Translated for Borderland Beat from a Zetatijuana special report by Otis B Fly-Wheel
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The majority of the victims found in the clandestine graves have not been identified , much less their killers have been captured. The discovery of these type of graves continues with fresh bodies found in Guerrero, even with the strong presence of the Federal Forces and the Military.
During the first two years and one month of the administration of President Enrigque Pena Nieto, there have been discovered more than 125 clandestine graves, in which have been located more than 560 bodies and unquantifiable human remains.
In a country where increasingly less food is grown in fields where for many years there have been drugs harvested , now corpses are " sown " and the violence returns. Today the earth smells of death in many parts of the country , because of the clandestine graves of organized crime filled silently by them and some representatives of authority.
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Iguala May 2014
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14 clandestine graves discovered in Guerrero from 2013 to 2015.
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A continuation of the cases reported during the present Federal Administration:
* Baja California
December 2012 to April 2013
Continuing investigations into a series of graves discovered en Los Terrenos , where Santiago Meza Lopez " El Pozolero " lived, detained in 2009 , in La Galleria , Municipality of Tijuana , where he allegedly dissolved hundreds of people in caustic soda.
23rd November 2013
In Tijuana were located four clandestine graves with burnt human remains.
13th March 2014
A clandestine grave was located in a ravine in the colonia Loma Dorada in Tijuana
* Baja California Sur
10th of June 2013
The corpses of 5 males , and two females were located in a clandestine grave inside of a field in the colonia Tabachines of La Paz of La Paz Municipality, the killings were attributed to Simon Guillermo Hernandez Pena , alias " Simon " or " El Sepulturero ".
* Chihuahua
* State of Mexico
22nd of August 2014
In Tlalmanaco , was located a clandestine grave with 12 corpses , corresponding to the youngsters who on the 26th May of the same year , were kidnapped from the bar Heaven in the City of Mexico.
22nd of August 2014
9th of February
Two graves containing 12 corpses were discovered in land of the Municipality of Taxco, between the communities of Mezcaltpec and Puente Campuzano, to the 18th of March the balance was 32 recovered corpses.
6th of March 2014
Ten bodies in four graves were located in the zone " La Antena " , in the valley of Ocotito.
16th of April 2014
19th of April 2014
In the colonia Amelitos 1 , outside of Chilpancingo , heading to an old road leading to the mountain village of Amojileca, state Police attended an anonymous call , locating a grave with human remains, no figures were given of the number of corpses.
3rd of June 2014
29th of October 2014
30th of June 2013
Seven bodies were recovered from a grave in the ranch La Estancia , in the Municipality of Ejutla.
22nd of August 2013
The bodies of a woman and her two young sons , were found in a clandestine grave , on the land of La delegacion de San Gaspar in Tonala.
7th of November 2013
* Michoacán
4th of May 2013
22nd of August 2014
The Police discovered 11 bodies in clandestine graves in the Municipalities of Lazaro Cardenas and Tumbiscatio. In the first part of the search they found two bodies in the port of Michoacán , meanwhile during the second search in the community of Las Playas , they discovered another grave with nine bodies in all with bullet wounds.
* Morelos
9th of December 2013
In three clandestine graves , located in the Municipalities of Emiliano Zapata , Xochitepec , and Amacuzac , the exhumed 23 bodies.
6th of February 2014
Another two graves were found containing four bodies , in the community of Huajintlan, in the Municipality of Amacuzac.
25th of February 2014
On the land of Cerro del Venado , in the Municipality of Zacatepec , authorities located a clandestine grave containing three corpses.
4th of April 2014
In a house in the colonia of El Paraiso , in the Municipality of Jojutla, authorities located four bodies underground. Two were farmers from the south , and two others unidentified. Nine individuals were arrested including two minors.
* Sinaloa
18th of November 2013
Authorities discovered three bodies in a clandestine grave in the mountains , close to Tecomate de la Noria, in the Mazatlan mountains.
5th of March 2014
In the community of El Playon , Municipality of Angostura , a grave was discovered with three bodies.
21st of July 2014
In a wood in the state of Sinaloa were found five corpses in clandestine graves , all of the bodies were male.
* Sonora
18th of November 2013
In the village of Navomora , in Navojoa , authorities discovered in one grave the corpses of two women and six men.
* Tamaulipas
9th of April 2013
After the detention of 10 subjects who were narco traffickers, the authorities said that two clandestine graves had human remains.
