Inside Mexican cartels’ ‘schools of terror’ where boys are taught how to mutilate enemies and forced to eat human flesh

BLOODY initiations, torture, and teen boys forced to eat their dying enemies’ flesh – this is the twisted curriculum at Mexico’s “Schools of Terror” – the hellish training camps run by the country’s deadliest cartels.

These aren’t just camps – they are psychological slaughterhouses, where the goal is to destroy the teens mentally and physically – grooming them to become stone-cold killers.

TwitterGang members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), one of the most dangerous in Mexico[/caption]

Groups like CJNG teach their recruits how to inflict ruthless methods of violenceX/michelleriveraa

LiveGorecomCJNG members are forced to eat raw human hearts[/caption]

Young recruits, many just 15 or 16 years old, are lured in with promises of high-paying jobs – security work, farm gigs, warehouse shifts. Some are even handed bus tickets to remote ranches.

But when they arrive, the reality is a nightmare and there’s no escape – only a simple choice: obey or be killed.

Once inside, the transformation begins.

Stripped of their freedom, humanity, and even their names, the recruits are thrust into a brutal programme of psychological torture.

They live among corpses, breathe the stench of death, and are forced to sleep in blood-streaked bunks beside the mutilated bodies of those who attempt to flee the camps.

Among the most feared of these organisations is the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), which has taken desensitisation to new extremes – including forcing recruits to eat human flesh and hearts.

According to Tony Payan, director of the Center for the United States and Mexico at Rice University’s Baker Institute, these camps have been around Mexico as early as the 1970s.

But they have gotten worse over the last seven to eight years – the direct result of a government that has “allowed cartels to operate with impunity”.

He told The Sun: “They deceive young men as young as 15 or 16 with job offers, put them on a bus, and deliver them to remote ranches.”

“Once there, they’re told they can either join the cartel or be executed. If they refuse, they’re often made an example of and killed in front of others.”

Newcomers are forced to live alongside the dead, surrounded by the stench of decay, so they eventually become normalised to the sight of death.

Any sign of hesitation or weakness is met with brutal tests.

One survivor described how the most timid recruit was ordered to behead a rival and crush his skull with a rock.

Another who vomited while eating human flesh was forced to pick up the regurgitated remains and consume them again.

‘You live in terror’

Francisco, a former cartel trainee, recounted his nightmarish experience at one such camp.

His ordeal began when he was offered a well-paying job in security, only to be transported to a remote training ground where escaping was nearly impossible.

The 34-year-old dad told local outlet Sin Embargo: “You see how they kill people, taste human flesh, you live in terror.”

Cartel operatives use military-style psychological warfare to break down resistance, training recruits with cruelty and constant threats. It’s not just brutality – it’s systematised terror.

“We’ve seen videos of recruits being forced to kill each other,” said Payan.

“They have to prove their loyalty. Sometimes, they burn others alive. I’ve seen video of a chest being cut open and the heart ripped out. It’s about desensitising them.”

Drugs are also used as tools of control.

Cocaine is often administered to keep the new recruits alert and numb their conscience.

“It’s about dulling their ethical compass so they can commit atrocities without hesitation,” Payan said.

Cartels across Mexico have long employed horrific methods to enforce obedience and spread fear, turning the country into a battleground where civilians are often collateral damage.

From beheadings and dismemberments to drone warfare and sadistic initiation rituals, these criminal organisations have escalated their brutality to maintain control over drug routes, eliminate rivals, and deter those who dare to oppose them.

Payan believes the expansion of cartel activities – now stretching far beyond drug trafficking into kidnapping, extortion, illegal mining, and human trafficking – has driven the need for more manpower.

A recent study he cites estimates that over 300,000 people now work in Mexico’s criminal underworld.

“With turnover and expansion, they may need to recruit tens of thousands every year,” he said.

“And when people refuse or try to escape, you get extermination camps in the thousands.”

These camps aren’t just confined to one cartel or region.

They’ve appeared in Michoacán, Jalisco, Tamaulipas, Zacatecas, and more.

Payan points to the town of Tlachichilco in Veracruz and the horrifying discovery in Tamaulipas, where authorities uncovered 500kg of human bones, potentially from over 1,500 victims.

Cartels use terror as a weapon of control – not just internally, but publicly.

“This is about subjecting a population,” Payan explained.

APTroops arrive at Izaguirre Ranch in the state of Jalisco where skeletal remains of suspected cartel victims were discovered last month[/caption]

ReutersMembers of the Sinaloa Cartel, another dangerous group, prepare capsules with methamphetamine in a safe house in Culiacan, Mexico[/caption]

Twitter / @Dubitandum_The gangsters often pose with their machine guns to terrorise local communities[/caption]

“Bodies hanging from bridges, mutilated corpses with warning notes, burned-out vehicles – these are psychological operations.”

The CJNG has become notorious for pushing the boundaries of terror, with cannibalism serving as a psychological weapon to ensure absolute loyalty.

