The highway from La Paz to San Juan de la Costa is famous for being the route to beaches like El Quelele, Cajete, and Mogote in Baja California Sur. However, the road has also become the Sinaloa Cartel’s favorite burial ground, as human remains have been found in this area.
Since 2024, authorities and groups searching for missing persons have located 52 human remains in five clandestine cemeteries in the municipality of La Paz, the capital of Baja California Sur.
The first site was located in May 2024, on a property near the El Cajoncito stream; the other four were located in different locations along the highway from La Paz to San Juan de la Costa.
The sun, the desert, and the colorful beach landscapes make these places go unnoticed by the thousands of national and international tourists who visit the state in search of peace.
According to the State Commission for the Search for Persons (CEBP), in the last four years, human remains have been found in four of the state’s five municipalities. La Paz leads the way with 74 remains; followed by Los Cabos with 41; Comondú with 23; Mulegé with three; and Loreto is the only one with zero remains.
“This highway is full of clandestine graves (…) We started at this point in February; we located eight human remains. On this highway from La Paz to San Juan de la Costa, we have found 48 human remains in the months we have been searching this year.
“We say this highway is an absolute clandestine cemetery. That’s why we’re here, insisting, searching through every dirt road,” Gabriel Manríquez, coordinator of the Search for Peace collective, told MILENIO.
Although the members of the group are inexperienced in searching for clandestine graves, they have learned through experience, and in recent years their searches have led them to locate 52 human remains in the city of La Paz.
“Before, it took us a long time to find a clandestine grave. We were inexperienced; we didn’t know how to search for a grave, and now that we’ve been searching consistently, we have learned how to locate one, and it’s become easier for us.”
We’ve found something! A cry from the searchers in La Paz
The searches begin around 7:00 a.m. Searchers, family members, and friends gather at a point in the city and from there depart escorted by members of the National Guard, the State Commission for the Search for Persons, and the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for Missing Persons.
Upon reaching the point, they set up their work equipment: shovels, picks, and a welded steel rod with a T-shaped handle.
They receive instructions on how to divide themselves into pairs or cells. And then they look for places where the surface isn’t firm and the soil is loose. For the searchers, this is an indication of a site that may have been tampered with and used as a clandestine grave.
After several minutes or perhaps hours of fieldwork, where temperatures exceed 30 degrees Celsius, a shout can be heard: “We’ve found something!” signifying the discovery of human remains in the area.
“I come with the hope that one day I will find him.”
Mrs. María de los Ángeles is one of the members of the group of searching mothers; she last saw her son in January 2019 and hasn’t lost hope of finding some clue about the whereabouts of Ángel Antonio Ruiz Álvarez.
“They always say there are no missing people in Baja California Sur, but at least no one is going to tell me it’s not true, because we know how we’ve recovered remains from the graves. I’m looking for my son; they took him, they took him from my house, and I’ve been looking for him for six years now,” she said.
“I always come with the hope that someday I will find him. I tend to look for him by myself because I don’t want to expose my family. In every instance you will see me searching, especially on Sundays, during the week, coming to look for him and I always come with the hope that someday I will find him, but it has taken me so many years. Here lately we’ve been finding many. So, I don’t lose hope and faith”.
Another case is that of searcher Martha Hirales Morales. At 61, she is searching for her son, Alberto Romero Hirales, whom she last saw in April 2019.
‘Narco-war,’ Sinaloa Cartel reportedly traded shootouts for ‘kidnappings’
During the period in which her son disappeared, the Sinaloa Cartel waged a ‘narco-war’ due to an internal fracture; the Damazo Special Forces clashed with local operators from 2014 to 2019.
The governor of the state of Baja California Sur, Víctor Manuel Castro Cosío, suggested a hypothesis in which he stated that the cartel “found the formula,” swapping shootouts and confrontations for ‘kidnappings’ and forced disappearances.
Mrs. Martha Hirales is one of the indirect victims of this ‘narco-war’.
“Before, as you mentioned, they left them lying around, but now, when they disappear, I don’t know what these are people thinking. My son was forcibly disappeared. Now, April 6 marks six years, and to date, there have been no results,” he said.
Starting April 16, 2025, the Baja California Sur government accepted a new Sinaloa Cartel “narco-war” in the state. According to local authorities, cells of the same cartel are fighting for control of “the plaza,” so there could be more victims and missing persons in the state.
Source: Milenio
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