New Delhi, March 28 -- Mexico's government said in a new report Friday that it identified signs of life for a third of the country's 130,000 registered missing people, an announcement that was quickly criticized by a number of search groups who called it another attempt to undermine the depth of Mexico's disappearance crisis.

The mounting criticism cut to the heart of fierce debate over how Mexico tracks disappearances, which have soared since the beginning of the drug war in 2006. While authorities say figures are overcounted, families say the number of missing people in Mexico is actually far higher. Both blame what they see as a lack of reliable data on failures by local governments and deep-seated impunity.

Mexican authorities said ...