In February last year, cartel members reportedly filmed themselves tearing the hearts out of murdered rivals and eating them, according to the Daily Mail.

The video showcased their ruthlessness on social media to instil fear in their enemies and prove their dominance.

Methods of terror

Cartels have a vast horror catalogue of preferred punishments across Mexico’s underworld – from body mutilations and face peeling to funeral executions.

Body mutilation has long been a preferred method of punishment.

The CJNG, in particular, has turned this into a public spectacle, often leaving messages with the victims to warn others.

Last week, nine mutilated bodies and a bag of severed hands were found on a highway in Oaxaca.

The victims — five men and four women — were allegedly students involved in petty thefts.

An insider claimed they were abducted, tortured, and executed, with their leader left with a note: “This is what you get for being a thief.”

It’s unclear if the CJNG was responsible.

Beheadings have also become a signature tactic of cartels to intimidate rivals and law enforcement.

In one of the most infamous cases in 2011, five decomposing heads were dumped outside a primary school in Acapulco, prompting mass protests by terrified teachers.

Brutally mutilated

Public hangings are another medieval-style terror tactic widely used by cartels.

In Zacatecas, nine bodies were found dangling from a bridge in 2021, left as a message in an ongoing cartel war.

Often, the victims are brutally mutilated before being hanged, with cartel messages left beside them to reinforce their threats.

While the CJNG is widely regarded as Mexico’s most violent cartel, others must also demonstrate extreme brutality to deter challengers.

The Sinaloa Cartel, one of the country’s most established criminal organisations, has been known to use face peeling as a terrifying scare tactic against rivals and would-be informants.

In 2010, cartel leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán recorded himself cutting off the head of 36-year-old Hugo Hernandez with a chainsaw.

The cartel then removed the skin from Hernandez’s face and stitched it back onto a football.

EPAMass graves are also a common way for cartels to dispose of victims while maximising fear and confusion about the extent of the violence[/caption]

ReutersFirefighters extinguish a burning tractor-trailer used as a roadblock in Guadalajara by Jalisco members[/caption]

APForensic technicians excavate a field on a plot of land referred to as a cartel ‘extermination site’ where burned human remains were buried[/caption]

His head was later found on the streets of Los Mochis, accompanied by a note directed at a rival cartel: “Happy New Year, because this will be your last.”

His torso was found stuffed in a plastic container, while his arms, legs, and skull were dumped separately.

Mass graves are also a common way for cartels to dispose of victims while maximising fear and confusion about the extent of the violence.

By 2020, over 63,428 mass graves had been uncovered across Mexico, containing the remains of at least 92,658 people.

The dead include thousands of women and children, either caught in the crossfire or explicitly targeted by the cartels.

Every so often, public horror erupts when gruesome discoveries make headlines.

This month, a mass grave has been found at a suspected extermination camp during a family’s desperate search for a missing person in Mexico.

Three ovens and burned bodies were found at the horrifying scene along with piles of personal items including 400 pairs of shoes, clothes, jewellery, and diaries.

Even in death, cartel victims — and their families — are not safe. 

In February last year, gunmen stormed a home in the Arboledas de San Andrés neighborhood of Guanajuato during a funeral wake, opening fire on mourners. 

Nine people were executed, including a 12-year-old boy, and one person was injured.

Neighbours later reported hearing more than 100 gunshots from automatic weapons.

According to Payan, the current government’s “hugs, not bullets” policy has failed to stop the spread of this horror.

“The government has essentially been asleep at the switch,” he said.

“This is a nightmare scenario for Mexico.”

These criminal organisations are no longer just about drugs – they’ve crossed the line into full-blown terror.

“There’s a serious debate now about whether these cartels are actually terrorist organisations,” said Payan.

“They’re no longer just economic actors. They use fear to control populations, and they do it because the government has allowed them to.”

With cartels operating in countries as far as Australia and Spain, and with thousands of new recruits passing through these death camps each year, Payan warns the threat is not confined to Mexico.

“If a country is weak enough, they’ll move in. And that’s what we need to watch.”

Mexico’s cartel violence has turned entire regions into war zones, with civilians trapped between feuding criminal groups.

More than 92,000 people have been buried in mass graves across the country, their bodies often mutilated beyond recognition.

Entire cities have been terrorised by firebombings and grenade attacks, while cartels have weaponized drone warfare to carry out precision strikes on rivals.

Endless cycle of violence

Despite efforts by the Mexican government to crack down on organized crime, the cartels continue to expand their influence, fueled by the billions made from drug trafficking.

Their ability to enforce their will through terror — whether by recruiting through fear or eliminating opposition through sheer brutality — has made them some of the most powerful and dangerous criminal organisations in the world.

For those who enter the School of Terror, survival comes at an unthinkable price.

Those who fail to meet the cartel’s expectations disappear, while those who succeed emerge as hardened killers, willing to commit the same atrocities that once terrified them.

The cycle of violence continues, ensuring that the horrors of Mexico’s cartel wars will not end anytime soon.