On September 27th, Mexican authorities found the bodies of six male teenagers in a remote ranch area in the state of Zacatecas. Along with the deceased, they pulled a critically injured young man from the scene. It is noted that the individuals found might be the seven teens who had disappeared over the previous weekend according to an inside government source.
On the weekend, seven boys aged between 14 to 18 were kidnapped at the ranch where they were staying. The incident, which took place around 4 am Sunday, September 24th, involved multiple vehicles full of heavily armed men who raided the house and abducted the teenagers. Mexico responded to the crime by launching a detailed search operation, recruiting 300 soldiers that included local police from Villanueva municipality, National Guard, and Secretariat of National Defense.
The incident has incensed the victims’ family members who channeled their grief and discontentment into public protests. They called for the authorities to double-down on efforts to find their missing children, which they symbolized by blocking the Zacatecas-Malpaso highway on a Tuesday. Zacatecas is notorious for violent crimes with rival criminal factions battling over control of lucrative smuggling routes. Government data shows an alarming statistic with over 500 murders occurring in Zacatecas within the first eight months of this year.
The violence is not isolated to Zacatecas alone. Five young men were murdered in the neighboring state of Jalisco last month after being tricked with fake job offers by a Mexican drug cartel. The locals suggest a potential link between the surge in regional gang violence and these kidnappings, although the officials have not announced a specific reason behind these criminal acts yet.