Relatives’ collectives and volunteer search teams say they recovered more than 1,000 bone fragments around Lake Chalco in Mexico City in the weeks before the city is set to host World Cup matches, underscoring the country’s long-running cartel-related violence.
Families described the finds as proof of a devastating reality and a forensic crisis of incalculable proportions. Relatives accused authorities of trying to keep the matter quiet while they insist the world should know what is happening in the capital.
City officials began exhuming a lakefront site in the eastern borough last week. Prosecutors reported finding roughly 300 bone fragments at that location, which they said could belong to three people. Volunteer teams, however, said they uncovered more than 1,000 fragments in and around the area, including places government agents had already searched.
The discoveries are part of a wider national missing-persons crisis. Since 2006, when federal troops were deployed to confront powerful cartels, official tallies show more than 480,000 people killed and roughly 130,000 reported missing. A United Nations committee of experts has called the situation a crime against humanity, saying recoveries have been hampered by acquiescence and omission from public servants.
Committee chair Juan Albán-Alencastro noted that under international law crimes against humanity need not be nationwide or orchestrated from the top; what matters are the scale, the pattern of attacks and the deliberate targeting of civilians.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum criticized the U.N. report, saying it overlooked new policies meant to aid families of the missing. Activists who met with city officials have demanded continuous searches until the lake site is fully inspected.
Mexico City and Guadalajara will host World Cup games in June, and demonstrations have taken place in both cities over what protesters call inadequate investigations into disappearances. Guadalajara, in Jalisco state, has recorded more than 15,900 missing persons, a toll experts attribute in part to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, which has been accused of using fake job offers to recruit people and allegedly torturing or killing those who resist.
In February, Mexican forces killed cartel leader Nemesio El Mencho Oseguera, an operation that sparked a spike in violence in some areas but did not lead international football organizers to change plans. Human remains continue to surface in Jalisco: earlier this month at least 11 sets of skeletal remains were found in hidden graves near Guadalajara, and dozens of bags containing remains were recovered from a clandestine grave last October.
Families groups and volunteer searchers say sustained, unfettered investigations and thorough forensic work are essential as Mexico prepares to host an event that will draw global attention.