As childhood friends, Dante, Diego, Jaime, Roberto and Uriel got together on August 11 to spend a Friday afternoon together.

The five young people, aged between 19 and 22, went to the fair in Lagos de Moreno, the town where they live in the state of Jalisco, in western Mexico.

But after a few hours they were gone.

They were last seen at a lookout point where they used to hang out and play sports since childhood, less than 3 miles from the fair.

After desperate hours of searching by their relatives, images surfaced on Tuesday suggesting it is likely that the youths fell victim to the criminal violence that devastates Jalisco, but on a rarely seen level.

A photo posted on the internet shows the young men being gagged and beaten in an unfamiliar area. On a video, it appears that one of them is being forced into brutal violence against the others.

“(The relatives) are telling us for now that there is a high probability that the young people appearing in the photo are relatives,” said Blanca Trujillo, a prosecutor specializing in disappearances from Jalisco.

On Wednesday evening, the Jalisco prosecutor’s office reported that they had found a property that presumably matches the video. “Evidence has been found, including bloodstains and footwear, suggesting that the five youths were on said farm.”

Earlier, the prosecutor, Luis Joaquín Moreno, reported that a car belonging to one of the youths had been found with clues that are being analyzed.

“Some remains were found inside. They are supposed to be human,” he said.

Jalisco collects more than 14,000 disappearances, 500 of them in Lagos de Moreno. Photo: GETTY IMAGES

“We are earlier irrational, violent and direct attacks to the stability of Jalisco requiring a response from the Mexican state,” Governor Enrique Alfaro said on Twitter.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador did not comment on the matter during his morning press conference this Wednesday.

The 5 Friends of Lagos de Moreno

The relatives of the five missing have requested from authorities since last Saturday the whereabouts of Dante, Diego, Jaime, Roberto and Uriel, who had known each other since they were children.

In several statements to the press, they said that the young people were committed to studying or working, but that in their spare time they gathered to play football or just hang out.

Dante Cedillo Hernandez, 22 years old, was a passionate cyclist. A few years ago, he won two gold medals in National Olympiad competitions.

He is currently a restaurant worker, but was recently about to start his own silicone business. But above all, he was a great cyclist: “He has national and state cups,” said his brother Mauro Hernández proudly.

Diego Alberto Lara Santoyo, 20 years old, works as a blacksmith in his father’s workshop. “He’s a very happy boy, very hesitant,” said his mother, Susana Santoyo.

The authorities are investigating various places where the young people are said to be after their disappearance. Photo: JALISCO District Attorney

Jaime Adolfo Martinez Miranda, 21 years old, works as a construction worker. “Jaime is a very happy boy, he loved to dance, he always made us laugh at all the nonsense he did, he was the joy of us,” said his sister Ana.

“It was my little boy, my brother is the youngest,” he said with tears in his eyes, regretting that he was “at the wrong time and at the wrong time.”

NASTY Roberto Olmeda Cuellar20 years old, they know him as “El Cochi”. In addition to boxing, he studied industrial engineering at the University of Guadalajara. “He’s a very sporty guy, he hardly goes out, he hardly drinks, he doesn’t smoke,” says his brother Miguel Olmeda.

The youngest of the group is Uriel Galvan Gonzalez19 years old, who shared the taste for boxing with “El Cochi”.

He owned a car that prosecutors say was found 200 feet from the San Miguel lookout where they were last seen, but with no sign of violence.

“He is very happy, very kind, a good brother, a good son. I love him and I miss him very much,” said his father, Jaime Galván.

The “epicenter” of disappearances

Due to some letters posted on the video, it is hypothesized that this act of extreme violence is a response to the dispute in Lagos de Moreno, a strategic city for drug trafficking, between the Jalisco new generation cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel.

For journalist Lauro Rodríguez, who specializes in state security issues, this case follows the characteristics of group enforced disappearance seen in recent months in the state.

“Lately, in the state of Jalisco, this phenomenon of multiple disappearances has taken place. This case of Lagos de Moreno is the last, one of many so far since 2022,” he told the Astillero channel.

“We can state that Lagos de Moreno is the epicenter of disappearances. They have more disappearances than cities with twice the population,” he added, explaining that the state is collecting 14,000 cases of disappearances, 500 of them in that city.

This is what the parents and relatives of the missing young people said after the video was revealed They will continue to wait for them until there is evidence of their whereabouts.

At the San Miguel lookout, where they were last seen, Roberto Olmeda’s father expressed his wish for the young man to return to that spot.

“I just came to wait for my Cochi”, he said in a broadcast on his social networks.