Abstract
Call the Mothers: Searching for Mexico’s Disappeared in the War on Drugs is an exceptional book that sheds light on three important topics and their intricate relationships: (1) the crisis of forced disappearances in Mexico, (2) the so-called “war on drugs,” and (3) the mobilization of women who have lost their children (mainly) to organized crime. Shaylih Muehlmann uncovers how the Mexican state has been complicit in the disappearance of thousands of people, including migrants, and how forced disappearances have become “collateral damage” in the war on drugs.
The book elucidates the links between the war on drugs, neoliberalism, the democratic transition, and corruption in Mexico. Instead of treating these topics separately, the author explains how Mexico’s democratic transition (from the PRI to the PAN) in the early 2000s disrupted the collaboration that had long taken place between the government and organized crime, which, in turn, led to major confrontations between cartels, violence, and forced disappearances. She historicizes how corruption in the country has allowed organized crime to operate, resulting in thousands of deaths and disappearances.
The backbone of the book is the nuanced account of the process of politicization and mobilization of mothers of disappeared people in Mexico. It highlights women’s agency, resistance, and subversion, exhibiting the transformation of their pain and suffering into activism. Through in-depth semi-structured interviews and participant observation, Muehlmann demonstrates how women mobilized to form a grassroots movement that confronts the opacity, lethargy, corruption, impunity, and indifference of the government. The accounts of multiple women in the book exhibit how mothers have negotiated ransoms, excavated mass graves, and investigated the disappearance of their children—thereby taking on the responsibilities of the local and national government. In this way, the book illustrates that the implementation of the neoliberal model in the country was a factor that led to a reduction in the size and reach of the state, leaving some of its most crucial responsibilities to everyday citizens.
The problem of forced disappearances is not new. Forced disappearances have a long history in Latin America, particularly in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. The term refers to “people who have been kidnapped by security forces and whose whereabouts and survival remain unknown to their family members, friends, and acquaintances” (p. 8). As explained in the book, the term was first used to designate people who had been disappeared as a tactic to eliminate political opponents or individuals deemed threats to the social order, such as students, labor activists, and teachers. While forced disappearances in Mexico had long taken place, it was not until the mid-2000s that disappearances became associated with organized crime and the so-called “war on drugs.”
Since 2006, when then-president Felipe Calderón launched the “war on drugs,” forced disappearances have dramatically increased. According to the Mexican government, more than 130,000 people have disappeared or are missing since 2006 (Comisión Nacional de Búsqueda 2025). Between 2022 and 2023, the record of disappearances reached its highest level, with 10,064 disappearances—or approximately 27 per day. That number has only increased in the last couple of years. In fact, Mexico “has become a country of the disappeared” (p. 2), with Human Rights Watch declaring in 2013 that the country had the most severe crisis of enforced disappearances in Latin America. Because many disappearances go unreported, it is hard to estimate accurately how many people have been disappeared in the last few years. One thing is clear: the number is much higher than official figures indicate. This is demonstrated by, among other things, the mass graves that have been found across Mexico. Moreover, the mass graves attest to the widespread violence in the country and a crisis that is yet to be addressed and controlled.
Similarly, as the author argues, it is difficult to estimate how many disappearances involve state officials, since police and prosecutors constantly neglect to investigate and identify those responsible. Here, the book makes significant contributions to show the degree to which municipal, state, and federal officials fail to investigate the cases. Chapter Two, for instance, illustrates in detail the opacity, indifference, and lethargy of the various agencies in Mexico responsible for investigating disappearances. Using different cases as examples, Muehlmann sheds light on the bureaucratic processes in Mexico for reporting and investigating discrepancies, while highlighting the numerous calls, visits, trips, expenses, and bribes women must make to have their cases investigated.
Central to the neglect and dismissal of the cases is the assumption that the victims “left voluntarily” or that they somehow “deserved it,” suggesting that the disappeared had a link to organized crime and their disappearance is not worthy of investigation. It is problematic that authorities dehumanize the victims, allowing the violence of the “war on drugs” to remain unaddressed. Similarly, the book reveals that many cases are also intentionally not investigated, highlighting the role of high-status officers in obstructing investigations.
