In a search for seven young men who disappeared last week, Mexican police found at least 45 bags containing human remains in a canyon in the western Mexican state of Jalisco. The gruesome discovery was made at the bottom of a 40-meter (120-foot) deep canyon in the suburb of Sapopán, a large industrial hub in Guadalajara. Mexico's state prosecutor's office said in a statement on Thursday that "45 bags containing human remains, belonging to men and women," the Mexican state prosecutor's office said in a statement on Thursday. "At the moment, forensic experts have not determined the number of victims in the bags or their identities.
Mexican police confirmed that they found the remains during a search for two women and five men, both around 30 years old, who had disappeared in the area since May 20. The seven missing persons filed their missing person reports on separate days, but investigators found that they all worked in the same call center in the same area as where the body was found.
Preliminary investigations have revealed that the call center may have been involved in illegal activities, with local media reporting that authorities found marijuana, a cloth and a rag apparently stained with blood, as well as documents that may have been involved in commercial activities. Local Mexican authorities said some of the human remains found in the bags appeared to match the characteristics of some missing young people. Firefighters and civil defense crews are using helicopters to salvage the remains from the canyon and plan to continue the search in the coming days.
It is worth mentioning that, according to the Mexican Federal Government, more than 110,000 people are missing throughout Mexico, with Jalisco being the state with the highest number of missing people, with 15,000. Jalisco's new generation of drug cartels operate in the state, are among the most powerful organized crime groups in Mexico and are embroiled in disputes with other drug syndicates. Meanwhile, thousands of unidentified bodies remain in morgues and cemeteries across the country.
And under Lopez Obrador's presidency, Mexico has seen more violence than any previous administration. During the four and a half years of President AMLO's presidency, more than 40,000 people were reported missing and some 156,000 murdered. Lopez Obrador said this week he would support a peace deal with drug cartels to stop the bloodshed spread across the country.
The Mexican president's comments followed an open letter targeting 10 organized crime groups calling on an activist searching for his missing brother to stop the practice of enforced disappearances. "Mexico's missing person crisis is the worst in Latin America," the analysis said. As the violence continues to worsen, many are wondering if a peace deal between the drug cartel and the government is really a radical idea. ”
That is, although Mexico has increased its resources to search for missing persons, the number of missing persons is overwhelming and the search for loved ones will continue indefinitely if there is no solution to the crisis. Juan Salgado, an investigator at the World Justice Project, said that negotiations with drug cartels are negotiations with armed groups, and negotiations with these organizations need to take into account "complex peacebuilding strategies."