The Japan Times - Mexicans seek answers after bones, shoes found at cartel camp

EUR -
AED 4.009997
AFN 76.964387
ALL 99.220998
AMD 428.372779
ANG 1.968379
AOA 999.034005
ARS 1165.584001
AUD 1.711055
AWG 1.968042
AZN 1.857199
BAM 1.959344
BBD 2.205209
BDT 132.698836
BGN 1.955382
BHD 0.411398
BIF 3183.259907
BMD 1.09184
BND 1.454331
BOB 7.546652
BRL 6.209405
BSD 1.092186
BTN 94.829981
BWP 14.849931
BYN 3.574282
BYR 21400.066602
BZD 2.193879
CAD 1.560944
CDF 3139.040114
CHF 0.9622
CLF 0.02619
CLP 1005.044161
CNY 7.897495
CNH 7.892328
COP 4447.337821
CRC 544.780515
CUC 1.09184
CUP 28.933764
CVE 110.711967
CZK 25.046707
DJF 194.041291
DKK 7.460336
DOP 68.69472
DZD 145.329376
EGP 55.147741
ERN 16.377602
ETB 140.847322
FJD 2.518767
FKP 0.843782
GBP 0.840788
GEL 3.040797
GGP 0.843782
GHS 16.925835
GIP 0.843782
GMD 78.612163
GNF 9449.876318
GTQ 8.421311
GYD 228.50441
HKD 8.483216
HNL 28.125499
HRK 7.53413
HTG 143.240433
HUF 397.96491
IDR 17891.711296
ILS 3.987351
IMP 0.843782
INR 94.900397
IQD 1430.310574
IRR 45980.121683
ISK 146.098879
JEP 0.843782
JMD 171.049427
JOD 0.774225
JPY 163.173323
KES 141.396287
KGS 95.422243
KHR 4381.020106
KMF 492.256278
KPW 982.656119
KRW 1575.087516
KWD 0.336254
KYD 0.910151
KZT 544.560119
LAK 23649.257315
LBP 97828.875995
LKR 323.698534
LRD 217.367456
LSL 19.893461
LTL 3.22392
LVL 0.660443
LYD 5.259942
MAD 10.533526
MDL 19.632605
MGA 5104.352752
MKD 61.534726
MMK 2292.846866
MNT 3791.395104
MOP 8.741273
MRU 43.560216
MUR 49.187302
MVR 16.819017
MWK 1896.526117
MXN 21.787332
MYR 4.851592
MZN 69.779736
NAD 19.892911
NGN 1681.335433
NIO 40.13059
NOK 11.513356
NPR 151.72817
NZD 1.875124
OMR 0.420328
PAB 1.092176
PEN 3.9972
PGK 4.394113
PHP 62.567941
PKR 305.906312
PLN 4.186971
PYG 8679.701532
QAR 3.975419
RON 4.97737
RSD 117.16861
RUB 91.114111
RWF 1534.035387
SAR 4.09505
SBD 9.183779
SCR 15.66793
SDG 656.196144
SEK 11.018469
SGD 1.452251
SHP 0.858015
SLE 24.921287
SLL 22895.342846
SOS 623.992949
SRD 39.405596
STD 22598.886332
SVC 9.556287
SYP 14196.040638
SZL 19.893297
THB 36.674725
TJS 11.937266
TMT 3.82144
TND 3.35817
TOP 2.557202
TRY 40.015662
TTD 7.413343
TWD 35.997922
TZS 2891.06934
UAH 45.278709
UGX 4006.247279
USD 1.09184
UYU 46.544198
UZS 14139.329861
VES 71.564437
VND 27874.67859
VUV 134.249859
WST 3.077347
XAF 657.145773
XAG 0.032291
XAU 0.000364
XCD 2.950752
XDR 0.818277
XOF 657.834557
XPF 119.331742
YER 268.86575
ZAR 19.760603
ZMK 9827.870159
ZMW 31.327672
ZWL 351.572077
  • RBGPF

