Posted by DD Republished from Insight Crime
Written by Mimi Yagoub
 |
| The mass graves were discovered by a group of victims' relatives |
Family members of disappeared persons in east Mexico have discovered 75 mass graves in a month in a stark demonstration of the incapacity -- or unwillingness -- of authorities to determine the fate of thousands of citizens that have gone are missing in the country.
The Solecito Collective of Veracruz (Colectivo Solecito de Veracruz) found the mass graves in Colinas de Santa Fé, an urban area of Veracruz city that borders the port facility there, the organization's coordinator Lucía de los Ángeles told RadioFórmula.
About 90 members of the collective, all relatives of disappeared persons, began their search on August 3, based on information from anonymous informants, Animal Político reported. So far, eight of the 75 mass graves have been exhumed by Federal Police technicians and 28 bodies have been found, De los Ángeles said.
The collective noted that this may turn out to be the biggest mass grave discovery ever made by citizens in Mexico.
Asked by RadioFórmula what the government was doing to find bodies of the disappeared, De los Ángeles responded:
"They want to hide and deny [the graves]. We want to find [them]. We put all the effort in, we prepared ourselves with our own resources, we bought tools. We brought specialists in from Iguala, Guerrero, two people came, and we worked with the entire collective and achieved this result."
De los Ángeles, whose son disappeared three years ago, said the authorities want to ignore the problem because they bear some responsibility for it.