31st of January 2014
Original article in Spanish by Luis Carlos Sainz Martinez at Zetatijuana.com
Guerrero, Jalisco , Michoacán and Veracruz, these states have been " sown " with death.
During the first two years and one month of the administration of President Enrigque Pena Nieto, there have been discovered more than 125 clandestine graves, in which have been located more than 560 bodies and unquantifiable human remains.
In a country where increasingly less food is grown in fields where for many years there have been drugs harvested , now corpses are " sown " and the violence returns. Today the earth smells of death in many parts of the country , because of the clandestine graves of organized crime filled silently by them and some representatives of authority.
A ZETA investigation , based on eminently journalistic sources , who in turn gathered information for Police corporations , the services of forensic medical entities and confirmation from functionaries , revealed that during the Presidency of EPN there have been more than 125 clandestine graves found containing more than 560 victims.
The last clandestine grave discovered was in the first few days of January 2015, in the state with the greatest social upheaval on the very subject of insecurity and intentional homicides, the more violent carried out by organised crime cartels.
In a plain example , the search for 42 of the 43 normalistas of Ayotzinapa , Iguala in Guerrero , where one piece of bone and a dental fragment was found , they discovered in Chilapa a grave with the chilling contents of 10 bodies and 11 heads.
In the time of the Presidency of EPN, the official statistics are not trustworthy. We go to get them but they are not available. The authorities hide them and alter them. The statistics on this criminal phenomenon are fragmented courtesy of the fact , that each area keeps its own statistics. The counts only include month, periods that overlap one year and another , so the count on the previous six years of Calderon , and EPN nothing is accurate.
The tally of the dead in these type of secret graves is questionable , because sometimes in these sites there are only bones or fragments of them, ash , teeth , body parts , indeterminate remains or human fat . Some garments , buckles , accessories and footwear. In some cases the Police recorded a barrel with human remains , containing 1800 bones , 20 prosthesis and 15 surgical screws.
There are some horrific scenarios , with unprecedented violent crimes committed without the slightest respect for the lives of others. Victims tied , tortured , with amputations or beheading, asphyxiated , machete wounds , bullet wounds and typically with a coup de grace shot to the back of the head.
Discovered locally on Tuesday 6th of January , the most recent corpses in Guerrero, the human remains had been shot , with the hands tied and with terrible signs of torture. In a spot close to Chilapa de Alvarez , in six mass graves were buried 10 complete bodies and 11 human heads, incredible this could happen in an area with so much government activity searching for the 43 missing normalistas.
Worse still this occurring in the state , as the eyes of the world are currently on Mexico, which motivated EPN on November 27th to announce 14 measures of security , justice , and economic development " to prevent crimes like this from repeating themselves, where the Army , Gendarmerie and other Federal Corporations, supposedly take charge of safety as part of these measures.
In this act , the primary mandate declares " after Iguala , Mexico must change , I assume the responsibility as head of all the forces necessary to liberate Mexico of the criminality , to combat corruption and impunity. To sum up to construct a full rule of law.
Hours after the Presidential commitment , were located the corpses of 11 people decapitated in the community of Ayahualuco , Municipality of Chilapa , it appears the same 11 bodies corresponding to the 11 heads found in the grave site of Dia de Reyes.
Before the aggression of the Municipal Police of Iguala , and the disappearance of the normalistas on the 26th and 27th of September , in the state of Guerrero , were registered mysterious dissapearances in its territory , in one cemetery where many corpses fertilize the ground , there have been more than 160 bodies exhumed since December of 2013.
The pilgrimage for hundreds of families through the delegations of Police , Prisons , and the morgues of different states is painful. They don't stop the search for their disappeared family members, like the parents and brothers of the 43 normalistas, they will not rest until they find them. "Alive they were taken and alive we want them returned " ,is their war cry.
The authorities of every entity and the Federals have lists of searches and locations, but no results to the satisfaction of the families of the disappeared , they haven't even identified the bones or mortuary remains. With the forensic departments being so basic , there have been instances where the Attorney Generals office , and the expert assistance of the local Attorney Generals offices , have been overwhelmed and he has had to draw on other experts from other Nations.
For a start , they don't know the locations of at least 22,300 people , alive or dead , who have been reported missing in the country, according to the official register released in August 2014 by the PGR
The assistant of legal affairs , Maria Benitez , said in the six years prior , 2006 to 2012 there were 12,532 dissapearances , and during the two years of Pena Nieto reign as President 9,790.
