Survivor of Cartel Extermination Camp Reveals How Captives Were Lured: "They Told Us We Could Earn a Visa"

Another testimony from a survivor of the Izaguirre Ranch, the extermination camp allegedly ran by the Jalisco Cartel, has come to light. This time around the survivor revealed a different story to other prisoners.

Roberto, who declined to give his last name, said in an interview with Radio Fórmula that he and hundreds of others were taken to a property in Teuchitlán, Jalisco, to harvest strawberries in a nearby field, rather than being brought there to be trained by members of the Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG).

As Infobae Mexico reports, Roberto said that he was taken to the ranch in 2023 after being told he was accepted into an employment program from authorities in Chilpancingo, Guerrero, that would allow him to do agricultural work in the United States.

During the interview he said that the program included a one-month training in Guanajuato, a step that would allow workers to later obtain an H-2A visa, which allows foreign workers to work in the U.S. temporarily doing agricultural labor.

"They told us that if we did things right we could earn a visa that would allow us to work in the U.S.," Roberto told Radio Fórmula.

A few days after dropping off all his documents, Roberto and 70 other people were transported to the state of Jalisco. "We were confident we were going to Guanajuato," Roberto recounted. "They told us we were going to have food, shelter and everything we needed...but once we arrived to the ranch things were different," he added.

Roberto detailed that around 500 people from all parts of Mexico were with him and that the alleged recruiters gave them a set of rules that they had to follow, such as spending the majority of their time inside cargo trailers, avoid talking to nearby residents and to keep away from a part of the property that was prohibited.

He recounts that one night two coworkers that were doing exercise outside got too close to the Izaguirre Ranch and that is when he realized his life was in danger.

"Armed individuals tried to kidnap them," Roberto recounts. "They beat them and pointed guns at them."

Although he was promised a weekly salary of around $250, Roberto decided to escape and, along with a few other people, he managed to get away days later.

Teuchitlán in the eye of the storm

The rural community located less than 40 miles west of Guadalajara has been in the eye of the storm for the past weeks.

According to a discovery made by a nonprofit organization devoted to finding missing persons, the property known as the Izaguirre Ranch was allegedly used by the Jalisco cartel as a training, confinement and extermination center.

Findings by members of Guerreros Buscadores de Jalisco suggest the property was used to cremate human bodies and testimonies from other survivors say organ trafficking and a child sexual abuse ring also took place at the ranch.