Yaqui for Borderland Beat from El Debate
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The patio of Horror
Culiacan, Sinaloa.- There are corpses lying all, rolled and tied in white plastic. Some, atop aluminum stretchers; others on the ground below. It is not the scene of a crime: it is the courtyard of the Forensic Medical Service (Semefo), where it seems that it has become a common issue for this office of the Attorney General of Justice, which is responsible for safeguarding victims who, by willful or accidental reasons, have lost their lives.
Wrapped in tarps, swollen and odor of decomposition, lay unidentified bodies. According to visits by El Debate journalists photographic documentation, the bodies, up to 21 lay in this manner for at least ten days. The refrigerated storage failed over two month ago and no attempts to repair the system have been made, the situation complicated by the number of corpses exceeding storage capabilities.
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The smell of death permeates the walls and spreads by several meters around the building, affecting people passing by the site or going to the newly opened facilities of the Regional Criminal Justice Center and Oral accusatory, downtown.
El Debate has requested a statement from the Attorney General of Sinaloa, which he has so far refused. On various occasions, especially since the investigative report on the conditions of accumulated unidentified cadavers located at the "The Patio of Horror" at the SEMEFO Culiacan facilities, Higuera Gomez has refused interviews along with the Governor of Sinaloa, Mario Lopez Valdez and Gerardo Vargas, although Vargas has confirmed the voracity of the information.