The mayor of a small Mexican city was accused of working with one of the country’s most violent drug cartels to operate a recruitment and training center that was revealed in March.
The mayor, José Asunción MurguÃa Santiago was accused of organized crime offenses and forced extinction, Prosecutors said at a hearing on Friday.
The site of the Center, in the western state of Jalisco, gained a reputation after volunteer researchers announced the discovery of hundreds of shoes that accumulated, piles of clothes and what seemed to be human bone fragments found by an abandoned farm Guadalaza, sending shock. The researchers claimed that the ranch was the place of human fuels, but the authorities have stated since then that there is no proof of it.
The allegations against Mr MurguÃa Santiago have served as a reminder of the long history of co -host of Mexican officials with organized crime, at a time when President Trump suggested using US troops to break the cartels. The President of Mexico refused.
Attorney General Alejandro Gertz said last week that until recently the Ranch in Teuchitlán had been used by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel for training and hiring. Mexican officials said the cartel is dragging new recruits with false work offers on the ranch.
But in a deviation from previous observations, Mr Gertz insisted that there was no evidence of the fuels that took place there and said that the claims that the site was a “extermination camp” was unfounded. Volunteer groups have questioned federal findings, insisting that 17 lots of nuts of human residues, including teeth and bone fragments, have been recovered from the ranch.
Mr Gertz said his office did not know how many people could disappear in the ranch and that the researchers would “go after those who were covering or participating in the” cartel functions.
The case has renewed attention to more than 127,000 people who have disappeared in Mexico since the 1960s. There has also been a thorn in the administration of President Claudia Sheinbaum in Mexico, which is under pressure to resolve the country’s disappearance crisis forever. Since he took over in October, about 8,700 people have disappeared, according to government data.
While Mrs Sheinbaum has promised to use her forces to cope with the cartels – and has enhanced these efforts since Mr Trump came to power – the link between Mexican authorities and drug groups remains a problem.
So far, more than twelve suspects were arrested in relation to the Teuchitlán case. They include four former police officers and police chiefs, as well as the cartel leader who was identified as José Gregorio Lastra, who authorities say they oversee the training center.
According to Mr Lastra’s testimony, which was partially unveiled by Mexican officials, his team will kill, beat and torture people who resisted education or attempted to escape the ranch.
Mr MurguÃa Santiago, now in his third term, is the first government official held. His arrest on May 3, experts say, marks the close relationship created by organized crime with local authorities in some parts of Mexico, either through cooperation or through coercion.
“Whether you are trying to stop the territorial progress of organized crime and pay dearly for it,” said David Mora, a senior analyst of the international crisis group, an organization that is watching and trying to mitigate armed conflicts, “or bend”.
Details of the case against the mayor came out on Friday during listening.
According to prosecutors, he allegedly visited the ranch several times in 2024. Prosecutors also accuse Mr MurguÃa Santiago of being in the cartel payroll. In return, they say, the mayor allowed them to take advantage of the training center and offered surveillance through the Municipal Police to ensure that the recruits would not escape.
Mr MurguÃa Santiago has so far refused to testify. During the hearing, his defense team brought a witness, his secretary, who said the mayor could not visit the ranch in the months he was accused of being there because he was with him “most of the time” – though he would sometimes lose his piece in the afternoon.
In March, Mr MurguÃa Santiago told reporters that he did not know what was going on in the ranch.
“I’m not worried,” he said in a television interview. “We don’t participate in anything. What I always tried to do as a mayor is to help people.”
Since taking over his duties in January, Trump’s administration accused the Mexican government of being controlled by cartels, suggesting that US forces needed to deal with the huge drug construction and smuggling of the empire. This has led to periods of tension with the Mexican government, which insists that a unilateral attack by the Pentagon against the cartels would be a violation of Mexico’s domination and will restore bilateral relations for decades.
Carolina Salls References are contributed by El Salto, Jalisco.
