Everyone who loves somebody knows the strong feeling of longing for that person. The tragedy in this story is that it can affect anyone, at any time. In most cases young men between the ages of 20 to 30 years disappear, but young women are victims as well. Judging by the evidence, the perpetrators hail from the public sector, corrupt security forces such as the police, army or navy, people who were supposed to provide protection, law and order to the population. Organized crime is also involved: drug trade and human trafficking, women forced into prostitution, organ trafficking. As in any war, the scale of horror is inconceivable.

The bereaved are left with grueling uncertainty. A never ending pain that will not go away until their loved ones are found at last, dead or alive; certainty at last! Making people disappear has always been a popular method of terror inwars.

From this unbearable situation, from powerlessness and anger, a strong movement has evolved. A group of (mostly) women who go on a search using computers, the Internet, telephones, shovels and machetes. This endeavor is highly dangerous, however! These search troops are civil society initiatives that are threatenedand need police protection because they are uncomfortable and persevering.

These women are highly organized:

• They have formed search brigades.
• Lawyers and reporters hold meetings and give consultations on how to survive reporting, how to track drug trafficking, how to interview a child surviving a massacre and how to encrypt risky information that could put them at risk.
• They organize pastoral care for victims and reporters. They seek safe havens for threatened persons.
• They collect donations for families who suddenly find themselves without a husband, their children being hungry.
• They identify and refer psychologists and lawyers to support the missing persons’ relatives.
• They organize rallies for justice and create campaigns to give the situation highvisibility.
• And they engage in countless other activities.