On Mother’s Day, dozens of members of search collectives marched through the streets of Mexico City on May 10, 2026, to demand that President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo acknowledge the official figure of 133,910 missing persons in the country and accept international assistance to locate them. Meanwhile, in Salamanca, Guanajuato, two members of the collective *Salamanca Unidos Buscando Desaparecidos* (Salamanca United in Search of the Disappeared)—a searching mother and her daughter—were murdered in broad daylight by armed assailants.
Patricia Acosta and her daughter, Katia Citlall, were shot while riding a scooter through the streets of the Colonia 18 de Marzo neighborhood in Salamanca around 2:00 p.m. Their bodies were left lying on the sidewalk in front of a residence, while the attackers managed to flee the scene. Both women had joined the *Salamanca Unidos Buscando Desaparecidos* collective in 2024 following the disappearance of Miguel Ángel Jáuregui Acosta—Patricia’s son and Katia’s brother—who was found dead after more than a year of searching. Despite that loss, they continued to assist in the collective’s efforts to locate other missing persons.
The Guanajuato State Attorney General’s Office announced that it has opened an investigation into the double homicide; as of that time, no arrests had been reported. The National Union and Network for the Search for Persons condemned the crime and demanded that it be fully clarified, that those responsible be punished, and that authorities guarantee protection for those engaged in search efforts. “We condemn this double homicide and demand that it be clarified, that the guilty parties be punished, and that protection be provided to those engaged in searching,” the organization stated in a press release.
The murder of Acosta and her daughter took place while the fourteenth March for the Dignity of Searching Mothers was underway—held on May 10, 2026, itself—proceeding from the Monument to the Mother to the Angel of Independence. Under the slogan “May 10th is not a day for celebration; it is a day for struggle and protest,” the collectives—led by organizations from Chihuahua, one of the states pioneering efforts to bring the crisis to light—denounced that, since 2010, 43 searchers have been murdered across the country.
