A group of volunteers looking for missing relatives received the first hint last week about mass graves hidden in western Mexico.
When they arrived at an abandoned ranch outside La Estanzuela, a small rural village on the outskirts of Guadalajara, they discovered three underground cremation ovens, burning human remains, hundreds of bone fragments, discarded personal items, Santa Muerte figurines, and sacred death.
Notified of the horrifying finding, Mexican authorities said in several statements that they later discovered 96 shell casings with various calibers and metal grip rings at the ranch. By last Friday, the discovery had dominated local newspapers and television reports, and search groups called the site “extinction camp.”
It is unknown how many people died on the site, and none of the bodies have been identified. Authorities have not yet said who runs the camp, what crimes were committed there, how long and what they did. But this week, the Attorney General's office took over the investigation at the request of President Claudia Sinbaum.
Photos taken by authorities and a group of volunteers searched for Jalisco warriors on an abandoned ranch, with over 200 shoes loaded together and a pile of other personal items. Over 700 personal items were horrifying hints as to the number of people who could have died there.
In a country that appears to be plagued by episodes of brutal violence from drug cartels, where secret tombs appear every month, the image shocked Mexicans, demanding infuriated human rights groups to end the violence that the government has destroyed its people for years.
“We're looking forward to seeing you in the process of exploring the world,” said Eduardo Guerrero, a Mexico City-based security analyst. “The number of casualties that could have been buried there is huge, resurfaced nightmare reminders of Mexico being plagued by a massive grave,” Guerrero added.
Official data shows that more than 120,000 people have been forced to disappear in Mexico since record-keeping began in 1962. Volunteer human rights groups and groups seeking missing relatives have warned that the number could increase.
The farm's discovery comes as Shainbaum faces intense pressure from President Trump to crack down on organized crime to avoid tariffs on exports to the US and even the possibility of US military intervention to corner cartel members.
Because of Trump's threat, Sinbaum has brought security issues back to center stage on her agenda and has taken a more aggressive approach to fighting crime, according to her predecessors and analysts. However, her government faces important challenges as it tackles powerful criminal groups that control the wider parts of the country.
One of Mexico's most violent criminal organizations, Jalisco's new generation cartels, which emerged in the early 2010s, are now the leading producers and traffickers of synthetic drugs, particularly fentanyl and methamphetamine. Groups operating in Jalisco and across the country are diversifying into other criminal activities such as illegal logging, human trafficking and fear tor.
Officials say the ranch may be run by the Jalisco Cartel. The group's dominance and rapid expansion in recent years are consistent with the discovery, forced disappearance and increased discovery of large tombs in Jalisco.
Indira Navarro, the leader of the Jalisco search, who discovered the site, said in an interview with local news media this week that several individuals contacted the group and said they had been recruited and trained at the site using weapons and torture techniques. But the ranch is also used as a murder scene where criminals routinely disposed of their victims, they said.
Navarro, who could not be contacted for comment, told the news outlet that young people from other states were recruited through false job offers posted on social media. After they accepted the job, she was summoned to a bus stop in Guadalajara, the state capital, and from there she was taken to the ranch, she said.
Navarro said one young man told her that a young recruit was forced to burn the victims as part of his training. If they opposed the orders of their trainers, recruits were sometimes given to wild animals, like lions, she said.
“This is not a horror movie. It's our reality and people should know about it,” Navarro, who went missing nine years ago, said in an interview with radio shows around the country.
The New York Times could not independently verify the account.
Local authorities first spotted the ranch last September, and official reports found weapons, shell casings and bone fragments there, but further investigations were stopped for unknown reasons. During the same inspection, authorities discovered, rescued, and also found two people invited and detained at the ranch, and found bodies wrapped in plastic.
State Attorney General Salvador Gonzalez told local news media in September that searching the entire ranch was impossible “as there are a lot of hectares in the area.”
At a press conference this week, Sinbaum suggested that local governments may have omitted it in their initial investigation.
The Attorney General said “it is right to say that it is unreliable that the circumstances of this nature were unknown to the authorities of that municipality and state,” she said. “But the first thing we have to do is investigate.”
