Mapping the Unidentified Victims of Mexico's Drug War

InSight Crime, Written by Geoffrey Ramsey Sunday, 18 November 2012

An investigative report by Milenio suggests that of the 60,000 people killed in the last six years in Mexico's fight against organized crime, nearly half have not been identified by the government. It also finds evidence that state officials may be tampering with the public record of these deaths.

The months-long investigation published in October found that at least 24,102 of the 60,000 Mexicans that have died in circumstances related to the fight against organized crime since 2006, have yet to be identified, and are classified by officials as "NN," ("ningun nombre," or no name). Below is a map compiled by the paper of the states with the highest reported concentrations of these unidentified victims.

Even more alarming, this is a conservative estimate. State officials were extremely uncooperative with the investigation. The state of Tamaulipas, for example, simply refused to release any data on the number of NNs to the newspaper, saying that it was a federal matter and not the state's responsibility.

The government of Veracruz also put up a fight against releasing the data to Milenio, arguing that to do so would put its officials "at risk" and potentially violate the privacy of the victims. While a freedom of information request filed by the paper was approved in Mexican courts, the state has yet to provide a comprehensive list of cases of unidentified murder victims. The local governments 30 of 212 municipalities in Veracruz did provide information to Milenio, however; according to this data, it was the state with the most unidentified victims in the country, with 5,245.  Read more.