Mexican mayor arrested as part of cartel training site probe

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The mayor of a town in the west Mexican state of Jalisco has been arrested over his alleged links to a notorious cartel training site.

José Murguía Santiago, was detained on Saturday as part of a federal investigation into the Izaguirre Ranch, where human bones and clothing were found earlier this year.

Located outside Teuchitlán, the town where he is the mayor, the site is thought to have been used by the infamous Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).

Speaking to the local media, the mayor denied any connection with the ranch. However, prosecutors claim he knew of its existence and failed to act.

The site, which has been dubbed Mexico's "ranch of horror," made headlines in March when people searching for their relatives announced that they had discovered shoes, clothes and charred bones there, following a tip-off.

The Jalisco Search Warriors, the group that found the items on the ranch, called it an "extermination camp."

At the time, they blamed the authorities for failing to properly investigate the property, which was first uncovered by federal soldiers in September.

After the news about the ranch caused uproar across Mexico, the government said it would lead the investigation into what happened there.

Speaking last week, Attorney-General Alejandro Gertz suggested that the facility had not been used as an extermination or cremation site.

His response met with frustration from the Jalisco Search Warriors, who claimed Gertz was mistaken and that the property was more than just a cartel recruitment and training centre.

Last month, two members of the collective, Carmen Morales and her son Jaime Ramirez, were shot dead, the Jalisco state prosecutor's office said.

In the past few decades, more than 120,000 people have disappeared in Mexico. The federal authorities are not doing enough to investigate these human rights abuses and to end the impunity surrounding them, campaigners say.