Chapter Three offers a glimpse into how women have addressed this problem. Women have mobilized to form collectives, alliances, and networks with multiple actors, civil and governmental, to investigate the disappearance of their children. Through the lens of different mothers whose children are missing, the author details the numerous times they have responded to the call of other families who are facing the same situation. Instead of turning to the police, mothers call the activists who are at the forefront of search collectives for advice and support, which often includes help in negotiating ransoms or investigating the death, kidnapping, or disappearance of a loved one.
One of the first family-organized collectives, comprising 12 families, began in 2009 in Coahuila, but it was not until the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity (Movimiento por la Paz con Justicia y Dignidad) (MPJD) that the collectives gained widespread recognition. By 2022, there were more than 160 search collectives to investigate disappearances (p. 91). The flourishing of search collectives exhibits the negligence of the government in leading the investigations into Mexico’s disappeared; these collectives are among the many NGOs, civil society organizations, and grassroots groups that have been formed to fill the gap left by the government. Just like other human rights and migrant advocacy organizations, the search collectives have learned to carve their own path to carry out their mission by drawing on national and international support from various organizations and by professionalizing their activities, including taking training courses in forensics. Some collectives are organized geographically and respond to the unfolding context. Others form after specific events, such as the disappearance of the 43 students in Ayotzinapa, and others are formed around the identity of the victim, such as the family-run collective that emerged to address the femicides in Ciudad Juárez in the late 1990s. In this context, the courage and resilience shown by these women cannot be understated.
Chapter Four describes the structural factors and patterns of corruption that have continuously undermined the search for the disappeared in Mexico. Instead of seeing violence as a cultural disposition, the author historicizes how corruption and collusion between the government and criminal organizations have boosted the drug trade and violence in Mexico. The author achieves this through analysis of three processes: neoliberalization, militarization, and the democratic transition from the PRI to the PAN.
Chapter Five details the discoveries of mass graves in Mexico, highlighting the collaboration that sometimes exists between the collectives and organized crime. The discoveries remain one of the central outcomes of the formation of the collectives. The chapter also exhibits the challenges in identifying the remains found, as well as the lack of resources and political will to do so. The chapter finishes with a discussion of how the government continues to obstruct the investigations, discoveries of the graves, and identification of the victims. Here, Muehlmann eloquently discusses how the human remains are made doubly secret: first, when they are hidden by the perpetrators, and second, when they are discovered and hidden by the government (p. 171). The book concludes with a reflection on the commonplace disappearances in Mexico, the actors that perpetrate them, those who allow their continuation, and the mothers who resist them by politicizing their pleas and mobilizing until they find their loved ones.
Methodology
Muehlmann follows a multi-method, multi-site research approach. She leverages her expertise on ethnography, carrying out participant observation, in-depth semi-structured interviews, and life histories with family members of disappeared people in Mexico. Her more than 10 years of experience researching this topic is exhibited as she historicizes the crisis of forced disappearances, considering the role of corruption and neoliberalism in its development. Instead of treating them as separate themes, the author sheds light on the intricate relationships between the “war on drugs,” corruption, and neoliberalism. This way, the book is a culmination of years of research on this critical topic.
Recruiting participants for this research was a delicate process. After attending meetings, rallies, and press conferences, Muehlmann approached activists and sustained conversations with a variety of family members who were searching for their loved ones. However, she specifically sought to interview families who were already politicized or intended to share their stories, raising awareness on the effects of the so-called “war on drugs.” After initial conversations, she followed up with key participants over the years, adopting a longitudinal approach to the interviews. This longitudinal approach demonstrates how mothers of the disappeared transitioned from identifying as victims to identifying as activists. As Muehlmann argues, “long-term ethnographic research was vital to tracing the process of politicization and the shift in the subjectivities of some activists” (p. 31). Specifically, women described their processes of politicization as “hardening” or becoming tougher. The motto “the women do not cry, they fight” (“Las mujeres ya no lloran, ahora luchan”) (p. 52) captures this transformation.
For many women, this transformation happened after they participated in the Caravan for Peace that traveled across the United States protesting U.S. drug war policies. The caravan was organized by Mexican activists who were part of the MPJD, the first social movement created to organize in search of Mexico’s disappeared. The movement was founded in 2011 by poet Javier Sicilia after his 24-year-old son was kidnapped and found dead in Cuernavaca. The movement protested the “war on drugs” in Mexico and the violence that comes with it, demanding its end. Over the course of a year and a half, the MPJD organized three caravans: one to Chiapas, one to Ciudad Juárez, and one to the United States.
The caravans brought together a diverse range of actors and activists, comprising more than 120 people and 60 civil society organizations. Traveling by bus, the U.S. caravan departed from San Diego, stopping in 27 cities, and eventually arrived in Washington, DC. Once the caravan ended, the momentum generated faded; however, it was successful in bringing families together over shared feelings of anger, rage, and grief, as well as a need for change. In this way, the MPJD was crucial to spurring a regional and national social movement for the disappeared.
Contributions
Muehlmann used a multi-site approach for the research. In doing so, she demonstrates that the problem of forced disappearances is not exclusive to one region but is a nationwide issue. She conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews with participants located in Mexico City, Chiapas, Veracruz, Oaxaca, Baja California, and other parts of the country. In choosing these places, the author demonstrates that they all have something in common: everyday people coming together to mobilize and protest larger processes of impunity that have allowed the number of human rights violations to spiral out of control.
Moreover, through the interviews, the author offers nuanced accounts of the violence perpetrated against countless men and women in Mexico and the suffering and excruciating pain mothers endure, without sensationalizing the topic. Instead, she thoroughly constructed a semi-structured interview protocol to avoid questions that would potentially revive trauma or pain. This is particularly important for scholars studying violence and social and criminal justice topics, as it is imperative to avoid revictimizing participants.
For scholars of social movements, this is a highly valuable ethnographic work that discusses the emergence and continuation of grassroots movements. It shows how, like other social movements, they are born out of the state’s inaction and the complexities they face in consolidating as a unified, larger national movement. For instance, the search collectives continue to face challenges in finding resources to fund their actions, there is a lack of coordination between civil and family-run groups, and tensions exist among participants regarding the goals of the collectives.
Similarly, the book questions the outcomes of the collectives in light of the state’s inaction. That is, while the collectives have made highly significant contributions, such as the discoveries of mass graves across the country, exerting pressure to create agencies dedicated to searching and investigating disappeared people, and bringing awareness about the crisis of disappearances in Mexico, their existence reveals the lack of law enforcement interest in this area and the massive human rights violations and institutionalization of the “deprofessionalization of what should be the bedrock of any democratic society: law enforcement and the protection of the human life” (p. 111).
One aspect that the book does not address is the Caravan of Mothers from Central America, which has been taking place for over 20 years. This Caravan is similar to the one organized by the MPJD, in that mothers gather in large caravans to protest the disappearance of their loved ones. In 1999, mothers of disappeared migrants gathered in Honduras to embark on a trip to Mexico to look for their disappeared sons, seeking justice and accountability from the Mexican government. Initially, the caravans covered the southern part of the country, arriving in Mexico City. This route followed part of the migratory trail that undocumented migrants commonly take. With the time and resources provided by other organizations in Mexico, the Caravan of Mothers was able to cover other areas in the Northeast of Mexico that are also part of the migratory route (Sánchez Soler 2011). Over time, it was not only the mothers, but also the daughters and wives of disappeared migrants who participated in the caravan.
Since then, at least 16 Caravans of Mothers have been organized with dozens of activists and NGOs in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador (Castro Neira 2019; Varela Huerta 2015). Thus, the Caravan of Mothers from Central America is contemporary to the search collectives that were created in Mexico. Even when the book mentions explicitly the mass grave and the deaths of 72 (undocumented) migrants in Tamaulipas in 2011, the book does not elaborate on the Caravan of Mothers. Discussing both mother-led movements and their connections would have been a significant contribution.
Finally, this is a very timely piece. A few months ago, search collectives found a clandestine crematorium (or extermination camp) on a ranch in Teuchitlán, Jalisco. The place was used by criminal organizations for recruitment, training, and executions. In such a place, they found hundreds of shoes and belongings of the victims. The discovery again exhibited the crisis of forced disappearances in the country. It shed light on the brutality of organized crime and the atrocities that consistently occur in Mexico, along with the corruption and impunity that have allowed cartels to operate. In that context, the government had the opportunity to address the discovery and mobilize resources to investigate it and persecute those responsible. Instead, it downplayed its relevance and showed its disdain for the mothers, the search collectives, and the thousands of disappeared people. Against this backdrop, the book is pivotal to understanding the history of disappearances, the negligence of the government in their investigation, and the rise of collectives that will not rest “until they find them.”