Mexico’s Police Focus on World Cup While Thousands Remain Missing

“We’re in a Black Hawk with Mexican police flying over Guadalajara’s Akron Stadium. As Mexico prepares to host four World Cup matches here in June, it’s pulling out the stops on security, deploying thousands more officers and beefing up surveillance. But here in the state of Jalisco, more than 16,000 people are missing or believed to be murdered by drug cartels, individuals, as well as corrupt police officers. And victims’ families say the show of force for the World Cup does nothing to protect them or help find their loved ones. In February, this region erupted in violence after the military killed a powerful cartel leader. And now the government is trying hard to project a sense of security and order. Jalisco’s secretary of security shows us some of their $55 million worth of new investments. Four of Ana Hatsumi Muñoz’s family members have disappeared or been killed. Her sister Virginia, a police officer, was last seen being taken by armed men in 2021. Ana is part of a collective called Guerreros Buscadores, or “warrior searchers.” Today, they’ve received an anonymous tip that the body of one of her nephews may have been burned and buried in this abandoned lot, not far from the Guadalajara airport. Each of these searchers has lost at least one family member. After two hours of digging, they found no clues. The government says it is targeting criminal groups behind disappearances. It recently freed several people from this kidnapper’s hideout close to the Akron Stadium. Even so, the number of missing people keeps rising. But the job of finding missing people is still largely left to family members. While Mexico has a search commission, collectives often dig on their own, without police protection. Two days after we filmed with them, the collective unearthed a bag of human bones buried two and a half miles from the Guadalajara airport, where World Cup teams and fans will fly in. As with so many others discovered in recent years, it’s unclear who this person was. The Jalisco prosecutor’s office said they are investigating.