    -0.4100

    66.02

    -0.62%

  • SCS

    0.0200

    11.01

    +0.18%

  • NGG

    0.9300

    64.14

    +1.45%

  • BTI

    0.4800

    41.84

    +1.15%

  • GSK

    0.7600

    40.25

    +1.89%

  • RELX

    0.6700

    49.6

    +1.35%

  • RYCEF

    0.1000

    10.45

    +0.96%

  • CMSC

    0.1100

    23.33

    +0.47%

  • RIO

    0.4300

    63.47

    +0.68%

  • AZN

    -0.2300

    77.37

    -0.3%

  • BCC

    0.6500

    100

    +0.65%

  • JRI

    0.1700

    13

    +1.31%

  • BCE

    0.2300

    23.7

    +0.97%

  • BP

    0.3700

    33.76

    +1.1%

  • VOD

    0.3100

    9.86

    +3.14%

  • CMSD

    0.1900

    23.54

    +0.81%

Mexicans seek answers after bones, shoes found at cartel camp
Mexicans seek answers after bones, shoes found at cartel camp / Photo: ULISES RUIZ - AFP

Mexicans seek answers after bones, shoes found at cartel camp

A grisly discovery of charred bones, shoes and clothing at a suspected drug cartel training ground has prompted demands for answers and justice from relatives of the more than 100,000 people missing in Mexico.

Text size:

A group of families searching for people who have disappeared reported the find this month at a ranch in the western state of Jalisco where forced recruits are thought to have been held.

The Guerreros Buscadores collective described the site as an "extermination center" with "clandestine crematoriums," causing shock in a country that has become inured to spiraling cartel-related violence.

"We're talking about a recruitment center for our youth," said the group's leader, Indira Navarro.

The property had already been searched in September following clashes in the area between the military and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, one of Mexico's most powerful and violent drug trafficking groups.

The Jalisco state prosecutor's office reported at the time that it found skeletal remains.

Last week, the collective discovered more buried bones, dozens of shoes, and other objects that apparently went unnoticed during the initial search.

The United Nations Human Rights Office on Friday described it 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.

- 'Remember I love you' -

Following anonymous tip-offs, the collective began digging at the ranch in the remote community of Teuchitlan, accompanied at times by an AFP photographer.

In three holes they discovered cremated bone fragments, and what they described as crematoriums.

They also found about 200 pairs of shoes, piles of clothing, suitcases, hygiene products, notes about weapons and a letter from a recruit.

"My love, if one day I never return, I only ask that you remember how much I love you," wrote a young man who was allegedly kidnapped in February 2024, but who, according to Guerreros Buscadores, returned to his family in October.

The group also discovered spent gun cartridges, target practice sheets, and an altar to the "Santa Muerte" (Saint Death), a cult deeply rooted in Mexico's criminal underworld.

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, such as in Bartolina in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas, where authorities unearthed 500 kilos of remains between 2017 and 2021 at what they called an "extermination site."

The Jalisco prosecutor's office has admitted that its initial investigations in Teuchitlan were "insufficient."

"It's not credible that a situation of this nature would not have been known to local authorities," said Mexico's Attorney General Alejandro Gertz, who took over the case this week at the request of President Claudia Sheinbaum.

Sheinbaum said more evidence was needed before conclusions could be drawn.

After further inspections, the Jalisco prosecutor's office said on Thursday that it had found no "structures that served as ovens," although it continues to search for possible remains.

- Authorities overwhelmed -

More than 124,000 people have been officially registered as missing in Mexico, mostly since 2006 when the government declared war on drug cartels.

Around 480,000 people have been murdered.

Jalisco is the state with the most missing persons -- nearly 15,000.

Rampant criminal violence, as well as links between corrupt officials and criminal groups, means that Mexico's security and justice institutions are overwhelmed.

In 2023, Jalisco had 798 prosecutors investigating 137,100 crimes committed that year, an average of 172 cases per officer, according to official statistics.

Around 40 percent of Mexico's missing are men aged 20-39.

Jorge Ramirez Plascencia, a researcher at the University of Guadalajara, thinks the shoes and clothing at the ranch probably belonged to forced recruits who were given military-style fatigues after being trained.

The remains were likely those of "murdered recruits," he told AFP.

Practices such as incinerating bodies are "to train them in torture, dismemberment and tolerance of death," he said.

M.Matsumoto--JT