By MEGAN JANETSKY

GUADALAJARA, Mexico (AP) — The faces of Mexico’s disappeared paint the streets of Mexico’s second biggest city.

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Thousands of fliers reading “We miss you,” “have you seen her?” and “we’re looking for you” line buildings, monuments, lamp posts, parking meters, tree pots and bus stops.

Workers bustle by them in throngs in the center of Guadalajara. Men play basketball on courts surrounded by them. And a steady stream of cars pass by them every day.

The fliers are woven into daily life in the heart of Mexico’s forced disappearance crisis: the state of Jalisco.

The state, which was marked by an explosion of violence on Sunday following the killing of Mexico’s most powerful cartel leader, known as “El Mencho,” is among those with the highest number of disappeared people, with 12,500 documented cases.

Now families who hang the fliers to search for their lost loved ones say they are running up against government efforts to erase the faces in the lead up to the FIFA World Cup, where Guadalajara will be a host city in June. While clashes between cartels and Mexican forces have brought search efforts for the missing to a halt in Jalisco, a number of local lawmakers are pushing forward a proposal that would make it easier to remove the signs.

“They don’t want people coming to the World Cup, people coming from abroad, to see” the fliers, said Carmen López, a woman looking for her brother and nephew, who went missing in two separate incidents. “It’s not in their interest, because they would get their hands dirty. It makes the government look bad in front of the entire world.”

A girl points at posters bearing the faces of missing persons in Guadalajara, Mexico. Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

Mexico’s missing

Mexico has nearly 131,000 missing people, enough to fill a small city. Forcibly disappearing people has long been a tactic by cartels to consolidate control through terror while also concealing homicide numbers. While figures date back to 1952, the majority of people have disappeared since the start of Mexico’s war on drugs in 2006.

For many, the forced disappearance crisis is emblematic of the lack of justice and deep levels of corruption that continue to permeate Mexico, especially stark in states like Jalisco.

Families like López’s often take matters into their own hands, organizing searches for dead bodies and hanging fliers in an attempt to continue their efforts and put pressure on local authorities.

“Little by little it kills a part of your soul. They don’t only disappear your loved one, but also you as a father, or as a mother along with them,” said Héctor Flores, a leader of one of Jalisco’s many search groups, Luz de Esperanza, or Light of Hope.

Families fight for visibility

Posters bearing the faces of missing people cover the Ninos Heroes monument in Guadalajara, Mexico, Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

Flores started hanging fliers in Guadalajara after his 19-year-old son was forcibly disappeared by agents from the Jalisco state prosecutor’s office. The 2021 forced disappearance was later recognized by a Mexican court, pushing Flores to form the collective of 500 families investigating disappearances of relatives.

His collective goes into the streets of Jalisco’s capital and hangs anywhere between 2,000 and 5,000 fliers every weekend. The signs show the smiling faces of everyone from teenage girls to middle-aged men, and provide identifying details like tattoos as well as the date and location of where they went missing.

Search collectives are almost constantly hanging signs because the posters are regularly taken down.

“This is an act of searching in real time, with the hope that people who see these ID cards, they can provide us with information that will help us locate our families,” Flores said. “It’s also an act of visibility.”

Concerns over ban

Families now worry they will face more hurdles in the wake of the cartel violence this week that has raised security concerns ahead of the summer’s World Cup.

In December, lawmakers proposed modifications to a bill originally intended to protect the fliers from being taken down. Local politicians attempted to modify the legislation in a way families fear creates prohibited public spaces for hanging the posters.

A police officer walks past posters bearing the faces of missing persons in front of the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Missing Persons in Guadalajara, Mexico. Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

Carmen López, Flores and other relatives say the local government is trying to whitewash the issue of the missing ahead of the global sporting event. They say it follows years of efforts by authorities to downplay the depth of Mexico’s disappearance crisis.

“We’re aware that the city doesn’t look beautiful because of the search IDs, but they’re not trash,” said López, who wore a shirt with the faces of her two missing family members. “But what are we supposed to do? We’re doing everything in our power to find them.”

The modification was pushed by state legislator Norma López, a member of President Claudia Sheinbaum’s Morena party, and a number of other lawmakers.

The state lawmaker in an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday denied the accusation and said it was “bad interpretation” of the proposal by search groups, and that she wanted to defend families searching for their lost loved ones. She said one of her own relatives was also disappeared.

She said if passed, the law would allow posters to be taken down inside spaces like public universities, the state legislature, the Supreme Court, museums, churches and more without penalty. She said they were already allowed in other places.

“My proposal is not a basis for banning them,” she said. “We are all concerned about what is happening in Jalisco. The disappearances also pain me.”

Jalisco on alert

Mexican authorities have been grappling with scrutiny over Guadalajara’s ability to host World Cup soccer matches.

Police officers stand next to posters of missing persons in front of the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Missing Persons in Guadalajara, Mexico, Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

Sheinbaum has vowed this week there was “no risk” for visitors, but on Thursday the Diving World Cup set to be held in a Guadalajara suburb in March was canceled over security concerns. Earlier in the week, the Portuguese soccer federation said it was “closely monitoring the delicate situation” ahead of a friendly match against Mexico’s national team in Mexico City.

Meanwhile, some search groups in Jalisco say they have had to suspend investigating potential clandestine grave sites because Mexico’s federal government told them that security forces that provide protection to teams cannot help temporarily due to the violence.

Mexico’s National Search Commission for the disappeared did not respond to a request for comment.

Flores’ group and others have reported that they have already had to cancel search operations in grave sites around Guadalajara, leaving many feeling like justice is even further out of reach than before.

The tally of missing continues to grow hour by hour. Residents in the city passing by signs on their daily commutes don’t look twice.

“Now, it’s just normal,” said Jacinto González, 47, strolling by hundreds of signs plastered on a wall Wednesday.

After a few minutes of chatting, he added casually that his sister-in-law went missing six years ago.

Associated Press journalist Alexis Triboulard contributed to this report.

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

SAN DIEGO (AP) — The U.S. State Department said Thursday that it would pay up to $10 million for information leading to the arrests or convictions of two brothers identified as leaders of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel in the state of Baja California, which includes Tijuana.

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The reward offer came the same day that authorities announced a new indictment against Rene Arzate Garcia, 42, known as “La Rana” (“The Frog”). He was initially charged with drug crimes in San Diego. The superseding indictment includes charges of conspiracy, narcoterrorism and material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization.

The U. S. is offering $5 million each for information on Rene Arzate Garcia and Alfonso Arzate Garcia, 52, known as “Aquiles” (“Achilles”). Their whereabouts are unknown.

“As controllers of a critical trafficking node in Tijuana at the U.S. border, the Arzate-Garcia brothers have become key essential components of the cartel’s command-and-control structure,” the State Department said. “Their control of the Tijuana Plaza offers the Sinaloa Cartel a tactical advantage in maintaining dominance over rival organizations, ensuring no interruption to the busiest border crossing in the Western Hemisphere.”

California’s border with Mexico has been a battleground between the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation cartels.

The rewards were announced four days after the Mexican army killed the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, “El Mencho,” decapitating what had become Mexico’s most powerful cartel. The drug lord was the Mexican government’s biggest prize yet to show the Trump administration in its efforts to crack down on the cartels.

By LEAH ASKARINAM, MAYA SWEEDLER and MATT BROWN

WASHINGTON (AP) — A crowded primary season in Illinois is shaping up as the next test for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a powerful advocacy organization that’s generating fresh turmoil over the Democratic Party’s relationship to Israel and the role of undisclosed campaign cash in this year’s midterm elections.

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AIPAC, which was founded decades ago to lobby for U.S. support for Israel, has reserved at least $1.9 million in advertisements through its super PAC in the race to replace Rep. Danny Davis, a veteran politician who is retiring. The organization hopes to boost Melissa Conyears-Ervin, the city treasurer in Chicago, to victory over a dozen other candidates in the March 17 primary.

Other organizations that critics believe are tied to AIPAC are also spending heavily in Illinois, a source of bitterness and recriminations in a state already known for its bare knuckled brand of politics.

The aggressive spending comes after AIPAC put almost $2 million into a recent Democratic primary for a special election in New Jersey, an effort that’s widely considered to have backfired. AIPAC targeted Tom Malinowski, a former congressman who narrowly lost to progressive candidate Analilia Mejia — who has been outspoken in criticism of Israel.

But AIPAC appears undaunted by the experience, despite an outpouring of criticism from across the political spectrum.

“We expect to be involved in dozens of races both in primaries and general elections this cycle,” said Patrick Dorton, a spokesman for AIPAC’s affiliated super PAC, the United Democracy Project, or UDP.

AIPAC has more urgently pursued its mission as Democratic skepticism and even hostility toward the U.S.-Israel relationship increases because of the war in Gaza, jeopardizing traditional bipartisan support for military assistance to a historic ally. But the group’s assertive interventions in this year’s primaries, which are expected to expand in the months to come, also risk further fracturing the party and eroding any remaining goodwill.

AIPAC has been dividing line in Illinois primary

Campaign finance laws involving super PACs make it nearly impossible to ascertain who is behind much of the money being spent in Illinois. Although UDP is open about its affiliation, recently created groups like Elect Chicago Women and Affordable Chicago Now haven’t yet been required to disclose the sources of their money.

Neither group is obligated to disclose its funding until after the Illinois’ primary. Critics suspect they’re conduits for AIPAC money, and AIPAC has declined to say whether there’s any connection.

UDP, Elect Chicago Women and Affordable Chicago Now are three of the top four spenders on advertisements in House races so far, with almost $11 million total, and the majority going to Illinois. Financial numbers are drawn from AdImpact, a nonpartisan ad-tracking service.

None of the organizations mention Israel in their campaign messaging, a strategy that AIPAC-affiliated groups have used in the past as well.

For example, the United Democracy Project assailed Malinowski in New Jersey as sympathetic to President Donald Trump’s deportation efforts, undermining him with liberal voters. In Illinois, it is promoting Conyears-Ervin to replace Davis in the 7th congressional district by saying she will fight to lower costs and protect healthcare.

The strategy has contributed to speculation and angst about AIPAC’s influence in politics. Supporters of Israel accuse critics of using antisemitic tropes about dual loyalty, and others say the focus on AIPAC is misplaced.

“I think the folks who are talking the most about AIPAC are seeking to demonize Israel and create a break in the U.S.-Israel relationship,” said Rep. Brad Schneider, a Democrat who represents Illinois’ 10th district.

“The problem is Citizens United and the decision to allow dark money,” said Schneider, the co-chair of the Congressional Jewish Caucus. “The problem is the rules. Let’s fix the rules.”

Candidates have been criticizing each other for their perceived willingness to accept help from AIPAC. Four progressive candidates vying for different Illinois congressional seats jointly condemned the organization’s role in the state’s primaries during a press conference in February. Another candidate is selling shirts on her website with anti-AIPAC messaging.

AIPAC has increased its campaign spending in recent years

Malinowski is still raw over his experience as AIPAC’s target in New Jersey, and he said that he won’t support any candidates backed by the organization this year. He described himself as pro-Israel even though he opposed unconditional assistance for the country, a stance that drew AIPAC’s ire.

“Obviously, we were going to talk about Israel and Gaza in the campaign because many voters would be asking questions about it,” Malinowski said. “But I wanted those discussions to be about the substance, not colored by baggage of endorsements from groups that are controversial now.”

AIPAC said in a statement that Mejia’s success in the primary was “an anticipated possibility,” suggesting they had no regrets that their role could have helped pave the way for a candidate who has described Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide.

Although AIPAC has always been politically active, it began spending directly on campaigns during the 2022 midterms.

Since then, it has spent more than $221 million through its traditional PAC and its super PAC, according to Federal Election Commission filings between December 2021 and January 2026.

The super PAC has mostly focused on Democratic primaries. In the 2022 and 2024 cycles, UDP spent at least $1 million supporting or opposing 18 candidates, 16 of whom were Democrats. Many of those candidates were running in open races.

Traditional PACs are allowed to raise and donate up to $5,000 per candidate per election, and may coordinate directly with campaigns. Super PACs don’t have fundraising or spending limits but are not allowed to make direct or in-kind contributions to candidates nor coordinate communications.

In 2024, UDP’s biggest investments were made in support of centrist challengers to progressive incumbents. It spent more than $13 million in the 2024 Democratic primary in New York’s 16th District, in which current Rep. George Latimer defeated former Rep. Jamaal Bowman. It also spent $8.5 million opposing former Rep. Cori Bush, who lost her primary to Rep. Wesley Bell.

By ALEXANDRA OLSON, AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — A U.S. civil rights agency has determined that the federal government can bar transgender employees from using bathrooms aligned with their gender identity, dismissing an appeal from a transgender woman who worked for the U.S. Army.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission decided Thursday against a civilian IT specialist who worked for the Army at Fort Riley, Kansas. The EEOC repeatedly declared her to be man even though the worker informed her managers that she identified as a woman in the summer of 2025 when she asked to use bathrooms and locker rooms aligned with her gender identity. Her request was declined and she filed a complaint with the Army, which was dismissed.

