Mexican bishop decry ‘cruelest’ expression of violence as cartel extermination camp discovered

BUENOS AIRES (OSV News) — The Mexican bishops’ conference expressed outrage over the discovery of an extermination camp operated by a drug cartel, calling it “one of the cruelest expressions of evil and human misery that we’ve seen in the country,” and alleging such sites exist in other parts of Mexico.

“We denounce with deep concern that many places like this exist in our nation, sites where the most serious crimes against humanity have been committed,” the bishops said in a March 12 statement signed by the conference’s president, Bishop Ramón Castro of Cuernavaca and secretary-general, Auxiliary Bishop Héctor Pérez of Mexico City.

“These acts directly violate the sacred dignity of the human person created in the image and likeness of God,” the bishops said.

A group known as Warrior Searchers of Jalisco — one of the collectives of families, who scour the country looking for their kin — discovered the camp in Teuchitlán, approximately 40 miles west of Guadalajara. They found ovens for cremating victims, along with bone fragments, clothing and more than 200 pairs of shoes.

“This isn’t just a recruitment camp, it’s a place of extermination. We can no longer remain silent,” the searchers’ leader, Indira Navarro, told Aristegui Noticias.

The discovery of the extermination camp — used as a training center by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel since 2012, Mexican media reported — offered a grim reminder of the tragedy of the more than 120,000 Mexicans missing, according to a federal registry that records cases dating to the 1960s. 

The horror of missing persons has haunted Mexico over the past two decades as drug cartels have battled over crime territories the length of the country and preyed on local populations. 

Some 40 people disappeared daily during the first 100 days after President Claudia Sheinbaum took office on Oct. 1, a 60 percent increase from the 2018 to 2024 administration of her predecessor, former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, according to the news organization A Donde Van Los Desaparecidos, which tracks the tragedy of Mexico’s missing.

Families often form search parties to find their missing kin. They often act on anonymous tips — such as the recent case in Jalisco. They also encounter harassment from drug cartels, wanting to keep their activities hidden. They were even treated with indifference — sometimes hostility — from Mexican politicians, including López Obrador, who considered the missing persons’ registry inflated and alleged it was used as a “campaign against us.”

Mexico’s bishops recognized the families’ efforts saying of the groups — known in Mexico as “Madres Buscadoras” — saying, “Driven by their pain, courage and tenacity, they are … truly making progress in the search for their loved ones and making decisive discoveries that keep the cry for justice alive. Their testimony challenges us all as a society.”

Sheinbaum presented statistics on March 11 showing a 15 percent drop in homicides since her inauguration. She called the discovery of the site “terrible.” The country’s top prosecutor, Alejandro Gertz Manero said on March 11, “it’s not credible that this kind of situation was not known by local authorities.”

The bishops’ conference responded to the presidents’ claim, stating, “We express our astonishment that while intentional homicides are supposedly down 15 percent, attempts are being made to conceal the fact that disappearances are up 40 percent. Unfortunately, the majority of these victims are our young people.”

The statement continued, “These findings highlight the irresponsible failure of government authorities at all three levels to address one of the most critical problems facing the country: the disappearance of persons. This reality demands an immediate, decisive and coordinated response from the Mexican state.”

Jalisco state officials visited the site of the extermination camp in September 2024, but didn’t find anything unusual, according to Mexican media.

“If they found evidence of violence in that area, then I believe they should have inspected the entire area at the very least. The authorities should be able to explain why they didn’t do so,” Cardinal Francisco Robles Ortega of Guadalajara said at a March 9 press conference, according to the newspaper El Occidental.

The cardinal added, “Finding clandestine graves is nothing new. It’s sadly a phenomenon seen in our state and many other states across the country. Here, it seems that what’s being found betrays or denotes a very serious practice regarding the cremation of bodies.”

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