Discovery of bones and shoes at suspected cartel “extermination center” sparks protests in Mexico

MT HANNACH
5 Min Read
Disclosure: This website may contain affiliate links, which means I may earn a commission if you click on the link and make a purchase. I only recommend products or services that I personally use and believe will add value to my readers. Your support is appreciated!

Protesters gathered through Mexico on Saturday to demand justice following a macabre discovery of Cartonized bones, shoes and clothes On a training field suspected of drugs.

Demonstrations have taken place in the western state of Jalisco, where the remains were found, and in cities across the country, including the capital Mexico, Tijuana, Veracruz and San Luis Potosi, according to AFP journalists and local press reports.

Families in search of some of the more than 100,000 people who disappeared in Mexico discovered that the bodies on March 5 in a ranch where forced recruits would have taken place.

The GUERREROS Buscadores Collective – A group dedicated to the location of disappeared people – described the site as an “extermination center” with “clandestine crematoriums”, causing a shock in a country which has become in an elegance of violence linked to the cartel.

Vigille for the victims of a clandestine mass grave recently found in Jalisco State

Pairs of shoes representing victims are represented during a vigil for the victims of the clandestine mass grave recently found in Teuchitlan, in the state of Jalisco, Zocalo Square, Mexico, Mexico, March 15, 2025.

Seila Montes / Reuters


In the Mexican capital, the demonstrators placed candles and rows of shoes in tribute to the missing.

“I came to speak for my son and for all the missing,” said Aurora Corona, 58, whose son disappeared in March of last year in the northeast of Nuevo Leon of the State of Mexico.

She hoped that the discovery would put pressure on the authorities to do more to find the 124,059 people officially registered as disappeared in Mexico, mainly since 2006, when the government declared war against drug cartels.

“I hope they will pay attention to us now, they see the horrors of the country in which we live,” she said in tears.

Since October 2023, groups looking for missing Mexicans have reported the discovery of six other clandestine crematoriums presumed in Jalisco.

Hundreds of tombs have been discovered elsewhere in the country.

On Friday, the United Nations Human Rights Office described the conclusion to Jalisco as a “deeply disturbing reminder of the trauma of disappearances linked to organized crime across the country”.

“The discovery is all the more worrying since this site had previously been searched as recently as September 2024 by the National Guard and the Office of the State Prosecutor of Jalisco, without detected crucial evidence,” he added.

Juan Carlos Perez, a 22 -year -old student demonstrating, hoped that the demonstration would serve as alarm to take measures against rampant criminal violence that submerged Mexico security and justice institutions for two decades.

“My first reaction (to discover) was unfortunately” Ah Look, another “, but then I started to follow the story and I realized that it could have been me, it could have been my father, my mother,” he said.

Violence in Mexico

This photo published by the Office of the Attorney General of Jalisco shows shoes at the Izaguirre Ranch where skeletal remains were also discovered in the municipality of Teuchitlan, Mexico, Tuesday March 11, 2025.

The Office of the Attorney General of Jalisco via AP


Jalisco’s state prosecutor, Salvador González de Los Santos, visited the Ranch personally last week. He said the investigators had found six bone groups, but it was not clear how many victims could belong. He did not provide details on the reasons why the investigators had not managed to find what the unleashed private people did, but said that previous efforts “were insufficient”.

Her Office published photos Of all the evidence located hoping that relatives could identify an article in clothing.

Several graves have been found in recent months in Mexico. In January, at least 56 bodies were discovered In not marked mass pits in northern Mexico, not far from the border with the United States.

A mass grave Discovered last December in a suburbs of Guadalajara with dozens of bodies of dismembered body parts contained the remains of 24 people, the authorities said. This same month, the Mexican authorities said they had recovered a total of 31 body Chiapas pits, a state tormented by the violence of the cartel.

Collective seeking missing people Say that drug trafficking cartels and other organized crime gangs sometimes use ovens to incine their victims and leave no trace.

Share This Article
Leave a Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *