Crossing its squares with their perfectly trimmed hedges which border its baroque churches, the drama of the city of Lagos de Moreno is not visible to the passing stranger. In this state of Jalisco, in central Mexico, the town hall works to hide it behind tempting advertisements, between glossy images of brides and grooms kissing in the sumptuous Capuchin church and photos of baptisms celebrated in the cathedral in pink stone from the 18th centurye century. The center of Lagos de Moreno, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has always lived off tourism. But, since August 11, visitors have deserted this town of 173,000 inhabitants, while its misfortune was spread across the front pages of national newspapers and no promotional operation could any longer hide it.
That evening, five friends, aged 19 to 22, met as usual in the Mirador San Miguel square, which offers a spectacular panorama of the surrounding bell towers. Uriel, Diego, Roberto, Dante and Jaime liked to meet like this, on the steps of the amphitheater, facing the cypress trees. They had known each other since childhood and shared the same passion for sport. Dante had won several cycling awards and Jaime the trophy for best striker in the regional football championship in 2022. Uriel and Roberto practiced boxing together. Diego worked out every day in a gym.
This Friday evening, there was no shortage of topics for discussion. Diego was getting married in January, Dante and Uriel were preparing to start a taco restaurant as a duo. Roberto, for his part, was thinking of going to Canada for a while, as soon as he completed his engineering diploma. As for Jaime, he wanted to try his luck again with professional football clubs. But they were there in a special place, on the heights of a city located at the crossroads of drug routes, a strategic territory dominated by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), the bloodiest criminal group in the country, particularly known for having turned Lagos de Moreno, a peaceful town, into a huge cemetery.
When the five young people visited the Mirador San Miguel on August 11, the police found only a few blood stains on the benches in the amphitheater. The DNA was that of Diego, the future groom. Their names are now part of the endless list of Mexico’s missing. Their number would exceed 110,000 since, upon coming to power, former President Felipe Calderon (2006-2012) declared with great fanfare, and without preparation, a “war on drug trafficking”. In seventeen years, Mexico has taken the lead in this tragedy of contemporary Latin America, ahead of the 90,000 Colombians who disappeared in fifty years of civil war, and the 30,000 victims of the seven years of military dictatorship in Argentina (1976-1983).
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