"Ana searches for her sister with a strange feeling inside. It's a bit like not really searching; for some time now, I've known I'm not going to find her, she says before entering, alongside her colleagues from the Guerreros Buscadores de Jalisco (Jalisco Warrior Searchers) collective, a tiny abandoned house in the Valle de Los Olivos neighborhood, south of the Mexican city of Guadalajara. Ana speaks just minutes before the group begins breaking through the cement floor with a jackhammer, digging and digging and digging."
"It's difficult to explain how someone can search without hope, which would seem to be the very foundation of a search. But considering the context, Ana does not appear pessimistic; rather, she seems hardened by the blows of reality. Jalisco is the state with the most missing persons in Mexico, with at least 15,943 people who have not been located."
"Virginia, then 40 years old, stepped out of her bedroom. Vicky? one of the men asked. I think that if she hadn't answered yes, they wouldn't have taken her, because other men entered right away; they weren't sure which house it was. But it's instinct if your children are there, you don't want anything to happen to them, which is why she didn't resist."
Ana joins the Guerreros Buscadores de Jalisco to search an abandoned house, operating jackhammers to break through cement despite expecting not to find her sister. The searches proceed with physical, exhausting labor and a resigned determination. Jalisco has the highest number of missing people in Mexico, with at least 15,943 unlocated. Virginia Muñoz González, a 40-year-old police commander with 20 years of service and former Elite Wolves Unit member, was seized on April 3, 2021, after armed men arrived at her home while some of her children were present and begged the abductors.
Read at english.elpais.com
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