Mexican authorities should conduct a thorough and impartial investigation of the recent discovery by family members of missing people of hundreds of bone fragments and clothing items, Human Rights Watch said today.
On March 5, 2025, a local group of volunteers who search for missing people reported the discovery of hundreds of shoes, clothing items, charred human remains, and three underground ovens on a ranch outside the city of Guadalajara, Jalisco state. The Jalisco state prosecutor's office and the National Guard had inspected the location six months earlier, in September 2024. They arrested ten people, rescued two, and recovered one body, but found no other human remains.
"It is shocking and disheartening that victims' family members, using picks and shovels, were forced to do the work that authorities claimed to have done nearly six months earlier," said Juanita Goebertus, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. "President Claudia Sheinbaum should see this as a signal to undertake an urgent, nationwide effort to professionalize the investigation of crimes by state prosecutors' offices."
Following the recent discovery, the Jalisco state attorney general told reporters that in September, prosecutors and the National Guard had searched "certain parts" of the ranch, but that they had not found the human remains, ovens, or clothing items because "the ranch is very big." Members of the group searched the site after receiving anonymous tips saying that the remains of missing people had been buried there.
The discovery at the Jalisco site highlights the serious, systemic deficiencies in the investigation of homicides and disappearances in Mexico, Human Rights Watch said.
In a report published in February, Human Rights Watch found that Mexican authorities fail to effectively investigate most homicides due to a range of systemic problems, including insufficient resources and training, high workloads, and poor coordination between authorities. From 2010 through 2022, state prosecutors' offices opened about 300,000 intentional homicide investigations, but formally identified a suspect in just 17 percent of cases. The true number of homicides is most likely higher. More than 94,000 people have been reported missing since 2007 and never found.
On March 11, the federal attorney general announced that his office would examine whether federal authorities should take over the investigation, saying "it is not credible that a situation of this nature was unknown to state or local authorities."
Since the discovery, both the search group and the state prosecutor's office have begun publishing hundreds of photos, videos, and descriptions of the personal objects found at the site so that family members of missing people may attempt to identify them.
"The level of carelessness shown by the Mexican authorities in this investigation is outrageous and, sadly, far from uncommon," Goebertus said. "This case should serve as a wakeup call that urgent reforms are needed to improve criminal investigations in Mexico."