This was the last adjustment , although in this government , statistical operations almost never turn out well. In May of 2014 the Secretary of the Government, Miguel Osorio Chong , informed that the number of disappeared have been reduced to only 8000 people. How is it that for the official statistics of the PGR , the disappeared during the Calderon administration, increased again three months after Osorios announcement.
After this scenario was recorded in the state of Jalisco , in the final stretch of 2013 and the start of 2014, the Municipality of La Barca , on the border with Brisenas , Michoacán ,where the clandestine graves flourished with 134 corpses , the Federal authorities were aware of what was about to happen.
In January of 2014 , they exhumed the last corpses of the 76 found on the banks of the river Lema in Jalisco. In February there followed 20 corpses in unidentified graves in Tinguindin in Michoacán, 32 corpses exhumed in clandestine graves in Guerrero and another 19 additionally in Jalisco in the Municipality of Tiajomulco de Zuniga.
The phenomenon of narco fosas ( clandestine graves ) is growing, in March of 2014 the PGR announced the training of people to act with efficiency and ethics in dealing with human burials.
The assistant for Federal crimes, Cleodomiro Zoreda , said that the detection of grave sites where they find human remains , should be dealt with by staff with an obligation to act with ethics , humanity , and professionalism , and that the derived results will lead to an effective procuration of justice.
Between March and June of 2014, the clandestine graves in Guerrero , Michoacán and Veracruz sprang up like mushrooms, Guerrero was equal with Acapulco and Chilpancingo, with multiple dismemberments, in Veracruz there being between 31 and 41 people exhumed at the Cosamaloapan ranch.
On July 14th of last year the PGR reported that 300 forensic personnel were trained in the course " multi-disciplinary work in clandestine graves ", with specialists concerning jurisdictional aspects , also specialists in the practise of exhuming human remains. Rodrigo Archundia Barrientos , who works for SEIDO , he said that training is one of the best tools that the Federal unit has at its disposal to combat crime and its effects on society.
In Iguala , the disappeared and the clandestine graves will continue until it comes to pass that the world knows about it. The kidnapping of the 43 trainee teachers , the endless discovery of clandestine graves and their dead, its not so much the students that the Mexicans look for , only one of them has been located dead in a grave identified by means of DNA studies, said Alexander Mora Venancio , he will not accept the official version of events as true.
In the majority of the more than 125 clandestine graves , one knows the location thanks to anonymous tips, the disappearance of women and children alike , the lack of results by the authorities within various levels of government, few perpetrators have been arrested , and several institutions like the Municipal Police have collaborated with or are directly involved with criminals involved in kidnapping , executions and clandestine burials of the victims.
14 clandestine graves discovered in Guerrero from 2013 to 2015.
A continuation of the cases reported during the present Federal Administration:
* Baja California
December 2012 to April 2013
Continuing investigations into a series of graves discovered en Los Terrenos , where Santiago Meza Lopez " El Pozolero " lived, detained in 2009 , in La Galleria , Municipality of Tijuana , where he allegedly dissolved hundreds of people in caustic soda.
23rd November 2013
In Tijuana were located four clandestine graves with burnt human remains.
13th March 2014
A clandestine grave was located in a ravine in the colonia Loma Dorada in Tijuana
* Baja California Sur
10th of June 2013
The corpses of 5 males , and two females were located in a clandestine grave inside of a field in the colonia Tabachines of La Paz of La Paz Municipality, the killings were attributed to Simon Guillermo Hernandez Pena , alias " Simon " or " El Sepulturero ".
* Chihuahua
6th of June 2013
Four clandestine graves were discovered with six skeletons, they were located a mile and a half from the cemetery Rosales.
* Coahuila
30th of June 2014
Human remains , biological waste and punctured clothing were found inside a clandestine grave inside a wine cellar, in the zone of Cinco Manantiales. In the following days they recovered some 500 human remains in the properties of 10 Coahuila Municipalities.
23rd of December 2014
Elements of the Mexican Marines attended to an anonymous call to a popular colonia, in the city of Saltillo, they discovered a clandestine grave where there were the burnt remains of five people one of which was a woman.
