One Year After Discovery of Cartel Extermination Camp, Families Still Have No Answers About Their Missing Relatives

Nearly one year after the discovery of the Izaguirre Ranch, a property located in Teuchitlán, Jalisco, allegedly used by the Jalisco cartel as a recruitment, training and extermination site, a journalistic investigation reviewed nearly 2,000 clothing items found there that point to failures and omissions by authorities, as well as negligence in pursuing the case.

The project "Las Prendas Hablan" is an initiative that seeks to identify, alongside search collectives, similarities between clothing and other evidence found at the Izaguirre Ranch and garments worn by people reported missing. As noted by Animal Político, one of the project's goals is to document omissions by prosecutors' offices both in their investigations and in their treatment of families, who nearly a year later still have no answers.

According to testimony from affected families, the last formal meeting they had with officials from the Attorney General's Office was on Feb. 13, one month after the collective Guerreros Buscadores de Jalisco said in a statement that forensic work and the investigation itself had been halted.

Raúl Servín, a father searching for his 20 year old son since 2018, said authorities are repeating the same version of events they presented last year, when the case first gained widespread media attention.

"From a year ago to now, when they met with us, it seems they have not advanced much, or rather not at all," Servín said. "They told us what they had already said before, although they confirmed one new detail: the discovery of other evidence beneath the warehouse where the clothing was found. They said they would later provide more details, but for me it was heartbreaking to realize that everything remains the same."

One year after the discovery of the Izaguirre Ranch, relatives of those missing are asking authorities not to close the case.

"We remained silent for months so as not to interfere with the investigations. We trusted the institutions and waited for answers, but all we received was abandonment, omissions and lies," Guerreros Buscadores de Jalisco said in a statement published Jan. 12.

The collective also released photographs of the ranch's current condition, showing it overgrown with vegetation and without any visible presence of authorities.

Since the property was discovered, authorities have arrested 20 people linked to crimes committed at the ranch, 10 of whom have been sentenced to more than 140 years in prison. Among those detained is the former mayor of Teuchitlán, José Ascensión Murguía Santiago, who was charged with organized crime.

One year after the discovery, both Guerreros Buscadores and Madres Buscadoras de Jalisco say that not only is the genetic analysis of the recovered clothing still pending, but also a series of searches of similar properties that could be or could have been forced recruitment sites.

"We have a list of things we have asked them to analyze and investigate, but they only stall or ask us to be patient, since after the departure of former Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero they changed officials, forensic experts and investigators. They ask for patience, but that runs out when we see they are closing the case," said Indira Navarro, leader of Guerreros Buscadores de Jalisco, who has been searching for her missing brother since 2015.

"What we want is for the work to resume, for the information we have provided to be taken seriously and for families to know whether their missing relative was there or not," Navarro said.

With their patience running out, search groups are now urging President Claudia Sheinbaum to step in, arguing that forced recruitment continues and that places like the Izaguirre Ranch not only still exist but continue operating with impunity.

"This is our final cry of hope. For the memory of those who were left at Izaguirre Ranch, for those who continue to disappear today and for a country that cannot normalize abandoned extermination sites," Guerreros Buscadores de Jalisco said in its statement.