Dozens of mothers and advocates representing Mexico's many collectives of missing persons took to the streets of Mexico City on Mother's Day, not to celebrate but to demand justice. For the 13th year in a row, the Marcha de la Dignidad Nacional called on the federal government to stop the violence against search efforts and to confront the country's crisis of forced disappearances.
Chanting "¿Dónde están? ¡Nuestros hijos, dónde están?", the marchers made their way along Paseo de la Reforma—from the Monument to Mothers to the emblematic Angel of Independence—bearing photos of the children they've spent years trying to find. Their message: they are not giving up, and the state must stop turning a blind eye.
In recent years, search group volunteers searching for disappeared people in Mexico have faced surveillance, harassment, and threats—often from authorities themselves, they allege. Most recently, a mother and her son were killed after their search group uncovered a clandestine gravesite with at least 50 bodies in the state of Jalisco. Other search group members were reportedly attacked as well.
The recent incidents, which have been broadcasted on social media by search group members despite threats directed at them have shone a spotlight on the ruthless tactics of violent criminal groups in a country where more than 120,000 people are missing.
On May 10, the date Mother's Day is observed in Mexico, several groups also held vigils outside the National Palace and at the Monument to Mothers to call attention to femicides and government inaction.
The United Nations Human Rights Office in Mexico acknowledged the day with a message of solidarity, honoring the mothers who have become advocates, investigators, and public voices in the face of institutional silence. "The strength of these women," the UN wrote, "shines a light on one of the country's darkest human rights crises."
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