Nothing, that is, except the old shovels, picks, rakes, and rods that relatives bring to the searches. Searches that are becoming commonplace around the country. The families say they\u2019ve been left to do this alone. They\u2019ve all but given up hope that authorities will help.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese disappearances shouldn\u2019t exist,\u201d says Vanessa Gamez, mother of Ana Ameli, who disappeared on July 12, 2025, while on a hiking trip. \u201cWe know that there is crime in any country. But a disappearance is one of the most terrible crimes imaginable.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Vanessa Gamez, wearing a purple backpack, looks on as the search group moves through the Ajusco mountains.<\/p>\n
Photo by Angelo Claure<\/p>\n
An uncomfortable reminder of the missing<\/p>\n
As Mexicans throughout the borderlands and beyond look to their homeland as it hosts a series of public festivals and World Cup matches \u2014 an event drawing millions of fans from around the world \u2014 the mothers searching for their missing children say they won\u2019t be forgotten or ignored. Madres Buscadoras (Searching Mothers) \u2013 one of the 250 or so collectives of families \u2013 plan a mass protest outside Mexico City\u2019s Banorte Stadium, the former Azteca Stadium, during the inaugural game on June 11.<\/p>\n
In the run-up to the opening match between the Mexican and South African national teams, workers at Banorte Stadium and other key infrastructure projects \u2014 including Mexico City\u2019s main airport \u2014 race to complete renovations funded by government and private investments.<\/p>\n
Gamez, one of the protest organizers, expects thousands of demonstrators to gather outside the stadium, carrying placards and photos of their missing loved ones. She has spent almost a year searching for her daughter and demanding answers from authorities.<\/p>\n
A void where there should be answers<\/p>\n
Ana Ameli<\/a> was a 19-year-old biology student at the Autonomous University of Mexico, the nation\u2019s largest public university. She had recently decided to study physical therapy and fulfill a dream of helping people. According to her family, she vanished last year during a summertime hike up to the Pico del \u00c1guila, the Ajusco range\u2019s dominant mountain, rising 12,800 feet above sea level. The peak\u2019s sweeping views of Mexico City and the nearby Iztacc\u00edhuatl and Popocat\u00e9petl volcanoes are irresistible to hikers.<\/p>\n Her friends were supposed to meet her at the mountain, but didn\u2019t show up. Her family believes Ameli decided to ascend alone and eventually reached the summit, where she sent her father photographs of herself smiling, enjoying the view, and of people she had met along the way. She is thought to have descended alone. She has not been seen since.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t know if she\u2019s being violated, we don\u2019t know what conditions she\u2019s in, if she\u2019s dead or not, it\u2019s terrible, it’s inhumane,\u201d Gamez says.<\/p>\n A forensic investigator examines soil in the Ajusco mountain range for possible signs of human remains.\u00a0<\/p>\n Photo by Angelo Claure<\/p>\n Left alone to search and grieve<\/p>\n One of Mexico City\u2019s largest searching collectives, Una Luz En El Camino \u2013 A Light On The Path \u2013 was founded in 2021 by Jacqueline Palmeros, after the disappearance of her 21-year-old daughter, Jael Monserrat Uribe<\/a>.<\/p>\n As she began searching, Palmeros says, she quickly realized the government\u2019s support would be unreliable.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was a system that was negligent, omissive, indolent, and corrupt,\u201d Palmeros says. \u201cIt didn\u2019t work for the search and rescue of missing people in Mexico City, nor for the whole country\u201d.<\/p>\n After years of conducting her own investigation and participating in searches, Palmeros found her daughter. All that remained was her skull and two fragments of vertebrae, found in the same Ajusco range where Ameli\u2019s grandmother and search collectives continue combing the terrain.<\/p>\n The parents of Olin Vargas Ojeda, who disappeared in Ajusco on Nov. 26, 2024, described what they call a maze of bureaucratic failures involving multiple levels of government. They say they were repeatedly sent from one office to another \u2014 from local authorities to federal agencies \u2014 while crucial information about their son\u2019s case was missing or mishandled.<\/p>\n Police initially told the family they had found nothing in Vargas\u2019s phone or laptop. But after his belongings were returned, the family hired an independent cybersecurity specialist who uncovered crucial conversations on both devices that they believe could have identified people connected to his disappearance.