The faces of Mexico’s disappeared now line the streets of Guadalajara, the country’s second-largest city.
Thousands of fliers bearing messages like “We miss you,” “Have you seen her?” and “We’re looking for you” cover buildings, monuments, lamp posts, parking meters, tree pots and bus stops.
Workers weave through them in the bustling city center. Men play basketball on courts framed by the posters, while a steady stream of cars passes by daily.
These fliers have become part of life in Jalisco, the state at the heart of Mexico’s forced disappearance crisis. The region, already reeling from an outbreak of violence Sunday after the killing of cartel kingpin “El Mencho,” records one of the nation’s highest counts of missing people, with 12,500 documented cases.
Now, families who post the fliers to search for loved ones say they face mounting pressure from authorities to erase these reminders ahead of the FIFA World Cup, which Guadalajara will host in June. While clashes between cartels and Mexican forces have slowed search efforts, local lawmakers are advancing proposals that could make it easier to remove the posters entirely.
