Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero said on Tuesday that human remains found at a now-infamous ranch in western Mexico are fragmented and some show signs of cremation.
However, he also said that soil and other materials from the Izaguirre ranch that the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) submitted for testing did not show any signs of an “act of cremation” having taken place at the property in the municipality of Teuchitlán, Jalisco.
The ranch has been described in the media as an “extermination camp” and even “Mexico’s Auschwitz.”
Speaking at President Claudia Sheinbaum’s morning press conference, Gertz said that human remains recovered at the ranch are “very fractionated” and “they don’t directly correspond to a single corpse.”
“In some cases these remains have traces of some kind of cremation,” he said.
“Therefore what we have done is first do the expert report that corresponds to us and then … send them to the National [Autonomous] University [UNAM] laboratories so that the age of these remains is established with complete precision,” Gertz said.
The attorney general acknowledged last month that human remains were found at the ranch, asserting at the time that Jalisco authorities didn’t submit them to testing.
For his part, Security Minister Omar García Harfuch said in late March that neither the ministry he leads nor the federal government’s security cabinet had evidence that the property was “an extermination camp” as has been claimed.
Rather, it was “a training center” for the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), he said, adding that he didn’t have any knowledge of people having been killed at the property.
Gertz said on Tuesday that the FGR, based on information provided by an alleged CJNG leader arrested in connection with the case last month and two other people, established with “complete precision” that the Izaguirre ranch was a “recruitment, operations and training center.”
“I believe there is a good amount of information that we’re going to have in the course of this week and next week and I would like to see the possibility of summoning you to not only give you the information but also the relevant documentation,” he told reporters.
In early March, reports emerged that a collective that searches for missing persons had discovered three crematoriums on a property in Teuchitlán, Jalisco.
The Warrior Searchers of Jalisco also found more than 150 pairs of shoes and other evidence that suggested that a significant number of people had been killed and/or cremated at the ranch. However, the federal government has challenged that narrative.
AG: Analysis of ranch soil doesn’t indicate that cremation occurred
Before speaking about the human remains that have been sent to UNAM for analysis, Gertz said that the FGR submitted soil, “stone materials” and construction materials from the Izaguirre ranch for testing to determine whether they showed any signs of an “act of cremation” having taken place at the property.
He told reporters that the FGR didn’t detect any such signs.
“For us, this is not enough. We’ve asked the laboratories of the National [Autonomous] University to ratify or rectify this information,” Gertz said, adding that the FGR wants the results of the analysis immediately.
18 suspects in custody
Gertz said that “substantial progress” has been made on the Teuchitlán case since the FGR took control of the property approximately two weeks ago.
He said that 15 people who were already in custody “for other crimes” are now under investigation in connection with the case. Three additional people including two former municipal police officers have been arrested in connection with the case, bringing the total number of suspects to 18.
The 15 suspects initially detained “for other crimes” are “linked” to organized crime, Gertz said.
He said that “the boss” of the “unit” of which the detained suspects were allegedly members was detained in Mexico City. The attorney general was referring to the arrest last month of José Gregorio Lastra Hermida, allegedly a CJNG leader who was involved in the recruitment of cartel members who were sent to the Izaguirre ranch for training.
Teuchitlán ranch will be opened up to search collectives
Gertz said that once the FGR has completed its forensic processes at the Izaguirre ranch it will open it up so that search collectives can examine the property.
“And we won’t just open it up but also provide all the facilities to work [there],” he said.
“And all these remains will be available to the public so that the expert decision we take can be ratified,” Gertz said.
Asked when the ranch in Teuchitlán would be opened to search collectives, the attorney general said it depends on how long the testing at the UNAM laboratories takes.
“We’ve told them that this is a matter of extreme urgency. They have an analysis protocol, which like any expert protocol, takes its time,” Gertz said.
With reports from El Economista, El Universal, El Sur and enun2x3