* State of Mexico
22nd of August 2014
In Tlalmanaco , was located a clandestine grave with 12 corpses , corresponding to the youngsters who on the 26th May of the same year , were kidnapped from the bar Heaven in the City of Mexico.
22nd of August 2014
In a dark site amongst trees , and close to the edge of a field in the zone Boscosa del paraje La Mesa , close to the colonia of 21st of March, in San Juan Atzacualoya, Federal agents encountered a clandestine grave with five corpses some of whom were women.
* Guanajuato
2nd of August 2014
In a clandestine grave , inside of a house under construction , in the community of Rancho Nuevo, in Santa Ana Del Conde, in the Municipality of Leon, were four corpses in an advanced state of decomposition, they are thought to be all women.
27th of November 2014
Ministerial authorities located a clandestine grave in a mechanics yard , in the community of Santa Ana Pacueco, with four corpses in a state of decomposition inside.
* Guerrero
28th of March 2013
In Tepecoacuilco , close to the Iguala - Chipanchingo highway , authorities found four clandestine graves and four bodies.
14th of November 2013
Seven corpses were located in five clandestine graves discovered in a common land orchard, in El Cayaco, in Acapulco.
9th of February
Two graves containing 12 corpses were discovered in land of the Municipality of Taxco, between the communities of Mezcaltpec and Puente Campuzano, to the 18th of March the balance was 32 recovered corpses.
6th of March 2014
Ten bodies in four graves were located in the zone " La Antena " , in the valley of Ocotito.
16th of April 2014
In the property of Lomas the shoemaker , in Iguala , an anonymous report led the Police to uncover a clandestine grave in which were the remains of nine people. In ongoing investigation in the weeks that followed , and that finished in May , in the same zone another seven graves with 19 additional corpses. Inhabitants of the colonias San Marcos and San Juan signaled to the authorities that these places were used as graveyards.
19th of April 2014
In the colonia Amelitos 1 , outside of Chilpancingo , heading to an old road leading to the mountain village of Amojileca, state Police attended an anonymous call , locating a grave with human remains, no figures were given of the number of corpses.
3rd of June 2014
In a grave in the community of El Ranchito, en Coyuca de Benitez, they exhumed the bodies of Hector Lopez Torres , Gustavo Abarca Radilla and Carlos Lopez Sanchez , who worked for Disconsa and the business Prospects, working for the National crusade against hunger . The employees of SEDESOL disappeared a few days before. They were identified with dna 20 days after. Their families denounced inconsistencies before the National Commission for Human Rights.
7th of June 2014
In a zone known as " Las Tabiqueras " in Zumpango, about 20 minutes from Chilpancingo and a few minutes for the Autopista del Sol, they found 10 bodies in five clandestine graves.
24th of June 2014
Authorities exhumed two bodies in a clandestine grave, in the colonia Llano Largo, in the periphery of Acapulco, at the rear of Plaza Sendero , agents attached to SEIDO found the grave.
4th of October 2014
A search was initiated for the first clandestine graves after the disappearance of the missing normalistas. In Pueblo Viejo and Loma de Coyote , Municipality of Iguala , they located six graves with 28 corpses. Five days after the number of graves was nine and the body count 30.
17th of October 2014
The Prosecutor General of the Republic (PGR), Jesus Murillo Karam , confirmed the he had located three graves in the Municipality of Iguala, even though at the moment they have not revealed the existence of corpses or human remains. One week after he announced the total of graves was 11 with 38 bodies , since the disappearance of the students.
29th of October 2014
Search investigations for the locality of the 43 normalistas disappeared extended to the basin and banks of the river San Juan in the Municipality of Cocula , where in subsequent days they located bags with burnt human remains with some bone fragments and dental pieces.
6th of January 2015
At a point named El Huizache, in the community of Tepehuixco , Municipality of Chilapa de Alvarez , staff of the Attorney General located six clandestine graves with 11 human heads and 10 complete bodies. It appears that the corresponding bodies of the 11 decapitated people were found on the 27th of November 2014 in the community of Ayahualulco. The ten new bodies were handcuffed with signs of torture.
* Jalisco
10th of April 2013
In an area close to the El Martin ranch, around the road Guadalajara-Tala, inside of a grave they found the bodies of three people who had been kidnapped.
May of 2013
A grave with three bodies was located 2 miles from Fraccionamiento Arvento , in Tlajomulco de Zuniga.
30th of June 2013
Seven bodies were recovered from a grave in the ranch La Estancia , in the Municipality of Ejutla.
