The New York Times

Hope Amid Horror

Clues From Inside an ‘Extermination Camp’ Promise Despair and Hope. In Jalisco, Mexico, a group of Mexican volunteers dedicated to the search for missing persons discovered an abandoned ranch with crematorium ovens, human remains and piles of shoes. Everything indicated that the ranch was used by organized crime as a recruitment center... and extermination camp. The news of this macabre discovery went around the world and dominated the headlines in Mexico. I went for The New York Times and what I found was a scene of horror. But it also offered a glimmer of hope for thousands of families searching for their missing relatives, desperate to know what happened to their loved ones. That's how I met Irma Gonzalez, who traveled from Puebla after recognizing on the news the gray backpack used by her son Jossel Sanchez, missing since 2022.

The case reflects an alarming pattern in Jalisco, the state with the most missing persons in Mexico. Since 1962, more than 120,000 people have disappeared in the country, and between 2018 and 2023 alone, 2,710 clandestine graves were located.

Raul Servin, leader of the collective and father of a missing young man, has found hundreds of bodies in the last seven years, turned searcher after the disappearance of his son. According to him, violence and disappearances have become normalized in Jalisco, where more and more families are facing this tragedy.

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