Mexico’s political class has a history of being in bed with the cartels. This collusion and corruption have caused the Mexican people to have little trust in their institutions. While being in thrall to the whims of crime lords is bad enough, the sheer number of missing people is unbearable.

“Forcibly disappearing people has long been a tactic by cartels to consolidate control through terror while also concealing homicide numbers,” according to Politico. “Some of Mexico’s most haunting cases of mass disappearances, like the disappearance of 43 students in central Mexico, have also been tied to state actors.”

Since 2006, the number of disappearances totals 130,000, and the number of people who have gone missing has increased by 200% in just the past 10 years. Former Mexican President Felipe Calderón (2006-12) went after the cartels and “poked the bear,” causing disappearances to go up. Unfortunately, President Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-18) dismantled the dedicated crime-fighting government institutions that his predecessor set up, and President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018-2024) abandoned fighting against the cartels altogether. AMLO even revised the missing persons database from over 100,000 to a mere 12,377, claiming his political enemies inflated it to make him look bad.

Current President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, a protogé of AMLO, did at least fulfill her campaign promise to make the missing persons database more accurate, though some still claim it is undercounted.

The people of Mexico have been protesting against the violence for years. The problem is that many of those in political power are influenced by the cartels — or even working for them. If a politician is not in bed with the organized crime lords and gains momentum, he or she is quickly assassinated. Moreover, many distraught parents who took the searches for their lost children into their own hands — even providing evidence against the criminals — paid for it with their own lives.

Last fall, however, the protests got fresh wings. Young Gen Z Mexicans have started marching and demonstrating against the violence and the failure of the government to uphold the rule of law. In November, large groups of students marched on the National Palace, angry that Sheinbaum is not delivering. Sheinbaum simply blamed her political rivals for stirring up the protests. Nothing has changed for the Mexican people.

Adding insult to injury, two weeks ago, the Mexican government put out a laughable statement claiming that of the 130,000 people missing, a third of them have shown “signs of life.” What did the government use to justify this claim? It used tax records, marriage and birth certificates, and vaccination records. Some of the disappearances were “voluntary disappearances,” such as abandoning a marriage or fleeing an abusive relationship, but the “research” conducted by the government was not transparent and likely untrustworthy.

Most disturbing of all, only a scant 10% of the missing person cases are even being investigated, and 36% are missing crucial information that would be helpful to investigators.

Sheinbaum is at least more honest than her predecessor, openly admitting that the staggering number of missing Mexicans (130,000) is accurate. What is unclear, though, is whether she has the willingness, courage, and gumption to do something about it beyond recordkeeping. To her credit, she did allow the police to attack and kill “El Mencho” in February with a little pressure from the U.S.

Mexico is ranked fourth highest in terms of armed conflict zones. Only Gaza, Myanmar, and Syria are higher on the scale, which should give all of us a pretty good idea of the scope of violence in Mexico. That violence has already spilled over into the U.S. thanks to feckless former President Joe Biden and will only increase if the cartels expand.

Mexico’s lack of control over its violent criminals is a national security threat both there and in the United States. Because the crime lords have been allowed to win, innocent people are losing loved ones every day. It has to stop.