"A mass grave with a national anthem": Mourning a killing field in Mexico

(corrected and re-issued 04/04/2025)*

Dear friends,

"Each visitor invented their own narrative", writes Mexican journalist Marcela Turati, describing a chaotic press tour of the Izaguirre ranch in the western Mexican state of Jalisco on March 20.

The tour, attended by Mexican social media influencers and international media alike, put the town of Teuchitlán and the ranch site - variously referred to as an extermination camp, kill zone, and/or terror training center for the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación - into the global headlines. The media reports said that human remains, backpacks, shoes, clothing, and cremation ovens had been found on the ranch, which was now being excavated by authorities for forensic evidence.

Meanwhile, continues Turati, members of search collectives in Jalisco who entered the site before the media stories began, “insist ... that the excavation site where the remains were found was altered.”