Two Former Jalisco Cartel Operatives Recruited as Teens Describe Clandestine Camps: 'They Put Them in a Shower and Started Mutilating Them'

Drug cartels in Mexico continue to develop different methods to recruit children and adolescents into their ranks, using everything from video games and social media to fake job offers.

Every year, thousands of minors are lured by promises of quick money or protection, making them easy targets for recruitment as many live in poverty or face limited opportunities elsewhere.

Mexican news outlet La Crónica de Hoy reported earlier this month that the government has yet to release official data on the number of children and adolescents believed to be recruited by criminal groups, making the crime harder to track and giving cartels more room to operate with impunity.

In this context, Noticias Telemundo interviewed two teenagers who said they were recruited by the Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG). They described how the group, led by Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, also known as "El Mencho," drew them in.

A 19-year-old, who requested anonymity due to safety concerns, said: "I was recruited in Guadalajara. I worked at the city's wholesale market, and that was where they picked me up. The only thing I knew is that I got into a car."

He said that after being abducted, he was taken to a clandestine camp used by the group to train recruits and carry out executions. "They killed them there," he said. "They put them in a shower and started mutilating them."

He also revealed his wife was pregnant when he was recruited. "I left my wife pregnant, and I don't know anything about her. I love her a lot. Soon I will see my baby and her," he said.

A 15‑year‑old also spoke to Telemundo, saying he was recruited in the state of Jalisco and ended up in a training camp. "I come from Guadalajara. I was recruited by the CJNG," he said. "They taught us how to disassemble and assemble guns, everything...but always with abuse."

Lorena Cortés, coordinator of the Security and Justice Task Force in the state of Michoacán, told the outlet that in recent years more than 30,000 minors ages 13 to 17 have been recruited by criminal organizations across the country. "They don't have any other option. Because if they don't join or cooperate, they're practically signing their death sentence," she said.

Recruitment of children and adolescents has soared in the past decade. According to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (CIDH), in 2015 about 30,000 minors were reported to have been recruited by criminal groups in Mexico. Three years later that number jumped sharply to 460,000, according to the Strategic Center for Justice and Law for the Americas A.C. (Cenejyd).

Other organizations, such as the Network for the Rights of Children in Mexico (REDIM), emphasize that the youngest children identified in their investigations were as young as 7 years old.

Estimates from the CIDH indicate more than 270,000 minors in Mexico are at risk of recruitment by organized crime in the next five years. The National Citizen Observatory on Security, Justice and Legality and CIDH separately estimate the number of children at risk ranges between 145,000 and 250,000.

Civil society groups say seven states account for 55 percent of the risk: Estado de México, Jalisco, Chiapas, Puebla, Guanajuato, Veracruz and Michoacán, and the risk also appears to be rising in states such as Baja California, Colima, Chihuahua and Tamaulipas.