22nd of August 2013
The bodies of a woman and her two young sons , were found in a clandestine grave , on the land of La delegacion de San Gaspar in Tonala.
7th of November 2013
They located 20 clandestine graves and no less than 76 bodies or remains , on the banks of the Lema river in the Municipality of La Barca, Jalisco. More than 20 Michoacán policemen were detained in this case.
26th of December 2013
In Zapopan , in the zone La Cumbre , they discovered a series of graves with the bodies of 17 people. They captured four of the presumed killers.
20th of February 2014
On the land of La Calera , in the Municipality of Tlajomulco de Zuniga, the found 19 corpses in clandestine graves for the testimony of narco trafficker Jeronimo Ibarra Alcaraz.
2nd of March 2014
On a hill known as El Gato , between the Municipalities of Tonala and Tlaquepaque , they exhumed the corpses of six males.
* Michoacán
4th of May 2013
On the Paranuitiro ranch , in the Municipality of Tingambato, they found the mutilated bodies of three men , and an equal number of women in a clandestine grave.
13th of December 2013
In one grave , in a vacant lot in Apatzingan, they located three buried bodies.
5th of February 2014
An anonymous tip alerted the Police to the ranch Tres Coronas , which had several clandestine graves , no report yet on human remains or corpses at this location.
5th of March 2014
In the village of Alcalde , in the Municipality of Apatzingan , in one clandestine grave the authorities found the corpses of six males , five women , and two children.
25th of June 2014
On the land of La Fabrica , in the Municipality of Ciudad Hidalgo, the authorities reported two clandestine graves with 11 corpses. The authorities investigated 22 policemen from different Municipalities of the Oriente region of Michoacán and five civilians. There is no information of the results of the investigation.
22nd of August 2014
The Police discovered 11 bodies in clandestine graves in the Municipalities of Lazaro Cardenas and Tumbiscatio. In the first part of the search they found two bodies in the port of Michoacán , meanwhile during the second search in the community of Las Playas , they discovered another grave with nine bodies in all with bullet wounds.
* Morelos
9th of December 2013
In three clandestine graves , located in the Municipalities of Emiliano Zapata , Xochitepec , and Amacuzac , the exhumed 23 bodies.
6th of February 2014
Another two graves were found containing four bodies , in the community of Huajintlan, in the Municipality of Amacuzac.
25th of February 2014
On the land of Cerro del Venado , in the Municipality of Zacatepec , authorities located a clandestine grave containing three corpses.
4th of April 2014
In a house in the colonia of El Paraiso , in the Municipality of Jojutla, authorities located four bodies underground. Two were farmers from the south , and two others unidentified. Nine individuals were arrested including two minors.
* Sinaloa
18th of November 2013
Authorities discovered three bodies in a clandestine grave in the mountains , close to Tecomate de la Noria, in the Mazatlan mountains.
5th of March 2014
In the community of El Playon , Municipality of Angostura , a grave was discovered with three bodies.
21st of July 2014
In a wood in the state of Sinaloa were found five corpses in clandestine graves , all of the bodies were male.
* Sonora
18th of November 2013
In the village of Navomora , in Navojoa , authorities discovered in one grave the corpses of two women and six men.
* Tamaulipas
9th of April 2013
After the detention of 10 subjects who were narco traffickers, the authorities said that two clandestine graves had human remains.
31st of January 2014
On the common land at Bonfil , Municipality of Gomex Farias , authorities located a clandestine grave with no less than 30 bodies and ten barrels of human remains.
* Veracruz
20th of December 2013
On the beach of La Cava , in the zone Pesquera de Alvarado, authorities located a clandestine grave with the corpses of three women and four men.
17th of June 2014
In an abandoned ranch called El Diamante, in Nopaltepec , region of the three valleys , close to kilometre 11 of the highway Cosamaloapan - Santa Cruz, on the banks of the river Papaloapan, authorities located the corpses of 31 people , un-officially 41 bodies from 13 graves. The assistant of regional state justice, Arturo Herrera Cantillo , who resigned from his post on June 24 , to inform the media about the discovery. The Secretary of Public Security , Arturo Bermudez Zurita , said the bodies that were located were the product of confrontations between criminal gangs , and that the victims were not decent people.
Original article in Spanish by Luis Carlos Sainz Martinez at Zetatijuana.com