The employee, who was not identified, appealed to the EEOC, which decided against her, citing President Donald Trump’s executive order saying the federal government would only recognize two immutable sexes, male and female. The EEOC’s sole Democratic commissioner, Kalpana Kotagal, dissented in the 2-1 decision.

The opinion retreated from the EEOC’s landmark finding a decade ago that another transgender Army employee had been discriminated against because her employer refused to use her preferred pronouns or allow her to use bathrooms based on her gender identity. In its new finding, the EEOC found that the Army’s decision did not violate Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, race, religion and national identity.

EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas has aggressively moved to implement Trump’s orders concerning gender identity, dropping lawsuits on behalf of transgender and nonbinary workers who were fired or harassed, and amending harassment guidelines to exclude language stating that deliberately misgendering workers or barring them from bathrooms aligned with their gender identity could constitute harassment. Many Republican lawmakers have welcomed her decisions and criticized the EEOC under previous administrations for overstepping its authority on gender identity issues.

“Today’s opinion is consistent with the plain meaning of ‘sex’ as understood by Congress at the time Title VII was enacted, as well as longstanding civil rights principles: that similarly situated employees must be treated equally,” Lucas said in a statement. “Biology is not bigotry.”

The EEOC’s argued that interpreting Title VII as allowing “trans-identifying” employees into bathrooms of their gender identity would be tantamount to doing away with single-sex facilities.

“All bathrooms would be mixed-sex by law, and every employee would be required to perform bodily and other private functions in the presence of the opposite-sex,” the EEOC wrote.

Kotagal condemned the decision in a statement posted on her LinkedIn page.

“I strongly disagree with the decision’s substance and tone. The decision rests on the false premise that transgender workers are not worthy of the agency’s protection from discrimination and harassment and that protecting them threatens the rights of other workers. Worse, it suggests that transgender people do not exist,” Kotagal said.

Several transgender and gender nonconforming federal employees have filed formal discrimination complaints over the Trump administration’s policies, which have included stripping government websites of “gender ideology” and reinstituting a ban on transgender service members in the military.

In a quasi-judicial function, the EEOC handles appeals by federal employees whose complaints have been dismissed by their agency’s civil rights offices.

Thursday’s decision applies to all federal agencies but not to private employers, and it does not set a precedent that U.S. courts must follow. In the case of private sector workers, the EEOC investigates complaints and can decide whether to file lawsuits on their behalf, but does not issue decisions.

The Army employee can file a request with the EEOC for reconsideration within 30 days, or she can file a new case in federal district court with 90 days, according to the EEOC.

In her statement, Kotagal argued that a landmark 2020 Supreme Court ruling, Bostock V. Clayton Country, reinforced that Title VII protects transgender workers from discrimination, and she criticizes the EEOC for “rushing” its decision while a federal district court is addressing similar issues in a class action case filed federal employees.

But in its decision, the EEOC argued that Bostock only established that employers cannot fire transgender employees or refuse to hire them based on their gender identity, making no decision on the issue of bathrooms or locker rooms or on the definition of sex.

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Echoing a stance long held by Lucas, the EEOC argued that allowing transgender workers into bathrooms and locker rooms of their choice would be dangerous to women, violating their expectations for privacy in such spaces. That reasoning rested on the EEOC’s repeated argument that the U.S. Army employee is not a woman and in fact was demanding “special treatment” by asking to be allowed into a bathroom of “the opposite sex.”

The EEOC cited Trump’s executive order and various dictionary entries in an extensive explanation of its insistence that “the complainant’s sex is male, from the moment of his conception and continuing even after he began to identify as transgender.”

Social conservatives have applauded that view but the American Medical Association and other mainstream medical groups have said extensive scientific research suggests sex and gender are better understood as a spectrum than as an either-or definition. Some biologists have criticized Trump’s executive order as scientifically unsound because among other problems, it sidesteps variations that include intersex people, who have physical traits that don’t fit typical definitions for male or female categories. In a footnote, the EEOC said intersex individuals present “rare and unique circumstances” that “can be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.”

The Congressional Equality Caucus and several civil rights advocacy groups, including the Human Rights Campaign and the National Women’s Law Center, condemned the decision

“Andrea Lucas has spent her time leading EEOC undermining enforcement of minority workers’ rights — she’s exactly who the Commission was designed to fight back against,” said Rep. Mark Takano, chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus.

The Defense Department referred questions to the Department of Justice and the Army, which did not immediately reply to requests for comment.

AP Business Writer Claire Savage contributed to this report from Chicago.

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