Jalisco extermination camp

The Jalisco extermination camp was a concentration and recruitment camp operated by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel within the Izaguirre Ranch, located in the municipality of Teuchitlán in the Mexican state of Jalisco. The camp was discovered on 5 March 2025 by a group searching for missing persons.^[1]

Jalisco extermination camp
General information
Type	Concentration camp Training center
Location	Izaguirre Ranch Teuchitlán, Jalisco, Mexico
Coordinates	20.656761°N 103.816292°W / 20.656761; -103.816292

The evidence found includes hundreds of pieces of clothing and shoes, three crematoriums containing charred bones, and notes listing the nicknames of individuals who had been at the site.

Life in the camp

Arrival

Recruiters allegedly posted fake job advertisements on social media to attract applicants. These listings usually offered security guard roles with weekly salaries ranging from MX$4,000 to MX$12,000. Applicants were instructed to gather at designated bus terminals, where they were then transported to Izaguirre Ranch.^[2][3] While some listings promoted positions within the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, many survivors reported that they were unaware of the group's involvement until their arrival at the ranch.^[4][5]

Upon arrival at Izaguirre Ranch, applicants were required to surrender all their belongings, including their phones, effectively cutting off their communication with the outside world.^[2]

Training

Upon completing their training, recruits were offered positions within the organization based on their aptitudes. They were then deployed to different states to strengthen the cartel's operations.^[2]

Discovery

On 20 September 2024, the National Guard and the Jalisco State Prosecutor's Office raided Izaguirre Ranch, securing the property and rescuing two kidnapped individuals. Authorities also arrested ten people and seized various firearms; however, no mention was made of a training camp, crematoriums, mass graves, or human remains.^[6][7]

Following an anonymous tip about a possible mass grave on the ranch, the Buscadores Guerreros de Jalisco Collective, an activist group dedicated to searching for missing persons, arrived at the site on 5 March 2025 to investigate. While searching the site, the group discovered approximately 200 pairs of shoes, hundreds of clothing items, three makeshift crematoriums, and charred human remains.^[1][8]

Reactions

Domestic

Protests in Guadalajara, Jalisco

On 10 March, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum described the findings as "terrible" and stated that both the governor of Jalisco and the Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection were addressing the case.^[9]

On the afternoon of 15 March, civil organizations and citizens held vigils in at least 24 public squares to protest and demand justice.

On 17 March, President of the Senate Gerardo Fernández Noroña downplayed the findings, suggesting that the evidence—referring to 200 pairs of shoes—might or might not be authentic and that they did not necessarily indicate a case of forced disappearances. He accused the media and the opposition of orchestrating a "vile and infamous coup campaign" against Sheinbaum's government and Morena regarding the case.^[10]

On 20 March, Senator Marko Cortés (PAN) proposed the creation of an interdisciplinary team of national and international experts to investigate the events at Izaguirre Ranch. However, the Senate session was adjourned prematurely after senators from Morena, the Ecologist Green Party of Mexico (PVEM), and the Labor Party (PT), led by Senator Adán Augusto López (Morena), walked out.^[11] On 25 March, the motion failed in a 31–61 vote.^[12]

International

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights issued a press release on 27 March 2025 in which it called on Mexico to step up its efforts to investigate the site, identify the victims and punish those responsible, describing the state's search efforts as "deficient".^[13]

U.S. Republican congressman Riley Moore compared the situation to "something we had previously only associated with Nazi death camps like Auschwitz",^[14]

Investigations

State investigation

Following the seizure of Izaguirre Ranch by the National Guard and the Jalisco State Prosecutor's Office on 20 September 2024, the latter launched an investigation into the site after the Attorney General's Office (FGR) declined to take over the case. Notably, the investigation included charges of firearm possession and enforced disappearance but did not address organized crime, a charge that falls outside the jurisdiction of state prosecutors and can only be investigated by the FGR.^[15]

After search collectives discovered Izaguirre Ranch, Attorney General Alejandro Gertz raised concerns about irregularities in the state’s investigation on 19 March, which included the failure to track or identify fingerprints at the scene, improper recording and identification of evidence such as abandoned clothing and footwear, the failure to conduct a full site inspection, inadequate processing of vehicles—three of which were later identified as stolen—and the lack of immediate involvement by the Attorney General's Office (FGR) for crimes related to high-caliber firearms or organized crime. Gertz also noted that, six months later, the forensic services in Jalisco still lacked a definitive report establishing the age and identity of the remains found.^[16][17]

On the same day, Gertz accused the Jalisco State Prosecutor's Office of failing to send all relevant forensic reports and documents to the FGR, delaying the process of transferring the case.^[16] The following day, the Jalisco State Prosecutor's Office complied, sending all investigation files to the FGR.^[15][18]

See also

• Mexican drug war