Two police officers who were carrying out intelligence and investigative work disappeared last Tuesday in the state of Jalisco, the Federal Security Secretariat said on Wednesday in a statement. The agents were traveling in an official car heading to the city of Guadalajara, in the heart of the province, when the authorities lost contact with them. The car was located on Paseo de los Virreyes, located north of Zapopan, just 10 kilometers from the center of the capital, Guadalajara.
The Security Secretariat did not provide further information about the case, nor the identity of the agents, nor the place from which they left. But the agency stated that it maintains constant contact with the Jalisco authorities and that it is working jointly with the Ministry of Defense, the Navy and the Military Guard to locate the two missing police officers. He added, “The families of the members enjoy absolute support and assistance from this institution, which remains keen to provide them with all the necessary support.”
The disappearance of the two agents is a new example of the harsh reality experienced by Jalisco, the region with the largest number of missing persons in the country, 15,983 people, according to state registration data. The cities of Guadalajara (5,289 missing) and Zapopan (3,735 missing) are the two major black spots that increase the horror of this phenomenon in the region. The country is also the one that has accumulated the largest number of unidentified clients, with 84 cases in six years. Of them 42 were killed.
But it is not just a state phenomenon. The footprint of organized crime has led to disappearances becoming one of the country’s biggest concerns. The latest data from the Mexican government shows that there are 133,618 missing people in the country, a number that keeps associations and search groups on alert. The Mexican Institute for Human Rights and Democracy defends that the number of missing people continues to increase, and warns that there is no “clear and strong official response.”