GUADALJARA, Mexico (AP) — Image shows a young man wearing: mexican Green national team jersey. A FIFA style logo appears in the corner. Designs that mimic collection items world cup Panini stickers are exchanged by millions of soccer fans during tournaments.
But above each surface taped to concrete benches, telephone poles and walls in downtown Guadalajara are labels that read:
“Desaparecido”
do not have.
One is Cristian Emmanuel Rivera, who went missing in August 2023. The other is Jaime Adrian Ramirez, who has been missing since September 2020.
As 2026 World Cup matches take place in Guadalajara, the situation has changed for families searching for missing relatives. One of soccer’s most well-known images Participated in a campaign to inform tens of thousands of visitors about Mexico’s 135,000 missing people.
The effort was launched by search group Luz de Esperanza in the western state of Jalisco. Mexico has the highest number of disappearances More than 16,000 people are listed as missing in the state registry. Members said other groups have already contacted them about adopting the idea.
“This is our way of drawing attention to the fact that we miss our children and the fact that they are no longer in our lives,” said María de Jesús Solis, 57, whose son Jaime Adrian disappeared nearly six years ago.
She wears a pendant around her neck that has his picture on it.
“This is my son,” she said. “The difference is he’s wearing a World Cup shirt now.”
looking for something alive
All over Mexico, Relatives formed a search group He investigates fields, ravines, ruins, and secret tombs, often conducting searches where authorities are said to have been unable to pursue them.
Almost every Sunday since 2021, members of Luz de Esperanza have spread out across Guadalajara with piles of missing person posters in the hopes that someone will recognize their faces or provide clues. The group calls this a “search for the living.”
This month, they replaced many of those flyers with hundreds of World Cup-inspired posters.
For Solis, the campaign reflects her family’s frustration with what they see as competing priorities.
“We’re not against the World Cup,” she said. “But we are against excessive spending.”
While authorities invest millions of dollars in preparing Guadalajara for the tournament, search groups often pay for water, food and transportation out of pocket during the search, she said.
“The government is showing its beautiful face to the world,” Solis said. “But if you look around, the city is full of posters of our children.”
try to find the answer
On a recent morning, Solis and Guadalupe Rivera joined other members of Luz de Esperanza on an abandoned property outside Guadalajara.
The women walked through the dark room and into the trash-strewn backyard. Some carried metal probes used to search the ground for signs of secret graves.
Rivera pushed an iron rod into the dirt while others inspected the property. Her son, Christian Emmanuel, disappeared nearly three years ago. She quickly joined the group.
“I thought joining a group would help speed up the search,” she said. “Time is passing by, but I’m still searching.”
Rivera cooperate in the search for the body Because she wants to support other families but doesn’t want her son to be found like that.
“I want to find him alive,” she said. “I’d like him to come to the door.”
She says the World Cup campaign was born out of simple calculations. If soccer dominates the conversation on the streets, perhaps people will become more aware of the missing people.
Rivera said they are all sports fans.
“During the World Cup, I sit at home and watch it with my family, even if I’m not really a fan,” she said. “But our family is no longer complete.”
Different reactions to the campaign
Rivera said some residents have embraced the posters. Some argue that the World Cup should be a time of celebration, not a reminder of violence and loss.
But families say they have little choice but to keep finding new ways to show their loved ones.
“The government never pays any attention to us,” Rivera said. “So we want to know if the world will be like this.”
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