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we find is that in every case the same thing happens,\u201d Vargas\u2019s father said. \u201cWe are left with police who have no investigative training and prosecutors who also aren\u2019t prepared, unaware of the law and protocol of immediate searches.\u201d<\/p>\n His family insists there were immediate signs of foul play in Vargas\u2019 disappearance. He had driven to Ajusco to meet a friend he hadn\u2019t seen in years. Investigators later found a blood-stained piece of his T-shirt and the family truck crashed against rocks. His parents believe he was lured to the mountainside and tried to escape.<\/p>\n According to the family, police told them someone had contacted them demanding six million pesos \u2013 US$350,000 \u2013 for his return. Eventually, they say, investigators claimed they lost contact with the kidnappers. That was that, the family says. The investigation went nowhere.<\/p>\n \u201cThe gravest part about this situation is that the police knew from the second day who was responsible and they didn\u2019t act to save his dignity or his life,\u201d Vargas\u2019 father says. \u201cSince then we knew nothing else.\u201d<\/p>\n International scrutiny on Mexico<\/p>\n The crisis has generated international condemnation. The UN Committee<\/a> on Enforced Disappearances warned the government\u2019s failures could amount to crimes against humanity, citing what it described as widespread and systematic attacks against civilians all over the country.<\/p>\n Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has pushed back against calling the disappearances a national crisis, even though her administration has delayed releasing updated statistics on the disappeared.<\/p>\n Still, the Comisi\u00f3n Nacional de B\u00fasqueda<\/a> \u2013 National Search Commission \u2013 established in 2018 to coordinate search efforts, says there\u2019s been some progress. The State of Mexico<\/a>, which surrounds most of Mexico City but does not include the Ajusco mountain range, has the country\u2019s highest number of disappearances \u2013 14,666 recorded cases, followed by the northern state of Tamaulipas with 13,733, and Jalisco state with another 12,779.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we are setting an example of a model that can work for the country,\u201d says Luis Gomez, a senior official overseeing Xitle-area searches. \u201cIt\u2019s a system where all institutions participate, families are involved, and searches can begin within hours of disappearances.\u201d<\/p>\n Other commission officials declined to comment for this article, and referred to organized searches as the best available options for families at the moment. One employee, speaking unofficially, quietly mentioned the growing drug cartel presence in and around Mexico City may be behind disappearances near Ajusco.<\/p>\n Families searching for their loved ones say the system has simply failed, forcing them to go it alone.<\/p>\n During searches, local police, the military, and the National Guard are on hand but often remain at search perimeters, while relatives do the actual digging and searching. Authorities say the armed presence is necessary because organized criminal groups, including cartels, and illegal loggers operate in rural areas.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy are we the ones searching?\u201d one mother asks during a recent operation. \u201cThe police and military stand around us while we do their job. We don\u2019t want forensic searches; we want to find our loved ones alive.\u201d<\/p>\n As the World Cup approaches, the collectives say they will continue pressing their demands.<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t play with our pain,\u201d Gamez says. \u201cWe are living through a human crisis, with forced disappearances and cases where the government is directly involved\u201d.<\/p>\n Organizers say their protests will not block access to the inaugural match or disrupt the tournament. They only want one thing: the eyes of the world to finally see what they have endured for years.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople coming to the World Cup should know Mexico isn\u2019t safe,\u201d Gamez adds. \u201cIf you disappear or if something happens, they won\u2019t look for you, they won\u2019t find you.\u201d<\/p>\n The only items recovered during searches in the Ajusco mountains.<\/p>\n Photo by Angelo Claure<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MEXICO CITY \u2013 On the outskirts of the Mexican capital, in the thick forests of the Ajusco mountain…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328014,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[10430,138,140,139,1468,2474,1750,3692],"class_list":["post-328013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-disappearance","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news","tag-mexico","tag-missing-persons","tag-protest","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
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