Mexicans searching for missing relatives uncover possible mass killing
site in Jalisco state
[March 14, 2025]
By DIANA DE LA MORA and FABIOLA SÁNCHEZ
TEUCHITLAN, Mexico (AP) — When a group of citizens searching for missing
relatives in the western state of Jalisco arrived at a remote ranch
outside Mexico's second-largest city last week on an anonymous tip, all
they had to do was push open the unlocked gate.
Inside they went to work with simple tools — picks, shovels and metal
bars — doing the work that state investigators supposedly had done six
months earlier.
What they found embarrassed state authorities and shook Mexico: dozens
of shoes, heaps of clothing and what appeared to be human bone
fragments. Distraught families from across the country have already
started reaching out about clothing items they say they recognize.
It was a shocking reminder of Mexico’s more than 120,000 disappeared and
enough to push the federal government to take over the troubled
investigation.
A ‘training base’ for cartel recruits
The ranch in Teuchitlan, about 37 miles (60 kilometers) west of
Guadalajara was allegedly being used as a training base for cartel
recruits when National Guard troops found it last September.
Authorities then said 10 people were arrested, two hostages were freed
and a body was found wrapped in plastic. The state prosecutor’s office
went in with a backhoe, dogs and devices to find inconsistencies in the
ground.
But then the investigation went quiet until members of the Jalisco
Search Warriors, one of dozens of search collectives that dot Mexico,
visited the site last week on a tip.
They found the shoes, as well as heaps of other clothing and what
appeared to be burned bone fragments.
Members of the search collective were back at the site Thursday, invited
to observe authorities as they worked to register evidence and search
the property.
“A lot of families have stepped forward to identify items of clothing,”
said Maribel, a member of the search collective, who spoke to the press
outside the ranch and asked to only be identified by her first name for
safety.
“What we want is to stop all of this, the disappearances,” she said. “We
hope that this time they'll do the work as they should.”
An ‘irresponsible omission’
There are more than 120,000 disappeared people in Mexico, according to
the government’s tally. Search collectives like the Jalisco Search
Warriors have had to organize to do the work that authorities often will
not do. They search for sites like the one in Teuchitlan, sometimes with
government protection, but more often without, then make their
discoveries known to pressure authorities into doing their jobs.
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This photo released by the Jalisco State Attorney General's Office
shows investigators inspecting the Izaguirre Ranch where skeletal
remains were discovered in the municipality of Teuchitlan, Mexico,
Tuesday, March 11, 2025. (Jalisco State Attorney General's Office
via AP)
This time it worked.
Jalisco State Prosecutor Salvador González de los Santos visited the
ranch personally Tuesday. He said that investigators had found six
groups of bones, but it was unclear how many victims they could
belong to. He did not provide details on why investigators had
previously failed to find what the untrained private citizens did,
but said the previous efforts “were insufficient.”
His office posted photos of all of the evidence located hoping that
relatives might identify an item of clothing.
Jalisco Gov. Pablo Lemus announced Wednesday that the federal
Attorney General’s Office would take over the investigation as
requested by Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum. The Jalisco New
Generation cartel is the dominant criminal organization in the
state.
On Thursday, white government vehicles ringed the isolated ranch of
squat buildings enclosed by a tall wall and fields.
“This ranch served as a training site and even though it sounds
awful, really harsh, for extermination,” said collective leader
Indira Navarro, earlier this week.
She blamed the state’s previous Gov. Enrique Alfaro for “trying to
hide this kind of situation or discovery.” And she asked aloud how
state investigators with technology and training could have failed
to find what her group did “with pick, shovel and metal bar.”
On Wednesday, the Mexican Episcopal Conference said in a statement
that it was troubled by the discovery of the site, which points to
an “irresponsible omission” on the part of authorities at all three
levels of government and another sign of the larger problem of
Mexico’s disappeared.
____
Sánchez reported from Mexico City.
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