disappeared

Tens of thousands of families like his are now searching for relatives who disappeared into Assad's notorious prison system, or into its military interrogation centres.

"For seven months all we knew was that he disappeared," she said.

In the last few months, Angamacutiro has seen its chief of security murdered and an ex-mayor disappeared — crimes indicative of the violence that has convulsed the western state of Michoacán.

Officers who responded to the incident saw the drones flying overhead, but they disappeared soon afterwards.

Away from the celebrations, bereaved families went looking for the bodies of family members who disappeared over the past decade in the notorious prisons of the Assad regime.