Mexico's lower house of congress has approved a bill to compensate victims of drug-related violence and families of casualties.

The legislation creates a national institution that allocates federal funds paying reparations for damages to survivors of the violence. Families of victims will be eligible for payments up to $73,000.

The law, which was finally passed after much lobbying by activists, also obligates the government to investigate every registered case of a missing person.

About 50,000 people have been killed and many others have been kidnapped in the past six years of the country's drug war.

Franc Contreras reports from Mexico City.