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The search for seven missing employees of a call center led Mexican authorities to a gruesome discovery earlier this week, when at least 45 trash bags with several human bodies were found from the bottom of a slot. mountains on the outskirts of Guadalajara, in the state of Jalisco. .
“Part of the investigation and proceedings brought us precisely to this area,” said Jalisco state prosecutor Luis Joaquín Méndez Ruiz, told reporters on Wednesday, adding that both male and female body parts were found in the bag.
“We can’t determine how many victims might be here,” he said.
On Thursday, the state prosecutor’s office gave preliminary information on some of the remains Fit the physical characteristics of the missing employees, who were last seen between May 20 and May 22. Their families have been notified, officials added, as forensic scientists work to confirm the identity of the remains.
Background
Recent progress in the investigation has made the case “much more complicated than imagined,” Jalisco governor Enrique Alfaro said. tweeted this week. The evidence to date, he added, suggests that the house where the missing people work is not a call center, “but an operations center of a different nature.”
The house search prompted the authorities to step in. find Marijuana and blood stains can be found in a cloth and mop. They also find information about sharing times and memberships, along with sales goals for the people who work there.
Rosa Iela Rodríguez, security secretary of Mexico, speak In a press conference on Tuesday, these leads indicated that the employees were “running some sort of real estate scam and some sort of, say, phone extortion.”
Earlier this year, the US Treasury Department penalize several Mexican companies, most of which are based in Jalisco, are involved in time-sharing fraud on behalf of the Jalisco New Generation corporation.
“This crime can defraud victims of their lifetime savings, leading to another significant source of revenue,” said Andrea M. Gacki, director of the department’s office of foreign assets control. gangs and reinforce their overall criminal activity.”
Why is it important?
The latest find in Jalisco is a gruesome reminder of a broader disappearance pandemic that has rocked the country for decades and tarnished the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. More than 110,000 people are missing In Mexico, Their fate is uncertain. Jalisco has recorded the highest number of people disappearing in the country: nearly 15,000 people as of June 2.
The figures have become a political sore point for López Obrador, especially as Mexico moves towards a presidential election in 2024, when one of the president’s closest allies is likely to have name on the ballot.
When López Obrador took office in December 2018, he promised to get to the bottom of the violence that has gripped Mexico. But his security strategy is to use “hugs, not bullets” to address the root causes of fuel corporations’ failure to reduce disappearances.
According to data from the national registry of missing persons, disappearances across Mexico increased by more than 20% in the first three months of this year, compared with the same period in 2022.
The president has defended himself against the alarming numbers by saying his government has made more progress in counting and investigating the missing.
“No government has ever cared as much about missing people as we do now,” said López Obrador speak last year. “We take on the responsibility of finding and helping their loved ones. And that is what we are doing.”
But some families and activists disagree that the government’s efforts are working.
On May 28, Delia Quiroa, a human rights advocate whose brother Roberto disappeared in the state of Tamaulipas in 2014, published a letter ask Mexican gang leaders to reach a “social pact” to prevent disappearances and allow families to investigate their fate.
“All we want is to know what happened to our lost loved ones,” Ms. Quiroa wrote. “We need your help and cooperation.”
Days later, Mr. López Obrador said he would agree to an agreement that could end the violence.
What’s next?
The Jalisco state prosecutor’s office said the search for the missing call center employees would continue and authorities would continue to explore the ravine until all bags were found and removed.
