OUGD505 - Studio Brief 2 - Missing People

Mexico

More than 28,000 people have gone missing during Mexico’s drug wars and they still haven't been found.

desaparecidos — the “disappeared”

43 missing students

In 2014, a group of students from Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers' College went missing in Iguala, Guerrero, Mexico on September 26. According to official reports, the students commandeered several buses to travel to Mexico City to commemorate the anniversary of the 1968 Tlatelolco Massacre. 

During the journey, local police intercepted them and a confrontation ensued. Details of what happened during and after the clash remain unclear, but the official investigation concluded that once the students were in custody, they were handed over to the local Guerreros Unidos ("United Warriors") crime syndicate and presumably killed.

The victims:

Missing persons signage as part of a march to raise awareness of those students that went missing:

Columbia Missing Persons 

According to the Red Cross, more than 92,000 Colombians have disappeared during 50 years of war and at the hands of drug gangs. The government needs to step up efforts to find missing people as many will never be returned to their families and what happened to them will remain a mystery.

'Vanished without a trace'

The uncertainty and suffering of families which comes from not knowing the whereabouts of their loved ones is unacceptable and goes against their human rights.

In both cases, the government must do more to find and identify the tens of thousands of people missing in Colombia, raise awareness about the largely invisible problem, and make it easier for relatives of the missing to seek and get help from authorities

**Both cases are a result of drug wars**

Idea:

Perhaps this can be taken into the production and distribution of drugs - Print images of the missing persons on the drug baggies in order to raise awareness of the death and destruction caused by the drug cartel. This would hopefully discourage people from buying drugs and feeding the cycle. 

I am unsure whether to focus on specific cases such as Mexico or Columbia OR look at a UK based campaign.