President Claudia Sheinbaum’s Monday morning press conference was dominated by discussion of a case that has horrified Mexico this month — the so-called “extermination camp” of Teuchitlán.
The discovery of human remains and more than 150 pairs of shoes at a ranch in Jalisco linked to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) led various media outlets to dub the property an “extermination camp.”
The ranch has even been called “Mexico’s Auschwitz.”
On Monday morning — after Security Minister Omar García Harfuch spoke about the arrest of an alleged CJNG recruitment cell leader and provided additional insight into the activities that allegedly took place at the now-notorious property in the municipality of Teuchitlán — the government questioned that narrative.
Government cast doubt on ‘extermination camp’ narrative in Teuchitlán ranch case
After a few journalists recounted what they saw during authorized visits to the Izaguirre Ranch, Sheinbaum asked García Harfuch what the government knows about the property.
“About the Izaguirre Ranch, we have confirmed that it was a training center,” García Harfuch said, reiterating remarks he made earlier in the press conference about the CJNG using the property to train recruits lured via phony job ads.
He noted that the Federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR) has been tasked with carrying out an investigation into the property and the illicit activities that allegedly took place there, but stressed that the government itself currently has no evidence that the ranch was an “extermination camp.”
Sheinbaum asked Harfuch whether “deceased people” have been found at the property, located about 60 kilometers east of Guadalajara.
“We don’t have knowledge [of that],” said the security minister, even though a search collective reported finding burnt human remains at the property and countless media outlets including Mexico News Daily have reported on the discovery of the remains as well as hundreds of shoes and other discarded personal items.
Sheinbaum specifically asked García Harfuch whether “there are human remains on the property,” eliciting the following response from the security minister.
“The Attorney General’s Office will determine exactly if there are remains. We have not confirmed that. What is certain is that in the first operation the Ministry of National Defense did with the National Guard [at the ranch last September] there was a body and 10 people were detained.”
Sheinbaum: Jalisco authorities have not yet transferred control of the property to the FGR
Sheinbaum confirmed 10 days ago that the FGR would take over the Teuchitlán case, but she told reporters on Monday that the property is still in the “custody” of the Jalisco Attorney General’s Office.
Since September and until the current time, the Jalisco Attorney General’s Office has been in charge of the investigation, she said.
“We’ve asked the Federal Attorney General’s Office to take over the case,” Sheinbaum said, adding that it is necessary for it to do so because of the “many problems” in the investigation carried out by the Jalisco Attorney General’s Office.
Alleged CJNG recruiter and 2 police arrested in Izaguirre Ranch ‘extermination camp’ case
“The Federal Attorney General’s Office needs to take over the property and do the investigations,” she said.
“If there are human remains or not, the Federal Attorney General’s Office has to tell us that,” Sheinbaum added.
The FGR has to “begin the process of investigation, and I understand … [it’s] doing that,” she said.
“… The people of Mexico have to know the truth about what there is at that ranch,” Sheinbaum said.
The president pledged that no one in her government “will hide anything” in relation to the case and declared that her administration “will always be on the side of the victims and justice.”
‘We ask the media to tell the truth’
After questioning some news outlets’ reporting on the Teuchitlán case earlier in her press conference, the president issued a request to the media.
“We ask that the media tell the truth and not construct stories without having all the information,” Sheinbaum said.
Like her predecessor Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Sheinbaum has used her morning press conferences to denounce what she considers to be false or biased reporting.
One newspaper whose reporting she has questioned is The New York Times. In early December, she suggested that one report about fentanyl production in Mexico was inspired by the television series “Breaking Bad,” while later the same month she said another NYT article about the manufacture of the synthetic opioid was “not very credible.”
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies ([email protected])
