Thousands of individuals throughout Mexico took to the streets on Saturday in a rally for justice following the uncovering of a mass grave containing burnt bones, shoes, and clothing at a suspected cartel training site. In various cities, demonstrators placed hundreds of shoes and candles on the ground to honor the victims, carrying signs that read, “Mexico is a mass grave” and “We demand answers.”

Vigils were held in the western state of Jalisco, where the grave was discovered, along with locations such as Mexico City, Tijuana, Veracruz, San Luis Potosi, Guadalajara, Puebla, Veracruz, Cancun, and Colima.

On March 5th, families of the over 100,000 missing individuals in Mexico found human remains at a ranch believed to have been used by drug cartels to hold forcefully recruited individuals. A group known as the Guerreros Buscadores, dedicated to finding missing persons, described the site as an “extermination center” equipped with unauthorized crematoriums. This discovery has caused widespread dismay in a country already plagued by cartel violence.

The site had been raided by the National Guard and state prosecutor’s office as recently as September 2024 without critical evidence being found, according to the United Nations Human Rights Office. Currently, 124,059 individuals in Mexico are officially listed as missing, most since 2006 when the government initiated its war on drugs.

Several other mass graves and unauthorized crematoriums have been uncovered across Mexico.

Edited by: Kieran Burke

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/thousands-gather-to-commemorate-mexico-s-missing-people/a-71934672?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf