Various social organizations and families of victims marched this week in Mexico City against enforced disappearances and abductions. Their demands focused on ending impunity and investigating public servants accused of the crime. Photo:teleSUR

The march was the final act of the National Campaign Against Enforced Disappearances, marking the International Week of the Detained and Disappeared. Photo:teleSUR

Activists and families of victims carried the images of their disappeared loved ones. The march organizers argue that the crime of forced disappearance has been a practice used by the Mexican state for decades to attack and silence social movement leaders and dissidents. Photo:teleSUR

Since the enforced disappearance of the 43 Ayotzinapa students in September 2014, lawmakers have felt popular pressure to propose a law against the crime of enforced disappearances and the penalties for the crime. Photo:teleSUR

Although it was expected that the law against enforced disappearances would be passed in the Senate in last year’s session, no progress has been made. Activists and families of victims fear the measure will remain stalled in congress, and perhaps not be discussed in future legislative sessions. Photo:teleSUR

Activists have noted that the practice of enforced disappearances has dramatically increased over the course of the past decade since Mexico launched its so-called war on drugs. Activists argue that under the guise of combating organized crime, authorities often target social movement participants. Photo:teleSUR

The case of the disappearance of 2 presumed guerillas, Gabriel Alberto Cruz Sánchez and Edmundo Reyes Amaya in 2007, found its way into federal courts with the pronouncement that the attorney general’s office has the responsibility to investigate and search for the two men at installations of the Mexican Armed Forces. The historic ruling set a precedent for future cases of enforced disappearances, yet this has yet to actually be implemented. Photo:teleSUR

In March the Inter American Commission on Human Rights (CIDH) expressed alarm over the numbers of enforced disapperances in Mexico. The IACHR underscored that in Mexico there are at least 26,700 unsolved cases of disappeared people throughout the country, with “many of those cases being enforced disappearances involving the participation of agents of the state.” Photo:teleSUR