When Rubi Cruz recognized her husband’s belongings among the personal articles that are in a Mexican drug cartel training campShe feared the sausage: that he had become a victim of forced recruitment.
The discovery of Bones, shoes and clothes In a ranch in the western state of Jalisco, he highlighted the ruthless tactics of violent criminal groups in a country where more than 120,000 people are missing.
Cruz’s husband, Fermin Hernández, then 33, was kidnapped in 2021 from his home in the city of Tala near the Rancho de Zaguirre By gunmen who shot him in his leg.
She saw what she thinks are her personal items, including a wallet and a shirt, in images published by a civil society group that went to look for the remains of missing people in The site Last month.
Ulises Ruiz/AFP through Getty Images 
“I felt a lot of pain, a lot of sadness,” said the 31 -year -old restaurant at the AFP, the image of her husband and the words “His wife is looking for you” printed on his long -sleeved shirt.
In accordance with the Government, the Jalisco New Generation poster, One of the drug trafficking groups designated A terrorist organization of President Trump, Attracted recruits With false work ads.
They were given firearms and another training at the Izaguirre ranch, said Security Minister Omar García Harfuch, last month, based on the testimony of an alleged poster recruiter that was arrested.
“They simply took the lives of the people who resisted training or tried to escape,” he said.
“I will see about you from heaven”
The disappearances have shot in Mexico since the Government declared the war against drug trafficking groups in 2006.
Around 480,000 people have killed bones in a spiral of violence since then.
Veronica Cruz, or no relationship with Rubi Cruz, fears that his son Robert Reyes also be a victim of recruitment forced by a drug sign.
The teenager disappeared a year ago after traveling to Jalisco, attracted to a job offer painting houses.
Veronica Cruz, 42, believes that her son was also at the Izaguirre ranch because he is a message in the area.
She had tried to keep him away from the gangs and drugs of the neighborhood, but said she never imagined that her son would be forced to join a poster.
At 16, the abandonment of high school traveled from home in a suburban city to Jalisco a year to earn money to buy a motorcycle, disobeying his mother.
Later, he called her sister, crying.
“I am a hired killer. My friend was killed … if I don’t get out of here, I will look over you from heaven,” he said, according to his mother.
Later, a man who said he was Robert’s friend to his sister through social networks to tell him that he had a shooting.
“I thought the Hitmen wanted to do that job. I never thought the posters were removing people,” said his mother.
More than 120,000 people are missing in Mexico
The government says it has tasks of boxes or pages of social recruitment media for criminal groups.
But in the application of Video Video exchange, the works are still sacrificed in Jalisco with “meals and accommodation”, with nicknames for the New Generation poster of Jalisco. The poster is directed by Nemesio Rubén “El Meco” Oseguera CervantesFor whom the United States government has sacrificed a $ 15 million reward for information that leads to their capture.
The state of Jalisco represents 12% of the approximately 127,000 missing people in Mexico, mainly young men.
Many disappearances are linked to forced recruitment because gangs need armies to control their territory and generate illicit income, according to Jorge Ramírez, a researcher at the University of Guadalajara.
Victims are often poor young people without access to education, he said.
In 2024, it was reported that around 30 young people disappeared after attributing what they believed would be work interviews in Guadalajara, the capital of the state of Jalisco.
Despite her fears, Rubi Cruz still hopes to find her husband alive.
Ulises Ruiz/AFP through Getty Images 
Veronica Cruz’s optimism has decreased, but still wants answers.
“Maybe I’m not looking for justice, but I want to know where my son is, whatever it is necessary,” he said.
Multiple mass tombs have been found in recent months in Mexico. In January, at least 56 bodies were discovered In unmarked massive tombs in northern Mexico, not far from the border with the United States.
TO Common pit Discovered in December 2024 in a suburb or guadalajara with boxes of bags or parts of the body dismembered contained the remains of 24 people, authorities said. That same month, the Mexican authorities said they recovered a total of 31 bodies Fox in Chiapas, a state full of poster violence.
Groups looking for missing people Let’s say that drug trafficking posters and other organized crime gangs sometimes use ovens to incinerate their victims and leave no trace.