Mexico City, September 4 (teleSUR-RHC)-- The Mexican Ministry of Interior informed the Senate on Thursday that between 2007 and the end of 2014, 25,230 people were reported missing in the country, including 28 percent of women.      

Almost 60 percent of them disappeared in the Mexican states of Tamaulipas, Jalisco, Nuevo León, México, Chihuahua and Sinaloa, according to the annual National Register of Disappeared or Missing People, released by the Ministry of Interior, the Attorney General's Office, and the Office of National System of Public Security.   

By 2014, some 36,656 people had been located, 34,829 of them alive.  This figure coincides with a report released earlier in August by various human rights groups in Mexico, which counted more than 26,000 cases in the same time period.  

Human rights groups warned that this situation was worse than what Mexico had experienced during the “Dirty War” between 1968 and the late 1970s during which hundreds of activists and opposition political leaders were disappeared.  

The presidential terms of Felipe Calderon and his successor Enrique Peña Nieto was marked by a tough approach on organized crime, which saw the state militarize national security.     

However, as proved by the high-profile case of the missing Ayotzinapa students, this move has had a devastating effect on human rights, with members of the security forces becoming increasingly involved with criminal activities.    

In February, a United Nations panel called on the Mexican government to join the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, under which all signatory parties are required to fully investigate forced disappearances and bring all those responsible to justice.