More than 1,000 pieces of bones found in Mexico City in the weeks before the World Cup: “The sad truth”

More than 1,000 pieces of bones have been found near a lake in Mexico City, authorities and a group of volunteers said, just weeks before it hosted the World Cup — another poignant reminder of the country’s violent drug war.

A group of families looking for their loved ones said the horrific results near Lake Chalco reflect a “grim reality” and a “scientific disaster of immeasurable magnitude.”

Although “the authorities want this to be invisible, the families want the whole world to know the tragedy that is happening in the capital of the country,” said the group’s statement.

City authorities last week began excavating a lakeside area in the eastern part of Mexico City, and prosecutors announced Monday that they had found about 300 pieces of bones, believed to be three.

But the volunteer team said they found more than 1,000 bone fragments in and around the site, including areas already inspected by government officials.

More than 480,000 people have been killed and 130,000 have gone missing in Mexico’s drug war since 2006, when the government deployed troops to take over the country’s powerful forces.

A UN committee of experts has called the plight of missing persons a “crime against humanity,” saying efforts to recover human remains have been hampered by “accomplices and inaction by government officials.”

“International law does not require that crimes against humanity occur throughout the country or be organized at the highest levels of government,” committee chairman Juan Albán-Alencastro said in a statement. “What matters is the level, the pattern of the attack, and the targeting of civilians,”

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum attacked the report, saying it ignores the new policies used to support the families of the missing.

In a meeting with city officials on Friday, the activists demanded that the search be conducted without interruption until the site is fully explored.

Both Mexico City and Guadalajara are preparing to host the World Cup in June, with protesters in both cities criticizing the government’s failure to properly investigate the disappearances. The United States and Canada are co-hosting the Cup.

Guadalajara is located in the state of Jalisco, which has cases of more than 15,900 missing people, the number charged by experts due to the activities of the organization. Jalisco New Generation Cartelofficial data is displayed. The company is accused of using fake job advertisements to attract new members and torturing and killing recruits who resisted them.

In February, the Mexican military forces killed Nemesio “El Mencho” Osegueraleader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and one of the most wanted drug lords in the United States, leading to outbreak of violence. After this incident, FIFA reaffirmed its confidence as a host city.

Human remains are often found in Jalisco, sometimes in private cemeteries. Earlier this month, the the remains of at least 11 people they were found in a hidden cemetery in the countryside of Ixtlahuacan, a suburb of Guadalajara. Last October, a lot of bags containing remains were discovered and found in a hidden tomb near Guadalajara.