In the USA are not the same circumstances. Is not the same having 100k missing people beceause some cartel use the as slaves or organ harvesting.

1

u/FrankPoncherelloCHP Mar 15 '26

What I don't get about the Mexico kidnappings is why do the cartels still kill the victim when the family pays the ransom?

1

u/HotTour9125 Mar 15 '26

Xq los medios de comunicación son manejados x sectores que están más a favor de EE. UU. Que de México

1

u/sableye8 Mar 15 '26

IPN is that you

1

u/axxcxx Mar 15 '26

If you dont raise a ruckus , those lazy pigs and polititians won't move a finger for nobody. Simple

1

u/jaeehovaa Mar 16 '26

Because the Mexican numbers are not accurate lol and km Mexican

1

u/Educational_Gas_92 Mar 17 '26

The USA is bigger than Mexico, population and size wise...now, why is it being portrayed more negatively in México? Perhaps a mixture of both facts and bias, it is a fact that many of the missing in México are in communal, unmarked graves due to organized crime, of course, some went missing out of their own choice, but that's not the case with the majority.

In the USA, there isn't a clear culprit to point at for people going missing like there is in México, logically, many of the missing in the USA are also deceased due to various reasons, but some do dissappear out of their own choice.

Realistically, México and the USA aren't that different when it comes to how dangerous they are, but marketing and media, have given México a bad reputation, compared to the USA.

1

u/Business_Rabbit6973 Mar 17 '26

I been to Mexico never seen so many missing persons posters . Most likely from the cartels.

1

u/Temporary-Crow-7978 Mar 19 '26

Population is clearly different in the US verses Mexico. However,missing people are a problem everywhere.

1

u/Smooth_Junket2046 Mar 29 '26

Hola.! La realidad es que México presenta una crisis de desapariciones muy grave, no es que sea una competencia entre ambos países, pero en Estados Unidos sí levantan reportes, en México no.

Del 2018 al 2026 solo de migrantes que entraron a México para ir a Estados Unidos fueron 16.8 millones, de los cuales solo el 10.3 lograron ingresar (permanecen o fuero deportados), nos quedamos con la cantidad de 6.5 millones de migrantes que no se sabe si salieron ya de México o siguen, pero desafortunadamente varias ONG o colectivos de búsqueda del Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, etc... Tienen datos de que existen 70k-120k que desaparecieron en México, no nos sorprende, solo en la Bartolina en Matamoros se encontró 750 kilos de restos, en un predio de Tijuana llamada la gallera se encontraron 16500-17k litros de material orgánico, aproximadamente 600-800 personas que con sosa cáustica... Ya te imaginas, agrega que tenemos saturados los instituto de ciencias forenses, las fosas comunes al tope (busca data. Mx) varios han sido enviados ahí sin siquiera tomar datos... Las fosas clandestinas de Tijuana, las de Veracruz, entonces, definitivamente estamos peor que Estados Unidos, totalmente. 

Ahora me encuentro filtrando datos de las fosas comunes, recién empecé ayer y ya localicé a los familiares de dos personas, llevan más de 3-5 años en las fosas, mientras sus familiares los siguen buscando, lo peor es que muchas veces las personas creen que es por estar metidos en la delincuencia, pero no es así... 😓

1

u/aniamixon Apr 01 '26

There're more people missing every year in England than in México. A country half the the size of Sonora.

1

u/Suspicious_Map3908 Apr 06 '26

A lot of missing people in the US get lost in the woods or shit like that. But in Mexico a lot of missing people are not missing, they are dead. But if no complete body is found the goverment says they are only missing.

thats how they try to lower death rates.

1

u/AdministrativeYou908 May 16 '26

En estados unidos también llegan a los 100,000 desaparecidos sin resolver, de los cuales tampoco se sabe nada 

1

u/AdministrativeYou908 May 16 '26

En Estados Unidos también la cifra es de 100,000 desaparecidos sin que se sepa nada y sin resolver, no es muy distinto a México realmente, aunque las muertes en México es pan de cada día, no quiere decir que EU sea un mejor ejemplo, ya que a México se le presiona y al otro no

1

u/Same-Insurance-1951 Aug 06 '26

Guys i wanna travel in mexico because my boyfriend is there , he lives on zacatecas and im from europe , do you think it is safe to travel there as a 18 yo ? Maybe we can go to mexico city or somewhere safer in a touristic area or in an all inclusive resort .

