The rolls of the disappeared have risen from about 26,000 in 2013, to 40,000 in 2019, to a current, official tally of nearly 100,000.
And nearly every one of them had a family left bewildered and bereft.
Over 10 years, the group has registered 320 disappearances and has found and identified the remains of 16 people. On a recent day, two more families came seeking help, photos of their missing on their laps. Photos of others of the disappeared dangled from a cord strung across the room.Elizabeth Meléndez admitted that until her son Javier Alexis disappeared in December, she didn’t realize “there’s another world you don’t want to see but is right there in front of you.
One of the others taken with Alan -- Morales’ nephew -- was released days later, but Morales hasn’t been able to speak with him. When they cross paths in the street, Morales’ nephew lowers his head. Anonymous whispers warned of serious consequences if Morales asked too many questions.In the middle of his story, Morales motioned at one of the pictures hanging across the room. “I hung out with him,” he said. He recognized another as a neighbor.
The Milynali Network also takes on older cases, like that of María Rosario Nava, who has been looking for a corpse for 10 years. Her sister Norma Elizabeth disappeared while going out to buy diapers. Two weeks later, authorities showed Nava photographs of a body with unmistakable tattoos: it was her sister. But they never gave her the body. They told her it was incomplete and that they had to perform DNA tests.“I told , ‘Give me what you have and I’ll put it together,’” she said.