For families in Mexico looking for missing relatives, the grim discovery of the so-called “extinction” site may be their worst fear.
Mexican authorities are now investigating the site in the western state of Jalisco, a site first discovered last week by a group of volunteers who were believed to have been used by a New Generation Cartel in the region, known as the Jalisco Cartel.
Inside the iron gate, there are more and more horrors, including cremation ovens, bone fragments, hundreds of pairs of shoes, clothes, and even children’s toys.
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This photo posted by the Attorney General of Jalisco State showed the shoe on Izaguirre Ranch, which also found skeletal remains in the city of Teuchitlan, Mexico on March 11. (Jalisco State Attorney General’s Office via AP)
“They’ll see the shoes saying, ‘Those people who look like my missing relatives wear when they disappear,'” Luz Toscano, one of the volunteers, told BBC News.
Mexican authorities attacked pastures near the village of Teuchitlán in September last year and they failed to find or reveal the discovery of human remains.
During the raid, 10 arrests were conducted, two hostages were released, and the bodies were found wrapped in plastic.
After authorities started the search this week, they said they also found nearly 100 shells.
While a National Guard stood at the back, members of the collective “Guerreros Buscadores” visited the Izaguirre Ranch, and on March 5 they searched for three human crematorium ovens in the La Estanzuela community in Teuchitlán, Jalisco, Mexico. (ulises ruiz/afp via Getty image)
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The remains have not been determined, and the number is not yet known, but the number of personal items left is about 700.
“The number of victims who may be buried can be huge,” said Eduardo Guerrero, a Mexico City security analyst, to The New York Times. “It resurfaces the nightmare, reminding Mexico that it has plagued massive graves.”
The collective “Guerreros Buscadores” discovered members of three human crematoriums while searching for relatives at Izaguirre Ranch in La Estanzuela, Teuchitlan, Jalisco, Mexico on March 5. (ulises ruiz/afp via Getty image)
The discovery, based on anonymous tips, dominated headlines, shocked a country attracted by mass graves and prompted citizens to call on authorities to combat cartel violence.
In Mexico, there are 120,000 people who “forcedly disappear”.
Jalisco Governor Pablo Lemus told critics in a video message this week that his office is working fully with federal investigators and no one “washed” the case, according to BBC News.
A notebook read in Spanish “My love, if one day I don’t come back, I just ask you to remember how much I love you’ (ulises ruiz/afp via Getty image)
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The Teuchitlan ranch, about 37 miles (60 kilometers) west of Guadalajara in September last year, was allegedly used as a training base for cartel recruits.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