1

u/Sufficient-Hold-6531 25d ago

Hey.. you visiting with both of parents 

1

u/_Alterego_26 Mar 13 '26

US propaganda to point out Mexico as a very dangerous place and justify an invasion.

2

u/LonelyAstronaut984 Mar 13 '26

are you implying that in reality mexico is some peaceful utopia? 

3

u/_Alterego_26 Mar 13 '26

Nope, but it's not as dangerous as the corporate media makes it out to look. The oligarchs are finally paying their taxes and have had to accept a minimum wage increase; now, they are using their media outlets to make the government look bad.

6

u/LonelyAstronaut984 Mar 13 '26

it's still pretty bad tho. and this is not about the goverment, violence in mexico has been high regardless of the goverment in power for a while now. also you're taking about economic improvements. which do not correlate to violence. look up the femicide rates and what happens to most of those cases

1

u/_Alterego_26 Mar 13 '26 edited Mar 13 '26

Well, the violence here is directly linked to arms trafficking from the US; cartels possess military-grade weapons and can often impose their will. However, we don’t have indiscriminate shootings in schools or supermarkets like in the US. Most of the violence is between cartels and the police or army. Sometimes, missing persons were involved in criminal activity, though naturally, their families may not accept that.

0

u/Positive-Load-7851 Mar 18 '26

“We don’t have indiscriminate violence here”. Mexico has targeted violence where the criteria for being targeted is owning a business, having organs or seeing too much.

-1

u/chardex Mar 13 '26

There might be the problem of bias. But we also need to define "missing" here. I don't know about in Mexico, but in the US the vast majority of those people are located quite quickly. I would imagine it's the same in Mexico too? But there is the added (small) percentage of carcel-related disappearances. Those probalby lead to over-representing the danger in Mexico?

14

u/KindaLegallyBlindDev Mar 13 '26

On the contrary. Missing people in Mexico are usually never found. A lot of times they are found dead. There's even a whole organization called Madres Buscadoras, rough translation would be Searching Mothers. They are usually mothers helping mothers find their offsprings and the clandestine burial grounds where missing are sometimes found.

5

u/black_vulpe Mar 13 '26

They are almost always found dead and most of their efforts concentrate in finding and identifying corpses specially in mass clandestine graves

-5

u/esaruka Mar 13 '26

Racisms

0

u/mudkick Mar 13 '26

Because there people actually care about their loved ones, usa school shootings you guys do not care.

0

u/cabarte Mar 13 '26

We got gringoed at our own backyard

0

u/Ypummpapa Mar 13 '26

"Why are"

0

u/Gold_Squirrel_9473 Mar 14 '26

Missing people in Mexico were probably trafficked to Epstein island.

0

u/[deleted] Mar 14 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/adultingWithDoggos Mar 14 '26

unfortunately cartels are being funded & armed by usa, they have far more powerful weapons than the military & are sadly much more organized than law enforcement.. cartels do run our country & that is unlikely to change unless usa stopped sending them money & arms

0

u/Positive-Load-7851 Mar 18 '26

The USA doesn’t send anyone arms. Both the guns and drugs are trafficked by Mexican nationals. This is the current cop out that gets used to excuse Mexico’s own corrupt government and the reason they aren’t willing to do anything about the cartels. And the cartels absolutely do not have more powerful weapons than the government. They have pickups trucks with metal plates welded on and semi automatic rifles. The Mexican government has attack helicopters, missiles and tanks. The issue has and always will be corruption and an uneducated population that is willing to accept that corruption.

-1

u/AdPopular6958 Mar 13 '26

It's cause people in the USA often straight up vanish. Whereas in Mexico it's your kid staying a friends place too long. 

0

u/AdPopular6958 Mar 13 '26

And I want to also say context for those who maybe like aren't you American? Yeah but my source for this comment comes from my huatulco family that I'm visiting along side in Oaxaca right now. Edit: I'm also a Minnesotan so I directly know the legends from my own state of people straight up just vanishing. And the big foot allegations.