A death camp in Mexico where hundreds of burnt bodies were found is thought to have belonged to the brutal Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel (CJNG) – but the gang is claiming they have been set up
A brutal Mexican drug cartel accused of operating a death camp has said the mothers of missing people “planted and created” the gruesome scenes that were uncovered.
The horrifying site was discovered hidden away in a mountainous area, around four hours drive from the Mexican city of Jalisco, after police received a tip off from a missing persons organisation. Among the ashes were bones, bullet casings, more than 400 items of clothing and at least 200 pairs of shoes. And authorities believe the Izaguire Ranch was used as a training centre for forced recruits of the notorious Jalisco Nueva Generacion Cartel.
READ MORE: Secret Mexican cartel ‘extermination camp’ with cremation furnaces and mass graves pictured
It is also thought the bodies of kidnap victims were burned there, and reports suggest other people were kept captive on the site. Authorities discovered rudimentary ovens buried under the ground which had been built to burn people’s remains.
Now, a four minute video believed to be released by the CJNG shows a group of heavily armed masked men claim the gang had nothing to do with the death camp. A man speaking in the footage said that a raid was made on the ranch on September 18 last year but police found nothing there and the investigation ended.
And he claimed that on March 8 “a group of mothers (of victims) searching, with the support of who knows, and with doubtful information, have contradicted 100% what was found six months before by federal police.” He continued: “They claim to have found an extermination camp, forced recruitment where there were 250 kidnapped and others in a similar state as being kidnapped. What did they find? What did they find? They found nothing.”
In the footage it was also claimed that since the initial search the ranch was regularly patrolled by police. The cartel said: “With what authority did the group of search mothers intervene or on what grounds did they enter a secured property? Their duty was to notify the competent authority, and what they did was plant and create a horror film to cause a stir on social media. What are they hiding? Who is backing them? Why are they trying to harm the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel with lies and fabricated, baseless stories?”
But respected crime journalist Oscar Balmen said this was a typical ploy by CJNG: “They are trying to discredit the mothers searching and claim that there is a peace over drugs in Jalisco. Everything fits in this very strange video from CJNG.”
Meanwhile, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights has said that it is “perturbing” that authorities in Mexico didn’t find any evidence of criminality when the ranch was searched last year. It is now asking for an “exhaustive, independent, impartial and transparent” investigation.
A young man who escaped from the “school of terror” revealed how there was some 200 people kept in inhumane conditions, forced to undergo exercises and fight against each other. Others were ordered to dig holes where they placed a bed of stones, on which gasoline was poured for the fire to burn the remains.
“Many could not stand the training, some were killed for simply complaining, others fell and died because they simply could not stand it, and we had to dig holes, pits, we put a bed of stones or bricks, we poured gasoline on them as much as we could to make it ignite, we used it once, twice, three times and covered it up,” Índira Navarro, a representative of Warrior Searchers of Jalisco – the missing persons organisation that first found the site – said of what she was told by the escapee.
It is understood that many were kidnapped after being told of false job opportunities. The ranch is one of six similar sites that have been found in Jalisco which have allegedly been recruitment and murder camps.
Jalisco has around 15,000 missing people out of a national total of 125,000, according to official figures, and there are more than 72,000 unidentified bodies nationally.
