Ernesto Julián Ramírez Morales, a local community leader, was abducted on February 24th, 2024 in Las Villas de Tlajomulco, Jalisco. At the same time, his mother, Teresa González, was in Guadalajara that same month, looking for answers to her brother’s disappearance. Both men were vigorous advocates for missing persons in Mexico. They honed their strategy in a state long afflicted by the sort of violence inspired by organized crime, in particular the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
In March 2024, an international investigative team discovered the Izaguirre ranch, which they denounced as an “extermination camp.” This site exposed clandestine crematoriums and concealed human remains. It sounded the alarm on the massive human rights violations associated with organized crime in Colombia’s pacific region. The discovery pointed to a grim reality: people killed at this ranch were murdered on Thursdays in Jalisco.
González spent the rest of her life searching for her brother, who for no apparent reason had disappeared like the wind. Tragically, her work came to a tragic end when she was shot in an act of targeted violence. She died from her injuries on April 2, after spending six days in a local hospital. María del Carmen Morales, mother of Ernesto Julián Ramírez Morales, and a foundational figure in the Warrior Searchers of Jalisco. Alongside her, her son Jaime Daniel Ramírez Morales entered the mission to find the disappeared.
The continuous violence throughout Jalisco has recently caught the attention of international authorities and human rights activists. Denis Rodríguez, spokesperson for the Jalisco Attorney’s Office, stated, “That does not mean that it is not being investigated. All avenues must be exhausted.” The remark illustrates both the seriousness with which local officials are committed to seeking justice and the all-too-pervasive influence of organized crime.
The Jalisco New Generation Cartel’s influence looms large over the region, complicating the search for missing persons and the safety of those advocating for victims’ rights. Following the deaths of González and her son, Claudia Sheinbaum announced that the Mexican Undersecretary for Human Rights would reach out to the Morales family. Under this move, the Biden administration seeks to signal support and ensure that González and Ramírez Morales’s cases are brought to bear special attention.
