Possible Cartel “Extermination Site” Discovered in Jalisco State

Local activists in the western Mexican state of Jalisco appear to have discovered a drug cartel’s grisly extermination site.

From the BBC: “The gates to the Izaguirre Ranch look much like any others you might find in the state of Jalisco. Two prancing horses on the front perhaps a nod to the surrounding cattle-grazing and sugarcane fields. Yet what lies behind the black iron doors is allegedly evidence of some of Mexico’s worst drug cartel violence of recent times. Following a tip-off about the possible location of a mass grave, an activist group of relatives of some of Mexico’s thousands of disappeared people went to the ranch, hoping to find some sign of their missing loved ones.”

“What they found was far worse: 200 pairs of shoes, hundreds of items of clothing, scores of suitcases and rucksacks, discarded after the owners themselves were apparently disposed of. Even more chilling, several ovens and human bone fragments were found at the ranch.”

“The site was used, the activists claim, by the New Generation Jalisco Cartel (CJNG) for the forced recruitment and training of their foot-soldiers, and for torturing their victims and cremating their bodies.”

The site had been previously raided six months earlier, by local police and the National Guard.

“ For many, however, the worst part of the gruesome discovery is that local police raided the ranch, near the village of Teuchitlán, as recently as last September.”

“ While at the time they made 10 arrests and released two hostages, they either didn’t find or didn’t reveal any evidence of the apparent magnitude of violence carried out there.”

“ While the full picture is still to come over what action, if any, was taken by the municipal and state authorities after last year’s operation, critics and victims’ families openly accuse them of complicity with the cartels in Jalisco.”

“The discovery led to protests. From CBS: “Protesters gathered across Mexico on Saturday [March 15] to demand justice following a grisly discovery of charred bones, shoes and clothing at a suspected drug cartel training ground.”

“Demonstrations took place in the western state of Jalisco, where the remains were found, and in cities across the country, including the capital Mexico City, Tijuana, Veracruz and San Luis Potosi, according to AFP journalists and local press reports. Families searching for some of the more than 100,000 people missing in Mexico discovered the bodies on March 5 at a ranch where forced recruits are thought to have been held.”

“The Guerreros Buscadores collective — a group dedicated to locating missing people — described the site as an “extermination center” with “clandestine crematoriums,” causing shock in a country that has become inured to spiraling cartel-related violence.”

“In the Mexican capital, demonstrators placed candles and rows of shoes in tribute to the missing. ‘I came to speak out for my son and for all the disappeared,’ said Aurora Corona, 58, whose son vanished in March last year in Mexico’s northeastern Nuevo Leon state.”

“She hoped the discovery would pressure authorities to do more to find the 124,059 people officially registered as missing in Mexico, mostly since 2006 when the government declared war on drug cartels.”

“ ‘Hopefully they’ll pay attention to us now they see the horrors of the country we live in,’ she said tearfully.”

“Since October 2023, groups searching for missing Mexicans have reported the discovery of six more alleged clandestine crematoriums in Jalisco. Hundreds of graves have been discovered elsewhere in the country.”

“The United Nations Human Rights Office on Friday described the finding in Jalisco as a ‘deeply disturbing reminder of the trauma of disappearances linked to organized crime across the country.’ ”

“ ‘The discovery is all the more disturbing given that this site had been previously raided as recently as September 2024 by the National Guard and the Jalisco State Prosecutor’s Office, without crucial evidence being detected,’ it added.”