The Jalisco Prosecutor's Office confirmed the appearance of 45 bags with human remains in a ravine in a suburb of Guadalajara with "characteristics that match" those of eight missing youths in Zapopan who were employees of call centers.
Mexican authorities said they have preliminary information that the body parts "match the physical characteristics of some of the missing young call center employees."
A total of eight call center employees were reported missing between May 20 and 22 in the Guadalajara metropolitan area in western Mexico.
"We need them back. We are very hurt," Elizabeth, mother of one of them, said while speaking to the media at an event calling for justice.
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Luis Joaquín Méndez Ruíz, prosecutor of Jalisco, announced that they found the human remains inside bags thrown on a land with a very steep slope. Forensics have not yet determined the number of victims or their identities. In a wide air deployment, the bags were found inside a ravine.
Forensic experts remove several bags of human remains extracted from the bottom of a ravine by a helicopter, which were abandoned in the Mirador Escondido community, in Zapopan, Jalisco state, Mexico, on May 31, 2023.Ulises Ruiz / AFP via Getty Images
Authorities indicated that fraud was committed from the call center in timeshare sales to the United States. However, the youths are wanted as victims, according to Beatriz Robles, the sister of one of the disappeared.
The Prosecutor's Office revealed that the operation inside the call centers could be related to the Jalisco New Generation cartel.
The Jalisco Institute of Forensic Sciences is working with the families of the missing to determine the identification of the human remains.
Mexico registers a record of homicides during the term of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, with 156,00 murders. The month of May has been the most violent month so far this year in the country with 2,350 murders.
In March, following the kidnapping of four Americans in Mexico, which resulted in the deaths of two of them, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Mexico is a safer country than the United States.
