When a group of citizens looking for a missing relative in the west of Jalisco arrived last week on an anonymous tip at a remote ranch outside Mexico’s second largest city, all they had to do was push an unlocked gate.
Inside, they used simple tools (picks, shovels, metal bars) that state investigators do what they thought they’d done six months ago.
What they found embarrassing state authorities and rocked Mexico: dozens of shoes, piles of clothes, and what looked like fragments of human bones. Difficult families across the country have already begun reaching out for clothing they say they recognize.
Jalisco State Attorney General’s Office via the AP
It was a shocking reminder Over 120,000 people have disappeared in Mexico And it’s enough to encourage the federal government to take over the problematic investigation.
“Training Base” for Cartel recruits
The Teucitlan ranch, about 37 miles west of Guadalajara, was said to have been used as a training base for cartel recruits when the National Guard discovered it last September.
Authorities said 10 people were subsequently arrested, two hostages were released and bodies were found to be wrapped in plastic. The state prosecutor’s office had backhoes, dogs and equipment to find inconsistencies in the ground.
However, the investigation has since quietened, with the Jalisco Search Warriors, one of the dozens of search groups scattered across Mexico, visiting the site last week with hints.
They found piles of shoes and other clothing and fragments of bone that appeared to be burning.
Members of the Search Collective returned to the site Thursday to register evidence and observe the authorities who worked to search for property.
“Many families have made progress in identifying clothing items,” said Maribel, a member of the search group.
“What we want is to stop all of this, lose the disappearance,” she said. “I hope they do what they need this time.”
“Irresponsible omission”
According to government tallies, Mexico has more than 120,000 people missing. Search groups like Jalisco search warriors had to organize to do work that authorities often don’t. They sometimes search for sites like Teuthitlan with government protection, but more often, they know that the discovery puts pressure on the authorities to do their job.
This time it worked.
Jalisco State Prosecutor Salvador Gonzalez de los Santos visited the ranch on Tuesday. He said investigators discovered six groups of bones, but the number of victims they belonged to was unknown. He did not provide details as to why investigators were unable to find what previously untrained civilians did, but said previous efforts were “inadequate.”
His office posted photos of all the evidence that relatives hoped to be able to identify their clothing.
Jalisco Gov. Pablo Lemus announced Wednesday that the federal attorney general’s office will take over the investigation at the request of Mexican President Claudia Sinbaum. Jalisco’s new generation cartel is the state’s dominant criminal organization.
On Thursday, a white government vehicle rang through an isolated ranch of squat buildings surrounded by tall walls and fields.
“The ranch served as a training site, but it sounds terrible and really tough due to extinction,” said collective leader Indira Navarro earlier this week.
She accused the state’s former governor Enrique Alfaro of “trying to hide this type of situation and discovery.” And she asked aloud how technology and trained state investigators couldn’t find out what her group had done “with picks, shovels, metal bars.”
On Wednesday, the Anglican Congress in Mexico said in a statement that it was plagued by the discovery of sites showing “irresponsible omissions” in some authorities at all three levels of the government and other indications of Mexico’s bigger problems.
/ AP
In recent months, multiple mass graves have been discovered in Mexico. At least in January 56 bodies have been found In a large, unmarked tomb in northern Mexico, it is not far from the border with the US.
a A large number of graves The discovery in the suburbs of Guadalajara last December includes dozens of dismembered body parts, including 24 bodies, authorities said. Mexican authorities have discovered 12 bodies buried in secret graves in northern Chihuahua, Mexico. Also, 12 other bodies were found in several graves, about two hours from Ciudad Juarez, which is crossing the border from El Paso, Texas.
That same month, Mexican authorities said they had recovered the total 31 A state plagued by cartel violence from the Chiapas pit.
Groups looking for missing people Say it that drug trafficking cartels and other organized crime gangs can use ovens to incinerate victims and leave no trace.
