I love my country for its culture, its food, and the general kindness of its people. In many ways, it's a wonderful place to live and enjoy life. However, the situation here is terrible.
For several years now, many areas have been effectively controlled by organized crime and drug cartels. One common practice is called "cobro de piso" a form of extortion where criminals demand weekly or monthly payments from small business owners under the threat of murdering them or their family members. Most of these businesses don't even make enough money to afford those payments, and you can imagine how that often ends.
There are also countless missing persons. Young people leave their homes to buy supplies for a school project and never come back. They go out to buy food for a stray kitten they found and never return. They simply happen to be outsideโalone or with friends, during the day or at nightโand they disappear. Meanwhile, the authorities turn a blind eye. They ignore the situation, and the government's negligence is unbelievable. Sometimes it feels as if they are working alongside the criminals rather than against them.
I hate having to live with the constant fear of not knowing whether one day my sisters will fail to come home, whether one of my friends will disappear, or whether I could be next.
The number of missing or unlocated people is increasing massively
2023: 9,674
2024: 13,515
2025: 14,000
1,266 people between January and February 2026
(I couldn't find any information for the last few months)
There are groups known as "searching mothers" (madres buscadoras) mothers who go out themselves to look for their missing children because the authorities often do not. Many of them end up digging through fields and remote areas, only to find human remains buried underground, sometimes having to recover them piece by piece in bags. Seeing videos of a mother discovering the body of her own child is horrifying. Hearing people talk about missing relatives or about living under threats from organized crime is something no one should have to experience
(I forgot to mention that our president mocks the mothers searching for their missing children, never answers important questions, and dedicates herself to doing everything except governing the country properly)