Over 100,000 people officially missing or disappeared in Mexico

By Claudia Rebaza, Karol Suarez and Aliza Kassim, CNN

Updated 1759 GMT (0159 HKT) May 17, 2022

Activists and mothers whose children have disappeared in Ciudad Juarez on May 8.

(CNN)Mexico has officially registered more than 100,000 people as missing or disappeared, according to data from the Interior Ministry's National Registry of Missing People.

From 1964 to the present day, the country has registered more than 100,023 people missing, of which more than 24,700 are women, and more than 74,700 are men. The gender of 516 people is unknown.

The figure has risen by more than 20,000 people in the past two years alone, according to the data, which was met with outrage and urgent calls for better systems for search and rescue.

Families with disappeared loved ones protest in Mexico City on May 10.

Only 35 of the disappearances recorded have led to the conviction of the perpetrators, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said in a statement Tuesday.