Mothers in Mexico Search for Their Missing Children in Mass Graves in Jalisco

In the municipality of Tlajomulco de Zúñiga in Mexico's Jalisco state, mothers who formed search collectives to find their missing children are digging up the yards and garages of houses based on anonymous tips. In areas believed to be where armed criminal organizations hid bodies, mothers are conducting a grueling and dangerous search effort accompanied by the National Guard.

Indira, the leader of the Guerreros Buscadores collective, explains the magnitude of this brutality caused by gang activities and the routine in the region. During the searches, women determine whether there are human bodies underground by relying on the smell emitted by iron rods they plunge into the ground and possible hair residues.

With 16,000 official missing person cases, Jalisco is the state with the highest number of disappearances in Mexico; Tlajomulco stands out as the place where the most clandestine graves have been discovered in this state. Collective members state that gang members bury victims in yards either whole or dismembered, expressing that these traumatic searches continue without getting anywhere.