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.
skeletal remains were discovered. The remote ranch outside Mexico’s second-largest city, Jalisco, was allegedly being used as a training base for cartel recruits.” width=”720″ height=”479″ src=”https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/67d431841700002600c5f5d2.jpeg?ops=scalefit_720_noupscale”/>Shoes are seen Tuesday at the Izaguirre Ranch where skeletal remains were discovered. The remote ranch outside Mexico’s second-largest city, Jalisco, was allegedly being used as a training base for cartel recruits.
via Associated Press
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.
Investigators are seen inspecting the Izaguirre Ranch on Tuesday where skeletal remains were discovered.
via Associated Press
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.”
Police stand guard outside the entrance to Izaguirre Ranch on Thursday.
via Associated Press
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,