Makeup figures: disappearances increase in CDMX

Meanwhile, the government of Ciudad de México boasts a supposed reduction in intentional homicides between 2019 and 2025, the real figures tell a different story. Behind the official reports, a silenced tragedy grows: the crisis of the disappeared.

Instead of addressing the issue, the capital authorities choose to hide the victims behind manipulated figures.

Disappearances triple... and the government remains silent

The report "It is impossible and immoral to hide the drama of the disappeared", by Causa en Común, debunks the official figures. According to the report, the disappearances in CDMX increased by more than 200% between 2019 and 2024. In 2019, 519 disappeared were recorded; by 2024, the figure rose to 1,679 people.

Fernando Escobar Ayala, coordinator of the report, warns of a clear intention to manipulate crime figures. Intentional homicides are being transferred to other categories such as negligent homicides.

This, he claims, serves to sustain the narrative that "everything is getting better". But the truth, sooner or later, ends up coming to light.

During the same period in which a drop in intentional homicides is claimed, the disappearances skyrocketed: 69 cases in 2018, 572 in 2022, 856 in 2023, and 1,679 in 2024.

Femicides hidden among the statistics

In the capital, as in much of the country, the law classifies the crime of femicide. This allows the government to reclassify cases at their convenience.

The same pattern of cover-up occurs with violence against women. Between January and April 2025, 12 femicides were reported, which the government presents as a decrease. However, it omits that in 2024 there were 68 femicides, more than the 59 recorded in 2023.

Additionally, only between January and March of this year, 20 intentional homicides and 25 negligent homicides of women were counted. Many are not classified as femicide. Only 1 out of every 8.5 violent deaths of women is investigated as such.

A government that hides the dead

Fudging figures doesn't save lives. The Morena government, first with López Obrador and now with Sheinbaum, has preferred to protect its image rather than protect the citizens.

Thousands of families search for their disappeared without help, without justice, and without answers. This omission is not a mistake: it is a political decision. And that decision, costs lives.